Ballet Grade 1 help

[Oddie]

DD has an exam next week, Grade 1 . We were practising with a CD her teacher gave us with the music. It seems that DD has no clue what to do without verbal prompting from her teacher.

Are there any online resources I can use ?

All help appreciated. Thanks !

[dodobookends]

Which examining body is it?

[DancingDinosaur]

Don't they get prompted in the exam on what is required next anyway? Why don't you google the exam, theres some on youtube.

[Balletgirlmum]

Is it RAD or ISTD?

You are supposed to buy the official DVDs with RAD (three might also be a download). Sometimes you can find random dance school/students demonstrating the excercises & dances on YouTube but standards vary.

[Oddie]

It's the British Ballet Organisation

[Balletgirlmum]

A friend of mine is a BBO teacher. Not sure is she's around though.

[Balletgirlmum]

This any help. Looks like syllabus resources are only available to registered teachers.

uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?ei=UTF-8&p=Bbo+Grade+1+Ballet+-+Exercise+Arabesque

[dodobookends]

Will she be doing the exam in a group with several others, or on her own?

I suspect she is very used to dancing in a group, and youngsters tend to take their cues not only from the music, but also from their surroundings, and being aware of everyone else out of the corner of their eye. This might be why she is having a job remembering when she is at home.

Please try and reassure her that she will be fine, and maybe you could have a quiet word with the teacher and ask their advice.

[Oddie]

Thanks for the responses.

Dancingdinosaur - I got the impression from the teacher that they wouldn't be prompted. But maybe the examiners prompt them a little at this stage.

Balletgirlmum - Thanks for the link - I'll take a look. I had a look on Youtube and didn't find anything useful - as you say standards very

Dodobookends - Yes she'll be in a small group which will help I'm sure.

Thanks again

[Oddie]

That should be standards vary

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

my daughters do ISTD but I think the only prompting in any of the exams would be in terms of the name of the next exercise/dance.

When you say she needs prompting do you mean she just doesn't automatically know which order they go in or do you mean when she is actually doing the exercise/dance she doesn't know what is coming next in it?

I would call the teacher on Monday and ask if she can fit in an extra lesson to boost your daughter's confidence if nothing else.

[Oddie]

Balletgirlmum- thanks some of those Youtube clips were useful.
She practised to them this evening - it was very helpful.

nonicknames - mostly she doesn't know whether to go with left or right leg next . She has an extra class tomorrow. Hopefully that will help.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

oh a left/right confusion, from what I hear people say that is pretty common.

hopefully the extra class today will have helped, otherwise all she can do is practice, do her best and mark it down to experience.

It is a bit cruel of the teacher to put her in for an exam in my opinion if she is unsure of the work, it isn't her fault, perhaps she just could have done with another term.

Our school are very slow to do exams which can be a real pain but they generally wait until the children are really ready to do the exam, completely secure on everything before they even request an exam date which means that by the time the exam comes round they really do know it and therefore go in confident. What you don't want to happen is for her confidence to be affected if she goes wrong so reassure her as much as possible that the mark isn't important and she just has to do her best. I am sure she will be fine once she is on autopilot in the actual exam, sometimes they just overthink things in practice.

[Balletgirlmum]

Good luck to her.

Grade 1 seems such along time ago. Dd had her last intermediate lesson on Friday - she takes her exam in a weeks time but is on a school trip next week

£77 the exam cost!

[dodobookends]

She's probably only unsure of left/right because she has been practising at home, and doesn't have the usual cues and other dancers around her. The examiner will be well used to young ones starting on the wrong foot by mistake or through nerves, and it won't have much bearing on the mark at this level, so please reassure her that all will be well.