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Split soles for RAD ballet exams?


Lemongirl

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  • 11 months later...

Sorry to add to an old thread, but was wondering if anyone's dc has wore spilt soles for a grade 1 exam? Dd has never worn them, her teacher likes dc to have new shoes for exams and we were all given spilt soles. I have looked on the rad website and for grade 1-3 it just say "pink soft ballet shoes with ribbons or elastic".

on grade 4+ it says spilt sole are permitted!

Any advice would b grateful x

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Sorry to add to an old thread, but was wondering if anyone's dc has wore spilt soles for a grade 1 exam? Dd has never worn them, her teacher likes dc to have new shoes for exams and we were all given spilt soles. I have looked on the rad website and for grade 1-3 it just say "pink soft ballet shoes with ribbons or elastic".

on grade 4+ it says spilt sole are permitted!

Any advice would b grateful x

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Gosh, that seems very young to be wearing split soles. Our little students all have full soles until at least Grade 5 IIRC, and then split soles are only suggested to certain students.

 

IF the RAD permit split soles for Grade 1 then I guess it wouldn't have much of an effect in terms of losing foot strength if the shoes are only worn for the exam. I would definitely go back to full soles for class though.

 

It used to be possible to email the exams dept at the RAD to check these things - perhaps the teacher might do so?

 

Edited to add: Welcome to the forum. :-)

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I agree with spannerandpony - DD's dance school is not keen on split soles and they are only worn by some RAD vocational grade students. My guess is that if split soles were allowed for RAD exams prior to grade 4 then the RAD website would say that split soles were allowed for its exams instead of specifying that they are allowed from grade 4 upwards, but I echo spannerandpony's suggestion of the teacher contacting the RAD exams department to check.

Edited by Legseleven
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Split soles are technically now allowed for all levels but the RAD isn't keen on them for lower levels. The feet look nicer so maybe that's why they're being used for the exam but full soles are better for strengthening the feet.

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We were never allowed to use anything other than soft blocks at school (we would use our canvas shoes under any possible pretence though :)....) Now it seems that soft blocks aren't a requirement even at vocational school...Any ideas why ?

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In France, if you are serious at ballet, you use split soles but pointe shoes are always full soles. I have never heard of pointe shoes with split soles! What a strange concept!

 

I posted this quote a year ago... Last week, DD2 tried a pair of split soles pointe shoes! The strange concept exists now!

 

They are Bloch. The outer sole is split but not the inside one. DD2 didn't like them but it had nothing to do with the split sole. They have a bit of soft material at the base and because she doesn't wear any protection in her pointes shoes, that bit disturbed her. And she felt, they were not well fitted to her feet. Her toes were squashed.

 

Having said that, she wears made to measure pointe shoes normally so she's very difficult now with other brands...

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