Why British ballet is dancing with death

[LinMM]

Regards Li Cunxin my friend in Sydney was just talking about this only yesterday and is pleased with this appointment as thinks there may be a bit more classical work now going on in that ballet company. I think he has written a book about his experiences that she keeps telling me to read!! Must get round to it.

[aileen]

Well, they've now got Matthew Lawrence who will be an asset if Li Cunxi wants to develop the comany's classical repertoire. And hasn't he managed to get Tamara and Carlos to guest in R&J next year?

[restor]

I agree "A good education is never a waste of time or money"  . The cost of education at vocational schools is higher than state schools though.

[GTL]

Not sure if it still applies, but a few years ago, graduating medical students were in the same situation with insufficient "houseman" positions available for all of them to progress as qualified doctors after long, expensive training.

[Jan McNulty]

5 subsidised ballet companies in UK - each if you are lucky with 3-5 dance job vacancies each year = lots of disappointed young would be dancers.

 

Restor, can I ask if you go to see any of the UK companies or do you restrict yourself to the foreign visiting companies?

[restor]

I see as much as I can ( out of what takes my fancy)  from both UK and visitors.

[aileen]

I'm interested in this assertion (made by several people) that the standard of the teaching at the RBS is too low. If that is the case then why do talented students from all over the world come to train at the school and why does the RB still take students from the school every year? I do feel that the RBS shouldn't take much credit for a student who has only trained at the school for a few months or a year before s/he is accepted into the RB but that doesn't happen very often and most overseas students spend two or three years in the upper school before they join companies.

[Jan McNulty]

Bryaxis - welcome to the Forum and thanks for posting but I should point out that highly critical postings should be signed with your name rather than a username.

[Jan McNulty]

A post on this thread is hidden while it is under review for being thought to contravene the Acceptable Use Policy and/or forum moderation policy.

[hfbrew]

I'm interested in this assertion (made by several people) that the standard of the teaching at the RBS is too low. If that is the case then why do talented students from all over the world come to train at the school and why does the RB still take students from the school every year? I do feel that the RBS shouldn't take much credit for a student who has only trained at the school for a few months or a year before s/he is accepted into the RB but that doesn't happen very often and most overseas students spend two or three years in the upper school before they join companies.

And even if the graduates don't get into the Royal Ballet they get snapped up by companies worldwide.  I know many who trained at RB from age 11 in this happy position.

 

And I can certainly vouch from personal experience for the quality of training at WL-  again I know many who did not then go to US for various reasons but sill ultimately ended up with good contracts.

 

But this thread was about Ms Brind's observations. I for one don't measure the success of British Ballet by the number of British  principals in just one company!

 

Personally I don' mind what Nationality a dancer is as long as they are right for the company they are performing with.  Getting a job as a classical ballet dancer, (or  in any genre for that matter)  is extremely hard for all Nationalities. The fact that so many British trained dancers do get employment  is testament to how well they are being taught!