balletla Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 So annoyed to see this article and the un-informed comment about most people who do ballet being upper class. What absolute nonsense! It is this sort of stereotyping from a position of ignorance that means ballet continues to be seen as elitist and does not attract the funding that other arts do. Someone should tell her that there are plenty of boys from Yorkshire in ballet schools and companies in this country! http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/leeds-dancing-star-picked-for-national-ballet-school-1-5647625 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legseleven Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 What a ridiculous and untrue statement - ballet is not the preserve of the upper class! I hope that this doesn't adversely affect other talented children who need to seek assistance with funding.... Given that Yorkshire is a positive hotbed of balletic education, I think she can rest easy that a Yorkshire accent (or of course any other regional accent) makes not one jot of difference! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 What a very silly article! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I think she is quoted as saying basically how in awe she was of the whole thing, it's just another article where the news reporter hasn't got a clue about ballet. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pups_mum Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Wouldn't it be refreshing to see just one newspaper article about a young male dancer that doesn't mention Billy Elliot? It must drive the boys crazy, being continually described as "Such and such a place's answer to Billy Elliot". 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dramascientist Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Oh dear I was born in Lancashire I didn't realise I wasn't supposed to do ballet because only upper class people did it! oops! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Also, newspapers have a habit of putting things in quotation marks, when that isn't what has actually been said to the reporter at all. Journalists ask all sorts of leading questions and the answers will often (almost always?) be paraphrased out of all recognition! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Quickly, everyone adopt a home counties accent!! ;-) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Does an Essex accent count as 'Home Counties'? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afab Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Quickly, everyone adopt a home counties accent!! ;-) I'm going to have a definite problem there! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 SoCal surf's up, dude. Winter flip flops and street tacos (Guess I'd better keep my mouth shut in ballet class.). 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 My teenage dd would love you, Anjuli. You'd be right at home in a Hollister shop talking like that and she LOVES Hollister! :-) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I couldn't help myself. I had to put a response on the article! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dramascientist Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Oo Janet just read your response....well said! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nina G. Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Wouldn't it be refreshing to see just one newspaper article about a young male dancer that doesn't mention Billy Elliot? It must drive the boys crazy, being continually described as "Such and such a place's answer to Billy Elliot". and also refreshing would be refraining from describing female dancers as "the next Darcey Bussell"! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I couldn't help myself. I had to put a response on the article! Great response! Well said. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 But at least Darcey's a real person! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Excellent response Janet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amber21 Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I think sometimes people say things without thinking. I am aware that when I moved to London in the 80's speaking in a northern Durham accent most people that I met within the first 6 months assumed when they heard me speak that I was Geordie (from Newcastle) and owned whippets/greyhounds and flat caps mainly associated with dog racing. Some peoples perceptions maybe if they dont have the opportunities to travel and mingle with the rest of the country can somewhat be misconstrued as to stereotype. Some people who hear a southern accent may assume its either upper class or cockney as this is sometimes extremely portrayed as so in the media. My partner who moved from London to the North was called the posh Cockney!! It seems so many people have their own impressions of what accents are associated with!! Ax 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Grrr that really getsy back up amber21 when people make narrow minded assumptions about people based on where they live. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletbun Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I do have to say in this poor woman's defence, I am from Yorkshire, I don't live there anymore but when I do speak I always feel I'm less worthy. As soon as you open your mouth people stare. I have a child at vocational school and I'm so proud of my Yorkshire heritage and and I encourage my dd to be the same. But when you hear the very upper classes talking about the ballet world it's very difficult to see where you will fit in, apart from being the token council house kid ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I'm a council house kid!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 But all those alleged upper class people are coming to watch your talented child. Any way what makes them upper class. Is it herritage, education, money? I thought that the class system was starting to become diluted, snobbery is another story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Maybe the upper class remark was her interpretation of a southern accent! When I started teaching in Liverpool the kids from the old bullring there that I taught said oo you talk posh miss! And used to imitate me. One day I came into class and practiced my best Liverpool accent on them....they fell about laughing but loved it and soon forgot I was "posh" . Is this one of those North/south divide things? I agree about the Billy Elliot thing....getting annoying. Before Darcey it was who will be the next Fonteyn!! None of the people I know who either do or did ballet are "upper class" at any rate. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonlady Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 I agree with the North/South perceptions..... We live on the south coast and DD goes to Hammond. When she first started there everyone said she was posh because of her accent.... despite a LOT of them living far better lifestyles and in bigger houses than we did Now she has adopted their accents to 'fit in' better but when we visit we are still considered 'posh' to her firends Lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lildancer96 Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Everyone laughs at my dd's midland accent when she is at school ! X 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 I love all accents and I never judge any one by them. I have always taught my children to use good English and not slang, this has helped them immensely during interviews etc. At vocational school there are usually so many accents, but over the next two years of being away, they all seem to sound the same as each other. I didn't notice my daughters accent change from northern to southern, it was other people, but not the family funnily enough. My daughters best friend is from Yorkshire and she does have a strong accent. I just love hearing her friend talk. This girl is extremely bright, articulate and very proud of her accent, but weirdly her mother who is from Yorkshire has lost her accent. I must admit I hate my accent simply because people will stereotype where you are from. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Lin, I grew up in a council house too. However my mother, who came from Newcastle, was taught RP and never had an accent. I was taught grammar by a red hot keen grammar teacher at junior school and I was accused of being a snob - i.e different - by the kids I went to school with. I ended up at grammar school and then university. Then I met someone from a very different background and it did matter how I spoke. Thank you, Mum and Mr Thorpe! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 my mother, who came from Newcastle, was taught RP and never had an accent. Weighing in as a linguist here, I just want to emphasize that RP is in itself an accent. No one speaks without an accent of some sort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Sorry if i`m being a bit thick, but what is RP? Thanks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 I think it's Received Pronounciation thequays I resonate with so much of the above especially what Fiz says My mum was a Yorkshire lass from Redcar(where I was born.....where gran was) but she came to live in the south after the war and had hardly a trace of northern accent just the shorter "a" 's when saying "bath" for example and some die hard Yorkshire expressions. She too wanted me to "speak properly" so I have a southern accent which to some may appear posh but not to me.....I sound positively "common" around really posh people!! After working in Liverpool for three years I did start to pick up the Liverpool intonation and some of their expressions like"going for a bevy" (drink) slipped out! Some accents are so strong you can't help it but I love them all too inspite of my mums best efforts!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Yes, it's Received Pronunciation, i.e. a "posh" accent. The only accent they used to allow on the BBC before the BBC smartened up and recognized there are other perfectly valid ways to speak in the UK. Really when you think about it, it's quite ironic that we're having this discussion about how people pronounce words in a forum about .... a wordless art form! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afab Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Sorry if i`m being a bit thick, but what is RP? Thanks. It was useful for me too. Thank you for asking thequays! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now