hfbrew

Have just noticed that the theatre in Tunbridge Wells have finally opened up their circle for booking Alice in Wonderland on Sunday May 12th so if anyone out there had previously been put off by the fact that only a handful of stalls seats were left, there are now a further 300 seats available and the circle is probably a much better place to watch it from! It really is a delightful ballet, ideal for the whole family. A couple of audience members at Croydon and again at Bury St Edmonds made a point of telling the company that they thought it better than the Royal's version, high praise indeed. I myself am taking family members to the Swan Theatre at Worcester tomorrow. Sadly becoming a groupie I fear!

Really like the discussion about music- I am very fortunate to have accomplished pianists for most of my classes! It is a true skill and part o my teacher training involved many hours of how to train a pianist, sadly I believe that this is a skill that's being lost as teachers rely more and more on recorded music.

Just to say that academics are not generally compromised at vocational schools, my son had a far superior education than he would have otherwise achieved and I know plenty of people, who having decided not to become dancers after all successfully get non dancing jobs or good university places. A couple of good friends of ours who were at Tring training as dancers are now at Cambridge for example. I can't imagine that Hammond would be any different, certainly even 20 years or so ago when I was there they prided themselves on the academics. Obviously. like at any school the quality of teachers can vary but these schools do recognise how vital a good academic education is.

This wonderful production is at Bury St Edmonds today and tomorrow. There are plenty of matinee seats should there be any young dancers off school due to polling day... It was good being part of such an appreciative audience in Camberley on Saturday who really enjoyed the humour and ingenuity of the piece.

Kesi was still officially a student whilst performing with Ballet Theatre UK as indeed were others who wanted to complete their dance diploma. Kesi left Ballet Theatre UK shortly before graduating from Tring and almost immediately got the ENB contract. Tring proved very accommodating to students in this respect. I agree with other posters though in that its best to audition everywhere and then, if you are lucky enough to have a choice, go with what feels best for you. My word of caution would be that if you only want to do classical ballet then perhaps a school that provides a more all round training may prove a disappointment. I fear we may be digressing from original topic though! Unfortunately I do not know a great deal about Hammond any more but I can vouch for the excellent classical ballet teachers at Tring

Thank you so much for posting the link spanner! I am still only getting the old 2012 form when I google the website- I was all prepared to have another moan tomorrow.... You are a star!

Feel free to pm me!

Congratulations!

Its not "my" summer school as such but yes I am one of the organisers and am in charge of administering the forms. We have had adults do both senior and jazz classes in the past, these would be the most appropriate. However you do have to be aware that some students are quite young as the classes are based on level not age - I have intermediate students who are only about 12/13 for example. But if you are prepared for this then you are very welcome . Forms are processed on a first come , first served basis with waiting lists for full classes.

I'm in Luton, the Harpenden Summer Dance School is in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. The hall is 5 mins walk from Harpenden Station (First capital connect line)

Last year there were still places quite close to the time because the Olympics kept many of our regulars away due to changing family holidays. So it will definitely worth asking closer to the time. However please be aware that senior ballet and repertoire do fill up quickly and we do cap the numbers. However if your dd is planning to do advanced then I'm very confident there will be space provided enough people book before the beginning of July to warrant keeping the hall booking for that class open. You might want to consider only doing one or two days rather than use up our only free week! Edited to add final sentence.

We do accept adults! As long as you are prepared to be the oldest there.... (bar me of course)

Well she sounds like she's definitely got potential so my advice is to try again at 18 and get as much dance experience as possible including holiday courses. But her heart has to be really in it so maybe for now persuade her to keep dancing for recreational purposes in the hope that her spark reignites if that makes sense. There are plenty of people (myself included) who got no's at 16 but yesses at 18- and for me personally it was much the best thing. Sorry I can't be more help with the choices re the Btec choices. Can she not continue to also dance with her current teacher?

The company is performing in Redditch tonight, Blake Theatre in Monmouth tomorrow and Camberley tomorrow. I am seriously thinking of going to Camberley. Anyone else out there going? Had a lovely moment today. The special needs school I teach at paid for some of their students to see Ballet Theatre UKs Alice in Wonderland when it came to Dunstable. Anyway one lad came up to me having been, alongside his family, all of whom had not been to the theatre never mind seen Ballet. And he said "my dad said that he'd rather watch that anytime than go to the cinema it was loads better!" And he said that they had now booked to see another production! It was a thrilling reminder of the valuable work touring dance companies can do.

Have sent both pm and email! Made yet another request for the website to be updated- sadly its something I have no control over otherwise it would have been done months ago. I do have hard copies of the 2013 forms which I am happy to either email or post if people wish to contact me. Apart from showing the 2012 form , the rest of the website is correct as the timetable remains the same each year.

Legseleven is totally correct, there is no way the young lady in question would have been offered a place on the dance course if she was in any way overweight- the head of dance is quite rightly very particular about who is accepted for training. I also think its worth enquiring about any possible avenues for funding.

I too found that ds would suddenly open up in the car, especially 5 mins from home with the result that a further hour would be spent on the driveway. Maybe its because its a more neutral environment or there are less distractions such as the TV.

I am livid that a teacher called a student fat, it is not acceptable. Excellent advice on here already. Is there an activity/outing/job you could do together? i.e. baking or a walk out somewhere. I used to do this with my ds and sometimes found this suddenly triggered a torrent of rambling thoughts that I would listen to and do my best to help with- sometimes saying "yes, I remember feeling like that" to emphasize. Sometimes the most trivial conversations developed into some very deep ones indeed and for us it often worked better than a straightforward "what's wrong."

Here is a link to the Encore Dance Company website http://www.encoredancecompany.com/contact-us. Sadly all the dates clash with my teaching commitments but I hope these young people get plenty of support, there is a lot of talent here. Certainly worth a visit if you are a student considering Tring as a training option.

If you are doing a solo then just keep dancing confidently as its so much easier to look like you know what you are doing if you are the only one on stage, as others have said the audience won't know if it was meant to be done differently. In many ways being in a corps de ballet is so much harder. Many, many years ago I completely improvised in a choreography competition for various reasons and was so relieved to get silver- had I won I would have had to repeat the dance and then got "found out"...

Yes, Dance Europe is the main place where ds looked mainly for jobs, also Network Dance. Young students should really take a look as it gives an idea of what companies look for these days. Yes but it fizzled out rather as a lot of the dancers, especially the classical ones had got work by the end of the year. And it really needed a visionary like Chris Moore to make it work. Ballet Theatre UK as mentioned on earlier threads is also running associate and apprentice schemes. The Tring students are very lucky indeed.

Might be better to start a new thread on this lest the information gets lost?

Lucky children!!

Oh that's sad. Another legend passed away.

Am going to Croydon matinee today to watch a different cast perform this wonderful Ballet- as with other companies I do like seeing dancers different interpretation of roles. Just wondered if anyone on this forum was going? Here is a link to a short clip of the cast that will be performing tomorrow at the Grove Theatre, Dunstable Will just add that all the dancers do all the performances but the lead roles are rotated amongst three casts which keeps the production vibrant and fresh!