Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

How much ballet/dance training?

32 replies

Oakmaiden · 11/04/2015 13:26

Starting a new thread, had one on a similar theme 6 months ago... But things have moved on since then, happily! Old thread.

I will start from near the beginning, though!

Following concerns about my daughter's slow progress in ballet, and desire to study ballet seriously, we spoke to her dance teacher. Now, to be honest, the result has been a bit mixed. Her teacher is absolutely supportive of dd's desire to go to dance school, although thinks that the time is not quite right for her as she needs to work more on her strength and flexibility, as well as improving technique. With her support we are considering looking at Yr 9 entry. However, at the current time all she is able to offer in the way of extra lessons is one private lesson a week, focussing on aforementioned strength and flexibility. I am a bit disappointed in this ,as it was intimated that dd might be able to join the grade above and below for classes, but apparently this is not possible.

That said, with the knowledge of both teachers, dd has started ballet with a teacher who comes into her prep school to teach - so she is now doing 2 G3 RAD lessons a week with her new teacher. So her current ballet is 3 lessons a week and one private strength lesson. She should be taking G2 ISTD in June, as well as G3 RAD and presumably will have an extra ballet lesson with her main teacher in the run up to that.

Alongside this she is taking G3 tap and modern next week, so has been doing 2 lessons a week in each of these, as well as having group rehearsals for tap and song and dance for the All England Regional finals.

Now I've typed it out, it all sounds OK, doesn't it? I think I am getting a bit twitch because until a couple of weeks ago she was having an additional 4 solo lessons every week (ballet, modern, tap and lyrical) but they have now stopped and won't recommence until August probably. And she has been making huge progress generally, but I am worried with the sudden drop in hours she is going to stall a little.

So, wise people who advised me in November, what do you think? This this sound better/sufficient for her to prepare for vocational school? How much dancing do children in the first year of vocational school do? Does anyone know?

OP posts:
JemimaPuddled · 11/04/2015 23:06

I'm wondering how old she is? To be doing grade 2-3 ISTD id assume 9 or 10?

Original poster
Oakmaiden · 11/04/2015 22:44

OK, useful thoughts, thanks.

Her teacher feels she has the potential, physique and trainability that schools are looking for. Actually her teacher said she thought she would have a fair chance at Elmhurst, but not White Lodge. However, until very recently she was only doing 45 mins of ballet a week, sometimes not even that due to a series of quite complicated circumstances.

The flexibility is an issue. It is odd, because about 5 years ago she was reasonably flexible, but was having weird problems with pelvis/hip pain. She went to see a paediatric Physio who said she had an enormous flexible range - much larger than she normally saw (I think she said hyper flexible) but suggested that dd was careful not to do any hip stretching type things (including sitting with crossed legs) until they worked out the cause of her pain. So the pain eventually passed, they never worked out what was causing it, and dd had become a lot less flexible. Until recently she hadn't made any effort to regain her flexibility, but with work it should be possible.

As far as using the private lessons for conditioning goes - well, yes. I had been thinking this recently. DD does practice the exercises she does in her private lesson every day (well, nearly every day!), but I am thinking of talking to her teacher about putting more technique in the classes to supplement the conditioning. It does work out better than the class limbering though, because this is tailored very specifically to her needs.

However, we shall have to see as far as vocational school goes. She was certainly not ready to audition for entry for this September, and so has missed the main intake. There is no way around that. If she still wants to she can apply for entry in year 9, but she knows that there is no such thing as a certainty. If she doesn't get in then, and still wants to, she can try again for Sixth Form. But having made the decision we weren't going to push her for this year, I do want to give her the chance to make the best progress she can. Hence wondering how much dance children who DO go the places like Elmhurst do in the early years there.

OP posts:
alinacj · 11/04/2015 19:28

Is it not a bit of a waste of money to use a private for conditioning? surely she could (and should be) doing this at home

I'd second this. Though one of our ballet schools has separate limbering classes.

dancestomyowntune · 11/04/2015 15:02

Personally, if she isn't looking to go away at the present time I would think that the best option would be to look again at 16, when there are many more places and a wider range of colleges to look at, as well as the funding being more widely available.

My dd dances to a high level and with children who have been accepted to Elmhurst/Tring/Hammond and one girl who is currently in year 8 at the RBS. My dd didn't audition at eleven because she couldn't contemplate being away from home, she simply wasn't ready for the boarding. She is very clear that she will try for a vocational place at 16. Her friends who have gone away at eleven have all been at a high standard before going. We are talking grade5/6 RAD and all have already been doing pointe work and ready for if not already taken, the Interfoundation exam. And even then they haven't necessarily been accepted at the school they are most keen to go to.

alinacj · 11/04/2015 14:59

It is possible to catch up, and people have done this, but I wouldn't know unless I saw your dd's dancing whether that was enough for her. Vocational schools are very competitive. What is it makes you think she has what it takes? Hope that doesn't come across as rude. Does she have amazing feet, beautiful classical style etc etc that makes you/she think she might have potential.

Flexibility is more difficult again at this age, but also not impossible to achieve by any means. Only this would have been easier/better sorted out years ago.

taxi4ballet · 11/04/2015 14:45

Laughingcow13 - that might have been the case a few years ago, and for boys they will look at potential as much as at current level of training, but...

For girls, who far outnumber boys in auditions, there will be hundreds and hundreds who have both potential and a higher level of current training, and the competition is incredibly stiff.

Oakmaiden, which schools will your dd be thinking about auditioning for? Depending on whether they are mainly ballet (RBS, Elmhurst) or with a wider range (eg Tring, Hammond) then that might influence whether she increases ballet or reduces tap or festival work to make room in her schedule.

Something else to bear in mind is that the main intake for the vocational schools is at 11, so there may only be the odd handful of places available in the year groups above that.

laughingcow13 · 11/04/2015 14:25

A good few years back but a friends son was accepted into the Royal Ballet school and only did one class a week.She said they were looking for potential not how much ballet they could actrually do already.Whe he started training there , it was built up very gradually.
As I say though this was quite a long time ago so might not be currently appropriate advice.
Is it not a bit of a waste of money to use a private for conditioning? surely she could (and should be) doing this at home