Dance World Cup

[Billyelliott]

Anybody else from Balletco taking part?

It's our first time. I have been told its quite a festive occasion with a lot of cheering !

This year it's near us in Brighton and it kicks off tommorow - we will be there Tuesday and Wednesday

[mola]

We have a couple of friend there already. Good luck to you!

[Billyelliott]

Ok now it's off to rescue my DS age 10 From a school residential trip - this morning on an assault course , in time to drive him to the Dance World cup where he has a ballet group a charachter group and then - hopefully after a nap - a ballet solo at the ridiculous hour of 10:30 pm !

Hoping he has not come a cropper this morning and that i can stop him from yawning loudly on stage !

[Billyelliott]

Safely arrived and watching!

Sad to see that the gymnastic element is on display here as well even in the "minis" under 10! Also in spite of warnings to be age appropriate and modestly attired some are not at all!

Looks like things are running late so DS will have lots of time to get changed !

Lovely to see so many overseas competitors

[JulieW]

I look forward to hearing more about it later - have a great evening :-)

[Billyelliott]

After a short nap and a rather difficult journey - accidents en route - we are back.

DS is warming up and I'm watching the 10-13 contemporary and modern section very impressive so far !

[Billyelliott]

So the boys solo ballet - a lovely high standard - won by a huge German 13 yr old with a variation of copelia , jointly with a super corsair variation also German we think , third was a super little 10 yr old in a demi character , my DS danced beautifully but was outclassed !

Better take the little chap home and finish my report in the morning !

[Billyelliott]

It took me longer than I thought to recover from the DWC experience ! I thought it best to calm down a bit before reporting further ....

We were not impressed that there was no one to look after DS back stage no sign of any teachers from his school and I was not allowed to go in and check on him even though they were running nearly 30 minutes late ! It was a bit imtidating having most if the other boys - or rather young musclar men performing variations from famous ballets . Ours was just "classical " . Nevertheless less he stepped proudly onto the stage and gave it his best shot! He did it the best he has ever done it - not a bent knee or unstretched foot in sight - proud to be representing England !

 

The next day we were there most of the after noon - long enough to be very irritated by the audience behaviour , and lack of crowd control on the part of the organisers!

There was frequent flash photography during the performances and lots of noise and people walking and running up and down totally blocking our view and expecting us to stand up in the middle of the performances to let the in and out of rows .

I had no objection to the festive atmosphere and the cheering and clapping , but there was no respect for those performers who followed the ones that were well supported !

It did not help that the notices about photography and keeping quiet and not moving around during performances was only in English - why was it not translated into the languages of the competitors ! It was a World Cup after all !

[Billyelliott]

Have just had a chat to some of the other parents who were more disgruntled than me !

We all felt that we had been ill informed ( mainly by our dance school) as to what to expect and the items that were put through we're in many cases not suitable for this type of competition . There were many small children in flood of tears because they were not expecting the cheering and whistling for the opposition and then no support for them , and none of them getting any medals , of even a well done from the adjudicators . Probably needs a discussion with the principal of the ballet school , which could be difficult , and communication about lessons that should have been learned for the future to the DWC organising commitee if we ever organise it in the UK again !

 

Having said all that there were some fantastic young dancers and now that I have accessed the website to see the published results actually DS did not do so badly after all - Ballet shared 8th out of 15 you g men and Modern 5th out of 8.

I don't think that bad for a 10 yr old in an international competition , who had not been properly prepared - from the point of view of his ballet solo , and was one of the youngest in the section.

 

Also in the groups they were by no means the last , but the children are only announced the 1st 2nd and 3rd placed so they are not aware of anything but that they were "not placed"

Certainally if I had know what to expect we would have put our foot down and asked for a repertoire variation for this competition and something better than a plain white leotard and purple tights to wear !

 

Luckily DS has gone back to his residential camping weekend proud of having taken part and I shall enlighten him as to just how well he did ! If We were asked to do it again I probably wouldn't and luckily we won't be in that position again!

But good luck to the rest of team England - the older ones who still have to dance !

 

Our highlights to watch - when we could see- were an Indian Group with "celebrate life" ans some of the Portuguese ballet groups - simply splendid . Hard to believe that these are not vocational students - or perhaps they are ?!

[LinMM]

Back in Brighton after some time away and was wondering who all the young people in track suits were. I thought it might be a gymnastics type event going on. I saw a large Italian group all in blue track suits near the dome had no idea this event was on !!