JulieW Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I've posted this in another thread but thought some might not be reading that one but might be interested as this subject has popped up in a few threads now. So here's the list I've managed to throw together in the last 15 minutes. I couldn't find any lists for Tring Park, Northern or Hammond and that was as far as I've got. Elmhurst graduate contracts 2011 Students who graduated in 2010 went on to study further or found employment as follows: Joshua Barwick – Northern Ballet Theatre Sam Brown - Estonian National Ballet Sinead Bunn - Munich Ballet Stefania Cardaci – Ballet de L’Opera National de Bordeaux Jordan Clayton - Zurich Ballet Andrew Cummings - Zurich Ballet Nicol Edmonds - Finnish National Ballet Emily Hunt - dancing in The Snowman Nicole Muratov - Bordeaux National Ballet George Willé-Williams - Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia Oliver Wraith - Dance Cyprus Marina Yatsushiro - Singapore Ballet Theatre Students who graduated in 2009 went on to study further or found employment as follows: Amie Ashford – one-year apprenticeship with New English Contemporary Ballet, followed by Disneyland Tokyo Jake Burden – Theater Magdeburg, Germany Stefania Cardaci – three-month contract with Bordeaux National Ballet Natasha Chung – L’Ecole atelier Béjart Rudra, Switzerland Dan Clarke – Northern Ballet, Apprenticeship, followed by Estonia National Ballet Maria Engel – Ballet Theatre UK, followed by Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia Rebecca Hartley – Dancer, Disneyland Paris Jade Heusen – Birmingham Royal Ballet Matthew Jordan – Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia Anthony Maloney – Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia Martin Milner – Vienna State Opera, Apprenticeship, followed by Munich Ballet Alicia Nelson - toured with ENB in Swan Lake (June 2010), followed by Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia Gemma Paganelli – London Contemporary Dance School Vanessa Spiteri – Ballet Du Capitale, Toulouse Nanase Tanaka - Singapore Dance Theatre Alexandra Walton – Bratislava, Slovakia Rex Wheeler – Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava, followed by Sacramento Ballet Nanoko Yamamoto – Brandon Ballet, USA Not sure what's happened to last year's list - but I know some are at BRB, Vanemuine Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, Croatian National, Slovak National, Northern Ballet (that's all I can remember for now) And so far in 2012, these are the companies I can remember (I won't do names in case I get any wrong and some have yet to start): Birmingham Royal Ballet Royal Ballet of Flanders Northern Ballet Vanemuine Ballet Company, Estonia National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, Czech Republic National Ballet Theatre, Brno, Czech Republic Ballet Wales (I think!) Royal Ballet School graduate contracts 2011 American Ballet Theatre Jamie Kopit Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux Austin Lui Ballet Theatre UK Aimee-Louise Cordeaux Bavarian State Ballet Jacopo Bellussi Bavarian State Ballet 2 Antonia McAuley Birmingham Royal Ballet Karla Doorbar, Emily Smith, Brandon Lawrence Boston Ballet 2 Ileana Riveron Dresden Ballet Gina Scott Dutch National Ballet Hannah Grennell Estonian National Ballet Bruno Micchiardi Finnish National Ballet Millis Faust Joffrey Ballet Fabio Lo Guidice National Ballet of Portugal Dominic Whitbrook National Ballet of Uruguay Ciro Tamayo Northern Ballet Sean Bates, Teresa Saavedrea Bordes Norwegian Ballet Grete Borud Nybakken, Douwe Dekkers Paris Opéra Ballet Chase O'Connell Polish National Ballet Roseanna Leney The Royal Ballet Claudia Dean, Francesca Hayward, Tomas Mock Royal Ballet of Flanders Michael Snoey Kiewit Royal Swedish Ballet Calum Lowden Scottish Ballet Sophie Allnatt Singapore Dance Theatre Robin Kent Slovak National Theatre Ballet Samuel Price Slovenian National Theatre Ballet Kenta Yamamoto Tulsa Ballet Stefano Maggiolo Vienna State Opera Ballet Greig Matthew Zurich Ballet Zoe Roberts, Michael Burton, Thomas Kendall English National Ballet 2010/11 Graduating Students 3rd Year Ladies Erina Akatsuka Slovak National Theatre Ballet Maria Andres National Ballet of Portugal, Apprenticeship Anna Bang-Rudenstam Royal Swedish Ballet, Work Placement Heather Dunn Scottish Ballet Elisabeth Finch The Hong Kong Ballet Manoela Goncalves Dortmund Ballet Oda Heier Norwegian National Ballet, Apprenticeship Nicha Rodboon Bayerisches Staatsballet Marina Schmied Ballet Vorpommern Eleanor Sharpe English National Ballet, Apprenticeship Wakana Shimizu Le Jeune Ballet de France Kelly Turner The Ballet School of Hamburg Pamela Nunes Tivoli Pantomime Ballet 3rd Year Men Marc Borras IT Dansa, Barcelona Jonathan Batista Miami City Ballet Guilherme Menezes English National Ballet Vitor Menezes English National Ballet Jospeh Gray Zurich Ballet II Shaun Kelly Tivoli Pantomime Ballet Paulo Osorio Marcilio Tivoli Pantomime Ballet Robin Papazian Slovak National Ballet Theatre Ken Saruhashi English National Ballet 2nd Year Ladies Meea Laitinen Norwegian National Ballet, Apprenticeship Central School of Ballet 2011 Graduates now have contracts with: Zoe Arshamian - Ballet Ireland Lika Berkun - Israeli Ballet Lisha Chin - Singapore Ballet (apprentice) Nicole Craddock - Scottish Ballet Katie Deacon - Ballet Ireland Toni-MIchelle Dent - Northern Ballet (apprentice) Jordi Arnau Rubio - Peter Schaufuss Jamie Bradley - Disneyland Tokyo Luke Divall - Ballet Boyz Dominic Harrison - Scottish Ballet Leon Moran - Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker Alexander Nuttall - Ballet Cymru David Pallant - Ballet Gratz Joseph Poulton - Ballet Black (apprentice) James Pullum - Commercial work William Simmons - Estonia National Ballet 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primrose Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Well done Julie, that is fantastic and very useful to know where the graduates gain employment. Thankyou. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Yes, Thank you Julie, for taking the time and effort to type all this out for everyone to see. Much appreciated.! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted March 31, 2012 Author Share Posted March 31, 2012 You're welcome (didn't type it though - lots of copying & pasting ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumofballetmaddaughter Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Thanks Julie, much appreciated, it's a very interesting post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jellybeans Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 What would also be interesting here is a list of those that graduated and are Not dancing. I know that RBS seem to have 100% success rate but what of other schools? A list could look something like this: Andy - decided that nuclear physics was his true calling Bob - auditioned for 237 companies with no success Cindy - broke little finger in audition season, could not dance and decided to quit because of the risk of further injury Deidre - won BGT with unconventional dance style Eric - stacking shelves at poundland Frank - received world wide acclaim for latest piece of choreography Etc etc . Any similarity to any previous student, alive or dead, is purely coincidental Seriously, though, only when you know the destinations of ALL students do ou get a true picture. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie4dancin Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 That made me laugh so much jellybean haha Cx 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nina G. Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Jellybeans: Seriously, though, only when you know the destinations of ALL students do ou get a true picture. Absolutely. Even more interesting would be to know how many are still dancing 2 or 3 years after graduating, after having "put up" with several short term or apprentice contracts, having lived abroad (Slovenia, Poland, Estonia just to name a few) not speaking the native language etc. Sure there are always a few who will adapt, but many don't. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pups_mum Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Seriously, though, only when you know the destinations of ALL students do ou get a true picture. Hilarious post jellybeans, but a very good point! I have no experience of vocational schools, but certainly found this to be true when looking at academic schools. Most schools will have some bright kids who go on to study "good" subjects at Russell Group universities etc, and schools are always keen to tell you about them.Unless you know what proportion of the year these children make up, what the rest do and how that compares to other schools I don't think you can draw any firm conclusions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 (edited) The only published list from Tring Park is at the back of their year book and lists the "Class of 2011" i.e. those who took their A-levels in 2011. This was the first group who entered 6th form with a 3rd year available. 13 dancers listed as staying on for 3rd year. 2 dancers going to Ballet Theatre UK 2 pursuing academic studies 6 going to dance courses, one dancer to each of the following places: - Ballet West, Birds, Laban, Laines, Rambert, Studio Centre. 1 "work experience" 2 gave no destination. Edited for clarity Edited April 1, 2012 by Pas de Quatre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petipacat Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Very interesting, In the tring ofsted report It did say that the school should keep more detailed records of their graduates . Thank you all I find this info really really helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primrose Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I know my dd attended the lower school at Tring that year but I hadnt realised that quite so many students had chosen to go to other schools to further their dance training especially when there is a MT course available at the school. Do you have any idea where the 3rd year graduating students went to from the year before. I was rubbish at trying to find where the graduating students went after their 3rd year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 Just speaking for Elmhurst graduates - their employment rate (as dancers) is high (although does vary year on year - being almost 100% some years but around 80% in others). The majority were classical contracts but some are musical theatre, a few on cruises and Disney, and the odd one goes to university. And looking back over the list of those who have graduated over the last 2 - 4 years, many who went off to classical companies are still either in their original companies and the others have moved on to others. (I also went back to graduates from 5 years ago - most still appear to be in classical companies but there were quite a few who don't look like they're still dancing - but the school has moved on a lot in the last few years). I think most of those who decide that dance isn't for them have left before they get to the 3rd year but I have found the odd one who went off to do another type of course, eg one student now studying art & design. In fact, I have had an interesting evening, catching up with people on facebook (!) and have been really pleased to find that the majority of these graduates are still with their original companies, or certainly with the company they got at their next lot of auditions. I was happy to find that, as I suspected, the comment from NinaG in another thread - "Every year, the Graduates are offered a six month (Apprentice) contract (with UK and foreign companies)" - has not turned out to be true of the students at Elmhurst, and I suspect then that the same can be said of the RBS graduates. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I know my dd attended the lower school at Tring that year but I hadnt realised that quite so many students had chosen to go to other schools to further their dance training especially when there is a MT course available at the school. Do you have any idea where the 3rd year graduating students went to from the year before. I was rubbish at trying to find where the graduating students went after their 3rd year. This year (2011-12) is the 1st year that 3rd year has been available so there won't be previous statistics altough I believe that there were a small handful around last year who were unofficial third years. I agree Tring should keep better records because the employment rate is actually not bad at all. Some of the students have already decided not to continue dancing but quite a few others have already got jobs, either commercially or with companies such as Cape Town or BTUK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Looking at all those contracts - all over the world - perhaps vocational schools could teach umpteen languages as well as dance! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 At least the ballet positions are all in French 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomuchtallent Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Between my 3 kids they speak English, Turkish, French, Spanish, Russian and GermanThey could just about work anywhere in the world! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark T Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 My daughter's company in Germany has so many nationalities in it they use English as the common language! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 I know ds was mighty relieved that most of them in Estonia spoke English! I hate to admit that we're not great at languages in this household (although my youngest son had turned out to be really good at Spanish - we're not sure how ) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 To further clarify the position at Tring, of the 13 dancers who stayed on for 3rd year in 6th form, only a few were classical dancers, there were also jazz dancers and contemporary dancers. Tring Park does not have a structure to the 3 Year course like other Vocation Schools. Their Senior Dance course runs from Year 10 through to Year 14, i.e. 5 school years. In each class there may be 2 or 3 different year groups. As Primose posted previously, the students do not know which class they will be in until they arrive at school in September and there is much unhappiness for some dancers when they find they are being allocated to classes which do not give them enough hours in the discipline they wish to study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afab Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I find Tring's way of doing quite extraordinary, I have to say! That the school is better positioned to see who has stronger potential in what, I can understand but not telling the pupils before... thus not leaving them a choice is simply amazing! How many get over it and enjoy what they've been imposed would be interesting to know? That was one of the reasons why DD decided not to take the place she was offered there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancedizzy Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) Exactly my point Pas de Quatre Tring in my experience does not nurture or encourage classical dancers. As the director of dance said'my job is to get dancers contracts!'and so both my funded beautiful classical daughters left to take up places at vocational schools who promote classical ballet. Tring is a great musical theatre school! Edited April 3, 2012 by dancedizzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Having talked to my DS about recent posts on Tring he has named a few students who successfully moved to sets more suited to their preferences (ie jazz,ballet or contemporary.) He s also told me that recently students were given the opportunity to specify their preferred genres but the vast majority decided to stick to their more all round training. That said the ballet students successfully petitioned for an extra ballet class per day and got it...some days consisted of 2 ballet classes + classical pas de deux and either pointe work or virtuosity. I have found the standard of ballet teaching very high with plenty of opportunities to perform and do competitions.(In last years international Cecchetti competition Tring Park had more finalists than any other vocational school.) Of these, two have professional ballet contracts, so do two of the girls who didn't make the final. I will say though that before entering any school you must ask as many question as possible, if they are not answered to your satisfaction, don't go. If you are not interested in being a "triple threat" (ie competent at baller,jazz and contemporary) and are lucky enough to have a choice of schools then choose one of the ones that have a guaranteed classical bias such as Elmhurst. As Julie posted earlier their graduates have done very well! My DS has sometimes hankered after Elmhurst but says he doesn't regret his choice as he felt that he needed broaden his dance abilities for todays competitive job market. He also wanted to do A levels and learn to sing. Now he has a classical contract but feels confident enough to explore other avenues of performing work should the opportunity arise! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancedizzy Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 This may sound controversial but if you are a male dancer at Tring then your classical opportunities are more plentiful!(whether u want them or not). My eldest spent 4 yrs there and my youngest 3 yrs. In the past Tring produced successful classical dancers but it's philosophy has certainly changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petipacat Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Thanks for that info hfbrew,I am worrying that to send my dd there she may not get enough classical training I have to agree with you the tring dancers at the Cecchetti international comp did look strong so I do hope she can specify her preferred genre. I suppose it is her journey ,she has never done contemporary or jazz before so there is something new to learn also she can do her A levels and I know she will be boarding and get fed lol . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primrose Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I have to say, when my dd was at Tring, and that was up until July last year. No student was ever given the choice of what set they were put into, and no amount of trying to reason with the head of dance made any difference. Many of the students that I know were very upset at the decisions made for them. I heard second hand so dont know if its true or not, that those students who were in receipt of a dada or mds were not allowed to audition for other schools. As I mentioned earlier, many of the current parents or students find it very difficult to speak out as they are concerned of the reprecusions. I do know this for a fact as I was speaking to the parent of a child who does have a dada only yesterday and she was talking about the many concerns she has but was too afraid to speak out should it affect her childs dada being removed. On a positive note though, the school is a lovely place to learn, the teachers are caring and try to be supportive to the students. I think that the dance training is good but taught at different levels, dependent on the set your child is in. I would stress that parents and students need to visit the school, just because it wasnt right for my child doesnt mean it wont be right for them. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 If your daughter wants only classical training then Tring will not be right for her. However purely classical jobs are very hard to come by so its not a bad idea to broaden ones horizons. But she may hate jazz and contemporary- my DS certainly did at first. I will reiterate that two FEMALE dancers have already secured classical contracts and they were certainly given opportunities over and above my DS at times last year- not that I minded as at the time he wanted to focus on A levels. But I would readily admit that the top dancers in the school do get dis proportionally more attention at times so you do have to be aware of this. The quality of teaching is very good but students do have to speak up for themselves and communicate openly or they can get lost in the system. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I have to say, when my dd was at Tring, and that was up until July last year. No student was ever given the choice of what set they were put into, and no amount of trying to reason with the head of dance made any difference. Many of the students that I know were very upset at the decisions made for them. I heard second hand so dont know if its true or not, that those students who were in receipt of a dada or mds were not allowed to audition for other schools. As I mentioned earlier, many of the current parents or students find it very difficult to speak out as they are concerned of the reprecusions. I do know this for a fact as I was speaking to the parent of a child who does have a dada only yesterday and she was talking about the many concerns she has but was too afraid to speak out should it affect her childs dada being removed. On a positive note though, the school is a lovely place to learn, the teachers are caring and try to be supportive to the students. I think that the dance training is good but taught at different levels, dependent on the set your child is in. I would stress that parents and students need to visit the school, just because it wasnt right for my child doesnt mean it wont be right for them. I agree with all that Primrose has said here as in the past the system has seemed unfairly inflexible which is why so many students have quite rightly voiced their concerns- my DS being one of them. Hence extra ballet lessons (and that was a hard fought battle) and then an invitation to give feedback (believe me I did)- also the new initiative, long overdue to ask students their preferences. My Ds was quite perplexed that some didn't bother to reply and others ended up preferring the current situation. But this thread was about graduate destinations and many students are still getting jobs.... ok so not with "big" companies and maybe not always classical but in this day and age thats to be expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primrose Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 ooops you are right Hfbrew, my post along with a couple of others have gone slightly off topic, I wonder if they should be moved to going away to vocational school. I dont know how to move my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 We'll leave it as it is Primrose - but perhaps if anyone wants to develop the conversation further in other directions they could start another thread. We'll try to keep this one on graduate destinations otherwise other comments will get lost. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Very intersting thoughts here. :-) Hfbrew, sorry if I have missed this, but do you know which companies those two female graduates have ended up in? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 It seems to me that a small number of ENBS graduates go to ENB each year but never to the RB or BRB and, similarly, a small number of Elmhurst graduates go to BRB but never to the RB or ENB. Actually, the ENBS graduates who have gone to ENB in the last few years seem to be doing well at the company. Ksenia (graduated 2008) was the lead in Firebird at the Coli two weeks ago. Junor and Nancy (also 2008 graduates) Lauretta (2009) and Ken Sarasusi (2011) all had prominent roles in the recent Coli performances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Very intersting thoughts here. :-) Hfbrew, sorry if I have missed this, but do you know which companies those two female graduates have ended up in? Thanks. They are with BTUK and were actually encouraged by the school to join last year when successful at audition. They join another female graduate who has done at least two seasons with this tiny but ambitious company. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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