Neverdancedjustamum

I thought the same although I did notice a very slight increase in YAGP candidates from the U.K. recently. PdL I only recall 2 British candidates in the last couple of years or so. Oddly enough even those from vocational schools seem to enter as ‘independent’. Going back to the Upper School question, I was just thinking of a particular school where the most recent entry do not appear to have any students from the U.K. apart from less than a handful from its own lower school. I also noticed more competition winners in two other upper schools although these schools also offered places to a good number of U.K. students, even those who weren’t from vocational lower schools.

Shame as schools seem to recruit heavily from these two competitions, either to their full time programmes or to their summer intensives (eventually offering full time places off these too).

I recently saw a European one and was stunned at how confident and solid dancers as young as 12 were on pointe (the ones I saw were from the US). The masterclasses were also an eye opener, so many technically advanced dancers from overseas who have brilliant performance quality. It will be very interesting to see if any candidates from the U.K. will win prizes in the YAGP finals or qualify for next year’s Prix de Lausanne.

At 16 and if you’re looking at the very classical, reputationally ‘well known big’ schools, I would say the main competition would mainly be from those trained overseas. Based purely on what I’ve observed in the last few years, those who manage to get an upper school place in these schools (who do not come from full time vocational schools) are those who have received similar training and perhaps even more hours than those who are from full time schools, and I think the latter are starting to realise this. These non-vocational young dancers who get places in excellent classical ballet upper schools here and overseas are often exquisitely trained by great and often multiple teachers/schools. It’s extremely hard to get these hours if you go to a mainstream schools, so being homeschooled is a serious option. A lot of these teaches who specialise in training for upper school have long waitlists and have availability only within the week, during school time. The higher up the years they go, the competition becomes much, much tougher. This depends of course, on the schools you are considering.

We are quite cheap in our house so we we were very surprised when the barre we bought from Amazon worked really well, and looks quite nice. It was less than £60 and I think it’s called Klarfit. We’ve had it for about a year and it still looks brand new, easy to assemble and disassemble and fits into a small dance space. Having said that I’m sure lots will recommend brands like Harlequin which is more well known but we didn’t invest in their barres or flooring (I personally found them too expensive when my DD prefers in person classes to online). We just got a generic black lino-type flooring (approx 2 x 2.5m) during the pandemic for about £20 and 3 years on it still works a treat on wood floor or thin carpet and my DD has done pointe work on it and the said barre with no problems.

Unfortunately not as the dates never tie in with my DD’s school holidays and she doesn’t like missing even a day of school. I do know a fair few who have attended and the feedback were the same as @StillSewingShoes. In general they found it quite tiring because of the fast pace and intensity and the Balanchine style which is quite different from SIs here. Teaching I heard is amazing too.

Main difference in terms of the actual programme is that it is 5 weeks - I don’t think any U.K. SI is that long. The dates, especially the start date, usually doesn’t fit with the English summer break. I believe it also acts almost like an audition for the year-round programme. So rather than an audition that is 2-days long or having 2-3 stages (prelims/finals/etc), the students can be observed for a much longer time for suitability for the year-round programme and at the same time the students get a feel of whether school and living in the city is for them.

I find over the last few years there’s been very few from the U.K. There are the (very) few who are British nationals but training overseas or internationals training in the U.K. (even less). I believe last year there were two British candidates, both privately trained for at least the last few years, neither were full time vocational students here at the time they qualified for the PdL. One is now a student at a very prestigious ballet school in Europe (not known for having British students) and one is now with a company.

Did everyone else get the email informing us of the cancellation of associates classes this weekend and next?

Ohhh! I love that tip about tucking the end under bobble. I never thought of that before. Will tell my DD. She gets really worked up when she can’t get hers perfect and as flat as possible - always a massive task when she’s got super long hair. Her bun sometimes looks like a small plate!

If it makes you feel better, my DD is 12 (almost 13) and still can’t do her own bun in the neat way she wants her buns to look like. I won’t be of any help but would be curious to see the replies to this too.

Burgundy, light navy, royal blue and Olive now sold. Still available are: Lilac Ice blue Light blue Pink Coffee

Now all sold

Dark blue and lilac now sold. Just cream left now.

I have a few of this gorgeous style Grishko leotard from their Classic Excellence collection. Stunning camisole style with mesh. Was a favourite style so I bought a few of these in different colours but DD went through a growth spurt so most did not get worn and those that did were only worn once max. £30 each including first class tracked postage. These are usually £35-45 brand new. All come from a pet and smoke-free home. The colours I have are: Burgundy Lilac Ice blue Light blue Light navy Royal blue Pink Coffee Olive green

Black and Ice Blue now sold.

I have five of these Grishko leotards for sale, all in excellent condition. These are very flattering on and the fabric is very soft and comfortable, with adjustable straps. All come from a smoke and pet-free home. I can never seem to add photos here - I think my phone’s camera set up means the files are too large but this is the style with a nude mesh v-neck on the chest. Happy to send photos via email if you message me direct. £25 each including first class tracked postage. Colours are: - cream -black -dark blue -lilac - ice blue

I think 4dance.co.uk stock Russian Pointes. They’re based in Surrey. I don’t think you can easily get Energetiks here, if at all. Never tried their pointe shoes on DD but I used to order leotards from them direct from Australia.

My DD forgets to wear the bow more often than she remembers, so I think she’ll just won’t wear it.

That’s true but also I just realised that in a lot of these cases you must have serious time and finances to back up such intensive training. Whilst I really admire the successes of some of these young dancers, it also became evident that some of them have been coached by an astounding number of teachers both here and overseas. I don’t think such time and expense can easily be afforded by most families.

Yes, thank you 😊 Also received uniform leotards today so I’m one happy mama today.

I emailed them yesterday and apparently they’re shipping out quite a lot of MA uniform today and tomorrow so fingers crossed 🤞🏽

Hi, I’ve heard of the following although have no personal experience of it myself: https://www.zhembrovskyy.com/ It looks like they offer private sessions and I’ve seen Dutch NBA students take class there.

Yes, they’re separate and from what I gather were only introduced from this September. They’re online and paid for separately from the usual associates fees.

Ahhh! That’s so good! Mine still says “unfulfilled” in my Dansez account I’ve given up on receiving my order before we go on holiday so I’m just now hoping it won’t go missing when it gets delivered while we are away. Not having much joy with anything MA-related recently. I even ordered the new leotard the day the link was sent out but still no luck.