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Questions about Upper School auditions


Anna C

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And unless things have changed it is very unlikely that the RBS associates will have been observed frequently by the panel.

 

Certainly pupils of mine who were RBS associates were very lucky to see the head of associates once a term, if at all and of course the Upper School staff are quite separate from associates and unlikely to have seen most of them before. Id be interested to know if there is indeed now more interaction between the departments at mid and senior level.

 

Doesnt excuse the panel for appearing disinterested though! Unfortunately Ive observed teachers looking very grim on watching days (without meaning to, they are actually very interested). Examiners can be the same. Can be very off putting so I always tell students not to be put off by this.

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Please everyone and I don't want to offend anyone, but can we have correct English usage!  I would expect the panel to be disinterested - it means impartial.  But it is very sad if they appear uninterested!

 

Yes I agree concentration can make people appear grim.  My pupils reckon that examiners marks are often in reverse proportion to how happy they look.  i.e. smiles = low marks, grim = high marks!

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Uninterested or disinterested, either way they lacked interest and it was obvious.

 

The new AD may be employed abroad, however, one would hope that when taking over such a huge role, he could pop over for a day to cast an interested eye over the 100 or more students who are paying their £35 to be looked at with interest!

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Is it usually the case that candidates are guaranteed to be seen by the Artistic Director of a school at the first audition? I would be surprised if that was the case. Perhaps at final audition?

 

I am sorry to hear that candidates felt that the audition panel was lacking in interest (don't want to fuel the terminology debate ;-)) However I am sure that as experienced professionals they were doing their job properly, even if candidates' perception was that they weren't taking notice. I'm sure that audition nerves and excitement clouded their judgment.

 

Having said that, if candidates truly believe that the audition panel had no interest in the audition process, I assume that they will turn down a final audition if offered in light of their belief that the RBS staff don't do their job on an audition panel properly.

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Guest Autumn days

Given that the auditions have taken place on many days over the course of over a month, that would mean an awful lot of popping over if he were to have attended every upper and lower school audition! I would hope that he would not have taken on the role if he did not trust his team to do a preliminary selection on his behalf.

 

On another note, I am sure there were many at tis and plenty of the other audition days wo are not regularly seen by the panel.

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Ha ha legseleven, good point.

 

However, due to the lack of interest, I feel that the only letter could be a no.

 

If it turns out to be a yes, I will eat my knickers!

 

However, it would prove that they could appear both dis and un interested, whilst actually being interested, quite a feat.

 

One would hope that the new artistic director would be at finals, after all they are going to be his students in September.

 

I would not even want someone to order my dinner for me, let alone decide something as major as this.

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BMM I am sure with 3 people on the panel your daughter cannot of been aware where all of them were looking at any given moment - unless they looked down or sat with their backs to the children I am guessing they saw plenty (even if it didn't seem that way to our DDs) ;) wishing your daughter good luck with the results when they arrive. 

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Thanks but there was a general feeling amongst my dd and her friends that their interest was directed at a few students in particular and that they were barely noticed. It was not nerves or stress but just their honest opinion.

 

They have all been to enough auditions over the years to be able to judge and it was not just one person who felt this way.

 

I actually also saw a student and a mum of another in tears after the audition.

 

I think we perhaps all need to stop tugging a forelock, they do not get everything right and the fact they could not look genuinely interested in the those auditioning is unprofessional.

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Two years ago my daughter said the same thing... That they barely looked at her and that they had clearly made up their mind at the start that she was not right for them. Happily, ENBS did see something suitable for them. It is obvious that all the schools may vary in what they like... But as all have paid the same audition fee, they should feel they were watched.

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I agree that RBS almost certainly don't get everything right - how could they, they are human? As I said before, I am sorry that your DD and her friends felt that the panel wasn't interested in them and it would have been more pleasant had they specifically made it clear that everyone was being watched. However, I think it is inappropriate to brand the panel 'unprofessional' because your DD felt that she wasn't being watched but that other candidates were. These are highly experienced professionals in an elite and highly selective school who know what they are looking for and are conducting open auditions. Your DD doesn't know whether they were watching the borderline candidates more closely, for example. And there is no reason to believe that the student and mum who were in tears after the audition were upset because they also felt that they/their DC hadn't been watched, their tears could have been caused by stress, pain, relief, etc.

 

I know your DD is experienced in auditioning and that this was her honest opinion but to brand RBS staff unprofessional because she felt that some candidates were observed more obviously than others is too much. They want to find those students they consider to be the cream of the crop in terms of talent and suitability for RBS training - which may not be the same students who are offered places at other elite schools. And as hfbrew said in post 373 above, company auditions can be ruthless and no-one conducting the auditions will care

whether they seem to be more interested in some candidates than others.

 

By the way, I am not 'tugging a forelock' and have no axe to grind here. The RBS can't always get it right, nor can any selective school and life isn't fair in that very talented dancers may be rejected because for example their physique is not the favored type. Ballet is an insanely tough career on so many levels.

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Clearly Royal is more like marmite than we would have thought.

 

No one gets it right all the time, but these students have worked hard to get to this point and it should be a good experience for them.

 

It is the duty of the panel not to look bored or disinterested, as that is very disheartening.

 

Last year a friend's dd heard the panel dismissing her during the audition! Not a nice experience.

 

Ballet is tough and it should not be made tougher.

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Guest dancer2027

I was in the audition this Sunday and firstly we had a male teacher and Anita Young was on the judging panel so it felt good to have a balance of male and female.I assume they changed it round for the other groups?

I would agree that the audition panel only looked at those they were interested in. I doubt it takes more than 10 seconds of you standing in front of them to know whether you have what they want or not bodywise at least. 

Its been the same since I was 9....They pick out 3/4 they like, focus on them for the next half an hour, not much you can do to change your physique and so if they don't think you benefit from their training that is there choice; we can't call them unprofessional as they have the 'look' they want and know what they are looking for. Nothing has really changed, I expected not to be looked at, enjoyed the experience, did my absolute best and now just waiting to see if miracles really do happen haha!

 

As I said before it is what I expected, but its not nice, especially when during your develope a 'seconde the adjudicator strains his next to try and see the girl behind you instead and you feel like you are in the way or something!:P 

 

I think the key with RBS is to just make the most of your £35, its what I did, I just enjoyed dancing in such beautiful studios. However, I can understand people's frustrations as I live in London so we didn't make much of a sacrifice apart from the tube journey but for people spending flight, train and hotel money and not feeling as if the judges gave them a fair chance to be looked at it is disappointing. 

 

Good luck to everyone :)

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Flutterby what a lovely positive outlook on life , I hope you do well with that attitude. People should be allowed to have an oppinion. If I was interviewing a group of people for a post, I would hope that every person felt that they were listened to, seeing as they made the effort to present a CV and attend an interview. It is not one person but a few who feel that they were ignored during audition. That in my book is wrong, but again in the ballet world we put up and shut up because that is just the way it is. By the way two years ago when my daughter auditioned for the royal, she enjoyed the day out and meeting up with friends who where at all the auditions that year. The staff who meet and greet at the royal are always lovely and make the children so welcome.

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Perhaps they should screen the photographs and not audition such a large number. Often adjudicators appear not to be watching but generally that's not the case.

 

If you are really unhappy about the way the panel conducted itself then email them and give them some feedback. As Tulip mentioned we put up with things because that's the way they are - not a good lesson to teach children. People don't complain as they don't want to jeopardise their possible opportunity, hence nothing changes.

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I defiantly was not complaining.It's just the view point of my dd.

My dd thought that it was very rushed.They did not check turnout,feet were checked with shoes on in 1 second in lines of 6.Splits were checked very fast,no check on the suppleness of the back.The main thing they checked alot of was Demi plié for Achilles.

My dd auditioned for Elmhurst first and they took much more time in looking at each of them.Maybe this is because Elmhurst dont assess out until year 9 so they need to be more thorough and the Rbs can assess out after 2 terms and fill the spaces straight away!

I thought that the Rbs audition would of been the most thorough as it is the most difficult school to get into.But now I know why,because they know exactly who they like within minutes.Also because they roughly know which and how many ja's they want to take to finals.

I totally agree with their decisions so don't get me wrong!and if my dd made finals I would still think the same.

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Someone posted elsewhere about how in professional auditions people are cut during barre after a few exercises, and so on throughout the class.  I suspect that the equivalent happens in these auditions.  A trained eye will be able to assess physiques, turnout and flexibility during the barre.  So although no one is sent out of the audition many may well already be a "no".

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Che sera sera...

 

It is a tough, highly competitive, elitist profession and we just want it to be as pleasant as possible for them.

 

I do believe that they will all get the place at upper school that is right for them...

 

The problem will be whether can we actually afford it!

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I'm wondering how methodical the selection panel is at the preliminary auditions. If there are 20+ children in a class all doing the same exercise at the same time how can one person watch all the children do all of the exercises. Of course, if there is a panel of 3 then there may be an agreement, say, that one member will watch candidates 1-8, the second 9-16 and the third 17-24. If there is no such agreement then I suspect that the panel members glance at all the children, quickly select 5 or 6 that they like the look of and watch them as they do the exercises. How many children from each group go through to finals?

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Certainly at an Elmhurst audition the panel members were each watching an allocated number of children each - a few years ago.  When parents were invited to watch we were quite close to the panel and you could clearly see that each member had a number of sheets of paper with a candidate number written on them.  Obviously you could not see what they were doing but the children were doing things one at a time and it was quite clear which 2 panel members were assessing my DD.

 

Re the panel showing an interest or not in the students audition, DD's friend did not like her audition at one of the other schools, where they were divided into 3 groups.  She said it was quite clear to all of them that only the middle group were of interest and she knew way before the end of the audition that she had no chance.  This was about 6 years ago and my DD did not have the same experience.

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Just out of interested, did they move from the table to have a closer look at anyone, or test for flexibility? I would expect them to be looking at everyone, then the ones they liked the look of, would be observered from a different angle perhaps? But RBS are the professionals, it just seems unfair if they've dismissed you before seeing what you have to offer. Huge 'good lucks' to anyone awaiting results. This is life changing, and I'm dreading a few years time when my daughter is in this position x

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It was a no for DD too, and ENBS, but she has Elmhurst finals, Central audition on Saturday and of course still waiting to hear from Tring (she is not hopeful about that, felt they weren't watching her), so on we go and so grateful that she has a final to go to x

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Congratulations to all those who have made the various finals and sincere commiserations to those who have n't: they are all very hardworking and talented and have such strength of character to be going through auditions whilst also working towards GCSEs.

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Good luck to your DD on Saturday Jazzpaws and fingers crossed she gets a yes from Tring

Thank you - all the best to your DD too

it's all so hard, so many talented girls out there - look at them all back to back in their Royal auditions on Sunday, so many. It must also be very hard for the panel to choose. Still they have worked so hard and given it their best and that is all anyone can ask of themselves whatever the result is(hopefully nice news) xx

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