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Questions about Upper School auditions


Anna C

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I would imagine they pick the ones with the best technique and the strongest dancers, of course they will look for potential but with so many to choose from they can have what they want. I would imagine they have to turn away a lot of potential talent. If you get a call back To finals i think you can be proud. Good luck to u all .

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Not quite the same is it ;-)

 

The lottery (or similar) is a complete game of chance, whereas you at least need to have talent, skill, physique etc etc to get a recall for an upper school place!

 

Now, I, personally, might have a better chance of winning the lottery..... :-D

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I was at the Q and A on Friday.   They definitely said that those who apply by DVD would have to attend the final and I cannot believe that they would have told anyone otherwise.  A school would absolutely have to see, in person, a student they are taking on.  The competition is clearly so fierce for the places, if a DVD would be enough to secure a place, everyone would be doing it.  A student would have to be compared to the competition at the final. 

 

Regarding the vocational versus 2/3 classes a week of ballet, I think that there are always going to be some students that are taken on regardless of training, as they have the perfect feet, turnout, etc. but mostly at this stage they would be expecting some level of training.  I know 2 students who were taken on last year and 2 the year before of the 30 intake.  All vocationally trained.

 

Interestingly on Friday, no one asked about the finance element of the course.

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Seems to me the toughest thing is just to get a place in the final - around 400 and they take 50 is less than 15%. At least if you are fortunate enough to get a finals place there is around a 50% chance of being taken, not saying that's easy though.

Is it as bad at the other schools, does anyone know ?

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What you may have already noticed is that you see some of the same dancers at preliminary auditions for different schools.  Those offered finals won't necessarily be exactly the same people for each school, but in general I would expect those 50 you are talking about Jazzpaws to have been offered finals at several schools.

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I agree that it is probably better to see dancers in person on the whole but exceptional talent can be picked up from a video.

 

The physical examination could easily be carried out by a dance physio in the country of origin if given a list of what to look for. So if a student were to be selected solely via DVD so to speak then this could be arranged in the home country as a final check for suitability for training.

 

As a rule I would say its more of a disadvantage not to be there in person no matter how "perfect" you may be able to make a DVD.

It would be interesting to ask the dancers that if distance and cost were not taken into account which way they would rather audition!

I suspect most would choose to be there in person! However it's just not that easy for pupils on the other side of the world......Australia, Japan, China and so on to come to UK for just ONE day!!

And when a company / school acquires a certain status and standing in the world you can see why people from afar may want to try for training there.

 

As regards for the term "potential" .......this is more easily applied to 10-14 year olds......much older than that then I would be pretty sure they are looking for "talent" .......in whatever way they may perceive this to be.

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What you may have already noticed is that you see some of the same dancers at preliminary auditions for different schools.  Those offered finals won't necessarily be exactly the same people for each school, but in general I would expect those 50 you are talking about Jazzpaws to have been offered finals at several schools.

I agree with you on that - DD is applying for a few schools herself, I'm just wondering if these kind of figures are similar in the major schools ?

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Well I suppose talent is the potential already achieved to date??!

So at any given time some students will show more talent as they have developed their potential further!!

 

If you take potential to extremes you could probably say nobody ever reaches their potential!!

 

Who knows I may have potential for playing the piano but it may take me twenty five years to reach the level some may achieve in five!!

The average may be ten years!

 

I guess the ones who do it in five have a true "talent" for it.

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I expect there will b lots of students who have the potential but may not of had enough training to get through to finals, lets face it all of these places offering auditions are making a lot of money and by saying they are looking for potential it gives everyone a chance. I feel that if you get through to finals you obviously have the requirements to be a dancer and should be proud of yourself

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I suspect that it will be very rare for a student, particularly a female student, to get into an upper school having taken only two or three classes a week. The schools don't want to miss out on someone who has exceptional potential (probably in the form of physique, musicality and 'star quality') and so they won't rule anyone out in case that unpolished balletic diamond comes through their doors. Some men seem to have started intensive ballet training at a late age. Johan Kobborg is one; I believe that he only started ballet (seriously?) at 17 although he had been a performer before that.

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I suspect that it will be very rare for a student, particularly a female student, to get into an upper school having taken only two or three classes a week.

It can be done though - so don't be put off from trying. You will never know - you may have the face/arms/feet/attitude/musicality that fits the particular mould for a given school.

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Well I just want to say "break a leg" to them all - DDs "journey" starts tomorrow.... she has her head firmly on her shoulders and expects no finals - so anything beyond that will be a MASSIVE boost!!! We are realistic in our house!!!

 

All do your best and ENJOY it - that will shine through (and as my DD says... "at least you get to miss a day of school" ;))

 

F x

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With any audition (or exam, for that matter) you need to put all 'what ifs' and anxieties about preparation out of your mind and instead concentrate on the present ie what YOU are doing NOW. Forget about everything and everyone else. Ignore what everyone else is doing, has done and might have done.

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With any audition (or exam, for that matter) you need to put all 'what ifs' and anxieties about preparation out of your mind and instead concentrate on the present ie what YOU are doing NOW. Forget about everything and everyone else. Ignore what everyone else is doing, has done and might have done.

Amen! Couldn't have put it better! :)

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Good luck everyone - try to enjoy yourselves. Stressful as it was, I wish I was back there doing it all again (yes, I do mean it - I miss all the school stuff!)

 

Chat to other parents - you'll make friends and allies along the way - but avoid the ones who brag - you don't need them! :-)

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Can anyone give me an indication of how long it is between between prelim audition and finding out whether you have a place in finals, or Tring funding audition. I'm presuming that after finals it's quicker to find out if you have a place or not as there aren't so many being auditioned

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Guest Autumn days

At Tring yesterday they said that we would find out at the end of the first week in feb or the beginning of the 2nd week so for us it will be about 3weeks. However, they said that they would send the results for all the auditions at the same time so if you audition towards the end of next week then it is more like 10 days. It wasn't clear if hey will still decide as they go or not make any decisions Until hey have seen everyone. If it is the latter we are probably at a disadvantage having gone first! When is your dd at Tring, jazz paws?

 

Elmhurst I think take about 10 days but I don't know about the others yet!

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Hi mum in a spin

DD 's audition is next Thursday at Tring - nice time, around 1pm so no battling through rush hour traffic :) - Birmingham was terrible around 8am!

I'm thinking about letting her enter for Phyllis Bedells Bursary, but will wait to hear if she gets RBS finals. There is also Genee Challenge and Young Dancer of the Year. Would quite like her to do one as they look nice, but need to find out what else she is doing before I go and bite off more than we can both chew - finals would have to take priority, but there is nothing certain there x

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