Elmhurst figures & physical requirements

[Dancingdreams]

Does Elmhurst publish a breakdown of acceptance figures like RBS where you can see clearly how many students are accepted at each level?? I have tried to find this but no success.

 

Also are they known for their liking for certain 'physical' requirements (as are RBS) with certain body shapes/lengths or do they look for more 'technical' ability rather than a physical one.. or both!!

[Belleballerina]

I know of two RSB girls (current year 7 and year 9) who have been assessed out this year! They are both really beautiful dancers and auditioned at Emhurst finals! Neither have been offered a place at Elmhurst. Are Elmhurst looking for something completely different or are there just not beds for them?

[Anna C]

Well, you're asking the million dollar question, asking what exactly the schools look for! :-)

[Iknownothing!]

Apparently Elhurst were overwhelmed by the numbers applying this year and students who would have easily been accepted in other years have been turned down.

[Jellybeans]

Apparently Elhurst were overwhelmed by the numbers applying this year and students who would have easily been accepted in other years have been turned down.

 

I would be very interested to hear the source of this comment!

[Jellybeans]

I know of two RSB girls (current year 7 and year 9) who have been assessed out this year! They are both really beautiful dancers and auditioned at Emhurst finals! Neither have been offered a place at Elmhurst. Are Elmhurst looking for something completely different or are there just not beds for them?

 

I am happy to stand corrected but I am pretty sure that no current year 9 girls were asses out of WL this year. I believe that girls form year 7 and 8 were. Either way, it has to perhaps considered that they were assessed out for a reason that would make them unsuitable for classical training at any school.

[JulieW]

I was about to say the same as Jellybeans - that the reason they were assessed out of WL might also mean they're unsuitable for Elmhurst. I think the schools are looking for the same things, it's just that WL get to "catch" the students first. Mr Kelly has been working hard to raise the profile of Elmhurst and make it more of a "classical" school.

[Belleballerina]

Sorry my mistake - current year 7 and year 8 (going into year 8 and 9) is what I should have written? But surely if RBS have such a stong audition processes how can they have made such a mistake and then assess a year 7 out only 6/7 months later. This isn't personal but we know both girls and it seems so harsh and this is the reality in the dance world. Thankfully both girls are continuing with vocational ballet training with heads held high!

[Dancingdreams]

I am thinking more along the lines of the associate classes..(SAT one's)... accord to RBS stats they auditioned 272 and only took 27 out of these..anyone know if Elmhurst numbers are similar to this?

[Ribbons]

Does Elmhurst publish a breakdown of acceptance figures like RBS where you can see clearly how many students are accepted at each level?? I have tried to find this but no success.

 

Also are they known for their liking for certain 'physical' requirements (as are RBS) with certain body shapes/lengths or do they look for more 'technical' ability rather than a physical one.. or both!!

 

Hi Dancingdreams, Please could you tell me where to find the RBS acceptance figures? ... Sounds interesting!

[JulieW]

They publish them in their annual report - now available online I see (I used to get a hard copy every year). The audition facts and figures are near the back somewhere....

 

http://www.royal-bal...cations.php?s=1

 

I've never seen anything similar for Elmhurst - but you could request their figures under the Freedom of Information Act I suppose!

[Dancingdreams]

Thanks for your replies everyone.

[Dancingmom]

My dd auditioned at WL and Elmhurst she is on the reserve list for White lodge and Elmhurst said no !!! So surely they can't be looking for the same thing I asked my dd if she made any mistakes at her Elmhurst audition, she actually thought her Elmhurst audition went better than her WL audition, who knows what the schools are looking for xxx

[Fonty]

As a general thing, I have always found it very odd that ballet schools such as White Lodge and Elmshurst accept girls after auditions, and then get rid of them after one or two years.

 

Going back a few years, I know of two children who passed their 1st year, aged 11, with flying colours and reports of real promise, only to be told 6 months later that they were going to have to leave. Trying to give an explanation to a bewildered child was difficult for the parents, especially when the school didn't really give a proper answer beyond "don't think she'll make it." Physical problems would have been understood (although it is hard to think what problem could crop up in a single term), but that wasn't the case for either child.

 

Fortunately, both of them went on with private teachers, and auditioned successfully at 16. But it still begs the question, "Why?"

[Anjuli_Bai]

Maybe they wanted to open up the space for someone else who was an even better prospect - or - not on a scholarship - if a scholarship was involved.

 

I can see where a child would be bewildered. They are innocent enough to think that if they work hard and are praised for that work, - then all is well.

 

The world isn't that simple - or pleasant.

[Legseleven]

Presumably one of the issues is whether a child who has all of the required physical attributes when auditioning at 10 or 11, usually pre-puberty, will still have those attributes once puberty has arrived? Although the schools can (and I understand do) look at parents for an idea as to how the child will develop physically, there must be some heartbreaking cases where bodies change substantially after puberty and a professional ballet dancing career is no longer possible.

[balletla]

I haven't heard of schools looking at parents for an idea of how children may develop. This could give them a very misleading picture as often genes can skip a generation or the parents may not even be biologically related to the child in the case of adoption or donor eggs/sperm used in IVF. The only thing I have seen them ask for is parental height on the RBS form and goodness knows why they still do this as they don't seem to take it into account.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Ribbons

[Legseleven]

I also think that looking at parents (if this is still done - I seem to remember reading that it was done at RBS at one time) or asking for parents' heights on an application form is very hit and miss and as you say, in cases of adoption or the use of donor eggs/sperm, useless. Perhaps it was thought that looking at parents would give an idea of a child's genetic inheritance and their likely adult shape and assist in selecting the children most likely to retain balletic proportions as they grew and therefore those less likely to be at risk of being assessed out for that reason.

[Anna C]

I'd seriously hope that schools DON'T look at parents as an indication of how a child will develop - apart from the fact that I take after my paternal Aunt and Grandmother (so there would have been no point looking at my parents to see how I'd have developed), I'm overweight because of my back and neck injuries (exercising is somewhat difficult) and either in a wheelchair or on crutches. My spinal injuries aren't hereditary though and I'd hate any schools to look at me and think that could give them any indication of how my dd may turn out! :-(

 

 

[tomuchtallent]

It must be very difficult for the schools when looking at the year 7s.Because there are not many places available they must take alot into account.I would think that most 10 year olds are in proportion expecially those that have kept fit.I think it must be more on how your body is suited for ballet,turnout,feet,all the important things that make a ballet dancer.This has nothing to do with parents.When do they get to look at the parents?

Wouldnt it be funny if they asked for the same audition photos from the parents.

[Ribbons]

They publish them in their annual report - now available online I see (I used to get a hard copy every year). The audition facts and figures are near the back somewhere....

 

http://www.royal-bal...cations.php?s=1

 

I've never seen anything similar for Elmhurst - but you could request their figures under the Freedom of Information Act I suppose!

 

Many thanks JulieW :-)

[elfies mum]

In her talk prior to my DD audition at Tring, Rachel Rist told the children that their parents were 90% to 'blame' for their physical attributes and that the other 10% was down to the children's dance ability and audition!

[Legseleven]

I suppose that a child with the desired long legs and short torso at 10 or 11 may lose those proportions after a growth spurt - or conversely, their legs could lengthen at that stage? I don't know enough about likely patterns of physical development to be sure.

I freely confess that I may have imagined reading (a long time ago, in Camilla Jessel's book 'Life at the Royal Ballet School') that parents were looked at when children auditioned for Y7. I suppose this would be done at final audition stage? Not sure how, though - quite obviously or as surreptitiously as possible?! The mind boggles...and as you say, toomuchtalent, the idea of asking for photos of parents alongside those of children...?! ;-)

[KathyG]

If you looked at my DH and my DS you wouldn't even know they were related. DS long legs, long arms and proportioned torso and DH normal legs, arms and fat!!!! Hair colour doesn't match either. Neither schools DS has attended saw DH before or after aceptance (that's not spelt right)

[Anna C]

In her talk prior to my DD audition at Tring, Rachel Rist told the children that their parents were 90% to 'blame' for their physical attributes and that the other 10% was down to the children's dance ability and audition!

 

Yes, I've heard about that. Just glad I haven't been in the room when Miss Rist has said it!

[afab]

I was there and I think the way she said it was meant to make the kids laugh and ease a bit of the tension! And it worked! I also think she meant it in terms of physical potential, not in what you might become terms... I don't know if I'm being clear?!

[Jellybeans]

I was there and I think the way she said it was meant to make the kids laugh and ease a bit of the tension! And it worked! I also think she meant it in terms of physical potential, not in what you might become terms... I don't know if I'm being clear?!

 

I have also sat through this talk and I agree with afab!!

 

Whilst genetics obviously play a huge part in physique, I really don't think that the schools are naive enough to think that all children will look like their parents. In all seriousness, if they were that concerned about what the parents look like then they WOULD ask for photos or to see them!!!

Edited April 26, 2012 by Jellybeans

[taxi4ballet]

I hope my DD doesn't end up looking like me!!

[Anna C]

And me! :-)

[Tulip]

I remember Rachel Rist saying this at my daughters audition, unfortunatley there was a huge woman sitting with her son. I felt uncomfortable for both that woman and her son. This speach must be said at all the auditions but no one should EVER be made to feel uncomfortable about their size and shape. I still remember that poor woman squirming and blushing but trying to laugh it off. The son was long and lanky. As it turns out a lot of the parents at Tring are all different shapes and sizes and funnily enough so are the dance teachers, who happen to have been professional dancers in their younger days.

[taxi4ballet]

I think I know the lady you mean, she's a lovely person.

Edited April 26, 2012 by taxi4ballet

[balletla]

I have been in the room when RR said this and I don't think she meant it in terms of exact physical size of parents now. Most people do put on a bit of weight in middle age. I think she just meant that 90% of suitability for ballet is physical and this is determined by inherited genes and so you can't really do anything about it. I think she was trying to be kind to the ones that don't get selected by telling them that it's not their fault and it couldn't necessarily be fixed by trying harder.

[afab]

I agree with Ribbons...