Confuddled Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) I am a very confused mum to a 6 year old who is super keen on ballet. I know nothing about it - I have never done any sort of dance. She is desperate to do some ballet in the holidays, but all the googling I've done suggests that she needs to be a bit older to do summer schools, and it's all about auditions and being really good. Is there anything for her age group? It would need to be in London, and I'd want it to be fun and not competitive as she's very young. Does anything like this exist? I've found local drama groups that do a week of workshops ending with a little show during the holidays, which she loves, but I haven't found anything of the sort for ballet. Edited February 9, 2015 by Confuddled 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Hello Confuddled and welcome to the forum. :-) You are correct in thinking that summer schools are usually for older children; this in part will be due to young dancers needing a huge amount of stamina to cope with a holiday course where they may be dancing for 6 hours or more every day. The RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) do run some lovely childrens' workshops though, often from 6+ - in fact I've just seen an advert for a Swan Lake one they're running in Cambridge, and the youngest group is 6-7. It may be worth looking on their website to see if they are running anything similar in London at HQ this year. ENB perform a lovely series of ballets called "My first..." so it may be worth looking at their website, particularly at their "Ballet Buddies" scheme, to see if they run any workshops for younger children. Good luck! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confuddled Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) I'll have a look, thanks! We've been to one of the My First Ballet performances - dd was a bit cross that I wasn't the 'proper' Cinderella which she had watched (again and again) on TV, so since then we've just been getting the cheapest restricted view tickets for £8 at the ROH whenever they have a suitable ballet on. She liked the workshop before the My First performance, but it was geared to children who hadn't done any ballet so it was more that she liked being on stage than the dancing, as there wasn't very much of what she thought of as 'proper ballet'. Edited February 9, 2015 by Confuddled 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 http://www.ballet.org.uk/support-us/individuals/memberships/ballet-buddies/ Could be worth emailing the ballet buddies scheme contact to ask if they run any workshops from 6+ which are more suitable for children who have some ballet experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pastel Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Hi Confuddled - welcome! your dd sounds a lot like mine at that age . I just read out the bit you posted about her being cross that Cinderella wasn't the real thing and my dd said "sounds like me". We are new to the UK, so I can't help you with SS suggestions but I hope you find something suitable and your dd enjoys it. You have so many amazing opportunities for her to see performances . Enjoy the ride. (A mother who also knew nothing about ballet when my dd begged to dance as a tiny tot) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pups_mum Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Going off the topic sorry, but the Cinderella comments remind me of my DD when she was about 5 too. She had some schoolfriends round one weekend and they were debating what DVD to watch. Cinderella was chosen and DD put on the ballet. This was greeted with disdain by the other girls so she agreed to change it and put on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which wasn't what they wanted either! Its funny to look back and see the signs of the dance passion there so early. But back to Confuddled's question - there are children's summer classes for ages 4-7 running at the RAD this summer in the weeks beginning 27th July and 5th August that might be of interest. The details are on the RAD website. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moneypenny Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Also brings back memories for me ... I took dd to see her first ballet when she was 6, it was ENB's Swan Lake in the round at the Royal Albert Hall. We had a box and she sat completely glued to the edge of her seat peering over the edge of the box for the whole performance completely mesmerized by it! Sorry to go off topic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confuddled Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) I knew it was more than wanting to wear a pretty tutu when she sat through a whole ballet, entranced, aged not quite three. We had assumed we would need to take her home early... Anyway, the RAD summer courses look good - I need to sort out logistics and childcare, but if I can then I think we will go for it. I'll also email the ballet buddies email address and see if they have anything suitable. She's doing ISTD rather than RAD (just started Grade 1), but I assume it would be fine to do a RAD course and it wouldn't cause any problems? Edited February 10, 2015 by Confuddled 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 My now ballet loving dd was the opposite! At her first experience of Swan Lake (aged about 8) she declared, 'This is really boring - it would be better if there was some singing!' We still tease her about it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legseleven Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I don't think the syllabus followed will make any difference at all to her enjoyment of an RAD summer school, Confuddled (love the name!) as it won't be syllabus work. I hope she enjoys it if you can get her there and then in the next couple of years if she is still keen you could consider the Louise Browne Yorkshire Scholarship Centre's summer school, the one in Sussex and maybe courses at Tring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesinthefirelight Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 At that age most children I know attend summer schools run by a local dance school which are mixture of classeork, choreography & sometimes creative dance/arts & crafts. Being local the hours are a bit shorter & often less intense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confuddled Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Legseleven -Yorkshire is a long way from us! But I'll have a look at the others you suggested, thanks for the info. I'm always reluctant to ask her ballet teacher, as she's so very busy and always looks completely stressed out, so it's really useful to have a big of extra information. Pictures - that would be ideal, do you know where they would advertise? I've checked mumsnet local and various local websites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesinthefirelight Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Often it's just on their own notice boards or some have facebook groups. Have you tried netmums too (mumsnet local has never really taken off) Do any of her school friends go to other dance schools who you can ask? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strawberyy Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Not sure if it is too far away but Sussex Summer School takes day pupils from 5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2dancersmum Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 All the ballet schools in my area seem to run their own little summer schools for their younger pupils. Ours in fact is up to age 12 only. It might be worth a quick chat with your DDs teacher or an email or written note if she is always pressed for time. Our school puts up a notice in March about summer school but another local school only hands out letters about their summer school a few weeks before. If your DD was too young last summer it may well be that you never received information about summer classes at your own dance school or the teacher might suggest somewhere suitable for your DD. Sorry if that sounds patronising - it is based on the fact that when my DD moved dance schools at Easter, the first we knew about the schools summer school was when we had the letter 2 weeks before. This school had a huge notice board which was updated constantly but never anything on it to suggest they did a summer school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confuddled Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 I found a local ballet school that I didn't even know existed already has details for its summer school on its website. It's only about ten minutes walk away and it's a whole week of ballet, jazz, musical theatre etc which she will absolutely love! It's odd. I knew about three local ballet schools, but once I started googling I found several more that I'd never heard of. Thanks so much for all your helpful suggestions. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now