Tring CBA and Ballet Boost Differences

[meadowblythe]

 

Odds are stacked against you anyway (she says cheerfully).

 

JA places do become available.  My tiny August son wasn't offered a place in Y4.  Looking back I'm not suprised.  Re-auditioning for year 5 he was accepted but we were unable to take a place at the centre offered.  We rang them and they went through all the centres available and we were offered a place elsewhere - my point is that places do become available.

 

And plenty on this forum will tell you that you don't need to be a JA to get a place at 11 either in MAs or vocational school - indeed the converse may be true. 

 

It's a long journey.  Take your time.  Enjoy the view.  Don't feel pressured because "everyone" seems to do x,y,z ... 

[TwoDancers]

46 minutes ago, BalletBoysDad said:

Thank you. 
 

I do seem to remember asking the Royal Ballet politely what’s the point in applying to centres where in theory there’s not even a place if all year 4s rise to year 5, and all year 5s rise to year 6. 
 

I think they said they expand each group by several (or a few)  places per year. But I’ve never heard anyone validate that claim. I would presume if you don’t get in at year 4, the odds are more than stacked against you? 
 

 

There is equal chance to get in to all JA years as they do expand the class each year - about 4-6 new Year 4s are taken on each year; they will move to Year 5 The following year but they add another 4-6 new Year 5s aswell so that that there is a Y4-5 JA class of about 16-18 children. Then all the Year 5s move up to Year 6 (8-12 of them) and they take on another 4-6 new ones to make a Y6 JA class of about 16 -18 children.

hope that makes sense??!!!

[BalletBoysDad]

1 hour ago, TwoDancers said:

There is equal chance to get in to all JA years as they do expand the class each year - about 4-6 new Year 4s are taken on each year; they will move to Year 5 The following year but they add another 4-6 new Year 5s aswell so that that there is a Y4-5 JA class of about 16-18 children. Then all the Year 5s move up to Year 6 (8-12 of them) and they take on another 4-6 new ones to make a Y6 JA class of about 16 -18 children.

hope that makes sense??!!!

Thank you, that’s really appreciated. That’s roughly how the auditions team explained it, but I’d never heard anyone else say (so it left me with a nagging doubt

[BalletBoysDad]

3 hours ago, meadowblythe said:

 

Odds are stacked against you anyway (she says cheerfully).

 

JA places do become available.  My tiny August son wasn't offered a place in Y4.  Looking back I'm not suprised.  Re-auditioning for year 5 he was accepted but we were unable to take a place at the centre offered.  We rang them and they went through all the centres available and we were offered a place elsewhere - my point is that places do become available.

 

And plenty on this forum will tell you that you don't need to be a JA to get a place at 11 either in MAs or vocational school - indeed the converse may be true. 

 

It's a long journey.  Take your time.  Enjoy the view.  Don't feel pressured because "everyone" seems to do x,y,z ... 

Thanks for the kind and realistic advice!

 

Mine is a July boy. I remember when they all lined up in number and age order for the Y4 audition, he was last but one in the line up and looked equally tiny. He got SWL but I wasn’t at all surprised he didn’t get in, he told me a week later he slipped over. 
 

Im always curious about the Royal Ballet, but I’m always careful to tell my son (and myself) that it’s not the be all and end all.
 

It would be comparable to saying Oxford is the only university and path to academic success... 

 

‘Enjoy the scenery’ is nice advice, thank you 

 

 

[DreamChaser]

Echoing Peanuts comments, it’s so easy to get caught up in chasing every associate programme often at the detriment of ballet/family balance.  In my humble opinion after 6 years on this road, the key is to find quality local training and use Easter, Summer, holiday intensives at the more prestigious schools to as a way of providing new experiences.  
 

After a few years driving the length and breadth of the country attending associates classes with 15+ students and limited teacher contact we finally found the key was in fact a top quality 1:1 weekly coaching (Ex-Tring) alongside our local school and Easters at Elmhurst or in Italy, summers at YBSS or Malvern etc....  and time as a family.  DD about to settle into Vocational School Yr10 in the autumn.

 

This may be a useful article from Mark Annear, quality over quantity - wins every time.

Posted on 31st October 2019

 

Ballet training: how much is enough?

A thinkpiece by Mark Annear, Head of Training & Access at The Royal Ballet School

For as long as I have been involved in auditioning students for vocational training I have been asked: ‘how much should my child be doing before an audition?’

My answer is usually ‘no more than they are doing now’, but I often get the feeling that some parents may not trust this feedback. It also begs the question of how much they are doing now. “Now” might already be too much. Doing everything possible to ensure your child’s success is very natural. I admire the time and effort that parents spend supporting their children, but we seem to live in a world where more is deemed to be better. This is not always the case.

Children of today lead busy lives

The pressure for academic success often means that children are inundated with additional work after school. They can also spend a significant amount of their free time participating in numerous activities, or focusing and specialising on one. In recreational dance training, children take ballet or other dance lessons as part of their extra-curricular activities. This ranges from the child who attends one short dance lesson per week, to those who spend numerous hours in classes, rehearsing for and participating in many festivals, exams, competitions and performances. The joy gained from a performance, or the elation from good exam or competition results can have a positive effect on a student.

However, a narrow focus on, and the significant amount of practice time required for these events, can leave very little downtime, affecting a child’s emotional health as well as their technical development and physical wellbeing.

You may think that to be a successful dancer, you need to focus as much time as possible on pre-vocational training. There can be a false belief that the more hours children train, the better they will become; however, more training time does not necessarily equate to successful results. In our experience long and arduous training periods can lead to overtraining and burnout.

Burnout, overtraining and early specialisation

Research has shown that burnout can be the outcome of overtraining in sports or dance. Burnout is the negative impact on dancers or athletes from insufficient recovery time after intense periods of work, affecting both health and performance. For students, including vulnerable pre-adolescents, and established dancers, it results in physical symptoms such as loss of appetite and greater susceptibility to injuries, affects cognitive and mental functions including poor concentration and loss of motivation, as well as decreased technical ability. Why put our children at risk of these things?

Overtraining often stems from a narrow focus on dance skills, with learning focused on what is required for examinations, competitions or performances. This limits the depth and breadth of learning, leaving the child unable to dance successfully in unfamiliar situations - for example in an audition.

Alternatives: quality rather than quantity

Investing in the quality of the student experience rather than the number of hours studied will lead to greater success. This means approaching dance from a holistic point of view.
Instead of limiting practice towards an exam or competition, students should have time for experimentation, discovering how their bodies work and how this relates to their dancing. They need time to reflect on their learning and be allowed to develop their natural motor skills before focusing on specific dance techniques. They need exposure to different forms of dance, music and other creative arts, creative opportunities and to understand dance as an artistic practice: an outlet for expression.

Ballet technique is only a small part of the skills and qualities that we assess in a Junior Associate audition. The audition mainly focuses on natural movement and physical capabilities, coordination, musicality and expression. For a variety of reasons, children are less physically active than previous generations, with less exposure to movement and creative expression. In the past, dance and creative activities were an important part of the school curriculum, today lesser value is placed on the arts and many schools no longer offer opportunities for children to study dance.
Having more time for physical play helps to develop natural motor skills and coordination. Today’s students may not have the opportunity to develop these skills outside the dance studio, so it relies on the dance teacher, particularly of young students, to ensure that they have the time to develop these skills within class and not just focus on technique and results.

It is understandable that success is often measured by exam results and first place trophies, these are tangible achievements. However, this can lead to the notion that more time needs to be devoted to training specifically towards those goals. Unfortunately, without careful guidance, this can lead to overtraining and its inherent problems. Product is valued more than the process of learning and the student experience.

At The Royal Ballet School we take the issues of overtraining and burnout very seriously and our in-house healthcare team has been working closely with the artistic team on a preventative approach. To reduce overload we are challenging the traditional structure of and incorporating periodisation (periods of low and high impact) into ballet classes, and respecting physical and mental recovery times. This has led to a significant reduction in injuries and more effective learning. We are also asking students to evaluate their school experience in order to help them to achieve their individual best. A balanced artistic curriculum ensures our dancers develop the skills needed to succeed in the work place. Able to adapt to a broad range of styles, they develop not only into aspiring artists but as curious, individual, intelligent human-beings.

So when do you know a child is doing enough? Some good indications are that they are happy, healthy and enjoying their dance lessons. Also that they are making steady progress in their dancing and want to continue their learning.

When we ask ‘how much is enough?’ we should be thinking in terms of the quality of the student experience and not how much training they do. We should allow for the process of learning to take place rather than focus on the take-home certificates and awards that are increasingly dominating the dance world. We all have the responsibility to allow students to learn in an environment that supports and develops a healthy and long-term participation in our art form, creating intelligent audiences and skilled, healthy dancers of the future.

[BalletBoysDad]

@DreamChaser thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts and long term experience, it’s genuinely appreciated. 
 

I do agree, quality over quantity, and it’s a marathon rather than a sprint. I note quite a lot of the associate programmes start from age 7, but other than one RBS JA application last year, we avoided any other applications until now as my son was (and still is) really enjoying his ENB juniors class. The only thing that’s ashame with that programme is that it ends next year and doesn’t ‘rise’ into high school years. 

He has an amazing connection with his ENB tutor that has turned into ongoing 1-on-1 tuition that’s a joy to watch.
 

Regardless of what happens, we will try and keep that up as it’s what fuels his love of ballet. 
 

We’ve applied to programmes recommended by his tutor, and will see what is or isn’t an option when it’s revealed. (I’m encouraging the mindset that it’s an audition experience and nothing to lose sleep over). 
 

Infact, part of our reasoning to leave London is to make a better balance between work/school/ballet time and family time. It’s so easy to get sucked into doing too much here and like the article you sent says, it probably results in over-exposure and a sense of fatigue. 
 

It will also bring us closer to family, which can only be an emotional plus. 
 

I feel a touch nervous that it’s easy on these kind of forums to come across as a ‘pushy parent’, applying to all and hoping for my son to do all. Even in that unlikely scenario, we wouldn’t push to do more than is realistic. And at this young age, I personally think pleasure is key. When/if the pleasure goes, it just becomes a chore.
 

But it’s genuinely appreciated to have these kind of conversations to reflect upon what you’re applying to, why you’re applying and what you aim to achieve by applying  

Edited June 5, 2020 by BalletBoysDad
Spelling errors

[Leapfrog]

My DS got a year 6 place in JA s, London centre 2 years ago now so the places do come up! He had a great JA experience. Good luck!