Ondine

Yes I watched it too, with a cuppa, and a lovely unexpected treat wasn't it? For those who need to search YouTube (I won't link) From BalletReels Principals of the Royal Ballet | 2023

There's a wee film too, to enjoy and help make choices!

I'm fond of a bit of the old Handel meself. Also Glyndebourne has fab productions.

Oh that's sad. I admit I'm quite picky and some ROH productions in recent times have been frankly ghastly but I like a nice tune, a pretty frock and a good cry is always a bonus... 😌

I gather it's a franchise, with money making merch too. Pink. Gah. It says its teachers are 'qualified' though that can mean anything. https://babyballet.co.uk/ https://babyballet.co.uk/find-a-class/our-teachers/

Oh that's a pity.

Yes. Totally. And of course La Boheme (though I did love the old production the 'new' one is OK)

🙂 Oh go on, who can resist this? (Or indeed anything from Mozart)

Possibly not next season (though it comes round regularly) but best for frocks is La Traviata. Also a many tissues opera. Never fails. 🥹 Great tunes! (Yes it's the same story as Marguerite and Armand.)

There's @Susan Lucas In Birmingham? KS Dance in Cheshire?

On what evidence are you saying this? I don't see that anyone posting their children's experiences here is saying this was the case? I wish your children well, but any career 'in the performing arts' really isn't that straightforward to achieve. What alternatives do you envisage?

Alas, no mention here! http://www.frederickashton.org.uk/tweedledum.html It is very, very funny, as Ashton could be. https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/production.aspx?production=4859&row=0 It is on YouTube for anyone who hasn't seen it, Tweedledum and Tweedledee channel of quillerpen and I'd love to see it revived! Premiered at Wayne Sleep's 'A Good Night's Sleep' Gala in 1977, this short ballet by Sir Frederick Ashton features Wayne Sleep and Graham Fletcher as the twins and Lesley Collier as Alice.

Rather a sweeping assertion, many many state schools have dedicated staff, are supportive, and give students opportunities. Otherwise, no-one would leave school and go on to achieve anything in life.

Though some of those commenting have real experience of 'the system' and it's not simply theory or hearsay or based on Panorama.

I'm having to LIKE posts as I am nodding vigorously along at what I read, but it seems such an inadequate response. I think the word 'grief' sums up so much of this. Anyone who has suffered loss of anything they hold dear knows how simply disabling it can be. Picking up a new life when there is no possibility of carrying on with what you have planned for, dreamed for since childhood and it is suddenly snatched away from you, despite you having worked so hard, despite you still being very able, the almost the best of the best but judged not QUITE good enough, I think requires more than simply adaptability. And yes I recall many years ago talking to someone who made a very successful career teaching ballet after training at the RBS. She wasn't taken into the company. She so desperately wanted to dance. She completed the course. As it was ending, Dame Ninette spotted her in class one day while on a visit and took an interest, asking who she was etc etc. All too late, the chosen ones had been told they would join the company, the rest... left to it really. She had tears in her eyes even then and I think the scars are very real and lasting for many. That's without all the other problems of bullying, shaming and being ignored. Then there are the problems of actually explaining to others that you've 'failed'. It's such an awful word, but how else to explain it? So going along to an access course, mixing with others, trying to make new friends, have a 'normal' life, while all the while feeling you've 'failed' is a mountain to climb.

There are times when you have to have some sympathy with Balanchine's POV: 🙂 There are no mothers-in-law in ballet. Balanchine’s Law, as he called it, reiterated that ballet doesn’t tell a story. Story is told solely through dance terms. “Don’t worry about your soul,” he once said, “I want to see your foot.”

A paper. Selected papers from ‘An International Celebration of Enrico Cecchetti’ – A Society for Dance Research online publication - 2007 20 Working with the Cecchetti Method: Technique and style in contemporary ballet training Toby Bennet https://tdcchanellconde.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/cecchetti-conference-2005.pdf Well worth reading. Conclusions It would seem, therefore, that the principles underlying the Cecchetti Method are different in certain ways from those in much contemporary practice. The way the body is integrated through his use of the torso and the textural richness accessed through his approach to gravity are two areas I highlight, and suggest to be of real value in contemporary training. In addition the historical style that is embedded in Cecchetti’s movement, far from being simply a historical curiosity, can be explored to great effect in a rich, style aware training with the aim of producing more artistically empowered dancers. We must, though, be careful in how we perpetuate Cecchetti’s teaching for it would be easy to lose sight of what makes it special in the face of inevitable incremental change. This is no easy task but the richness of Cecchetti’s legacy makes this a worthwhile pursuit.

Yes. Even in the main theatre it's not exactly the ROH!

Yes but it's a long haul isn't it, for possibly traumatised 18 / 19 year olds whose life so far has been mostly spent on the practical skills associated with a dance career, for performing, being trained for that, and that's assuming they have parents able to carry on paying for them / supporting them to study post 18 / 19. Access courses then A levels then... whatever. I wonder how many currently being groomed for the elite schools audition process have any idea of the dropout rate, how few actually make it, and the years after before they can begin to make a life outside of ballet. As I said above, it's a real gamble.

Assuming you've achieved a decent clutch of GCSEs while in full time ballet training anyhow, then you've managed to do at least some academic work in what in a normal school would be the sixth form, then you have to begin again outside the vocational school at the age when your peers are off to uni, funded probably by the bank of mum and dad? But where? You can't simply sign on at the local sixth form college as you're too old. These are young people with many abilities and talents and skills, but they can only achieve within the system they are in, and if that system is mainly devoted to producing dancers it's not going to be providing an all round education is it? When you consider all the students who actually don't end up wirh a ballet career, I wonder what they all do? I wonder if there have been any studies?

Also her death, she was assassinated! Stabbed through the heart by an anarchist! Wiki (I know I know, but it's not all bad) details much of this, including her addiction to corsetry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria

You also have to hope you have parents with the financial ability to fund you to catch up!

The academic qualifications issue is a difficult one. I assume White Lodge 'assesses out' at the end of year nine in order that those students it doesn't see as benefitting from the ballet training there for whatever reason can move elsewhere for the two years leading up to GCSEs, that could be another vocational school or it could be mainstream education. Of course there are the obvious problems with this, including the effects of the shock to the young person being told to leave. Loss of hopes and dreams, loss of self esteem, loss of friendships, trying to find a place and settle in a new school, maybe a local day school which will be strange after boarding, none of those things will be easy to deal with. When ballet has been a huge part of your life for years, the sense of grief must be enormous. However, it's also obvious in those circumstances they can't remain, especially if state funding is involved. No simple answers. At the end of the White Lodge years, it's clear I think to all that moving to Upper School isn't these days a given and that's a whole new process of applying for other places at other vocational schools, or leaving dance training altogether to do A levels in mainstream / non vocational education. Upper School I presume it's made clear at that point that a third, graduate year isn't guaranteed. However, that leaves those students asked to leave in academic limbo. https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/discover/academic-boarding/life-at-upper-school/degree-course-classical-ballet-and-dance-performance/ Students who successfully complete the required number of credits in Years 1 and 2 but who do not progress to Year 3 will be awarded a foundation degree certificate and will be able to apply to Higher Education institutions to ‘top-up’ to a full degree. Students who successfully complete all three years of study will be awarded a BA Degree. It sounds simple, in reality I suspect it isn't! It's all such a gamble.

Not the largest of venues! Capacity 126 seats? The small but perfectly formed Theatre Royal itself only has 900 seats. One of my favourites.

There was dust still yes. It wasn't really QUITE ready to open. One of the friends I was with was Chief Techie (he had a posh title, but that describes it) at a major London theatre and he was horrified at the wires dangling above our heads! I've probably still got the programme somewhere. It was very near my birthday so I was delighted they were performing Birthday Offering! https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/a492d8e6-7501-3a7b-ab10-6d8b62b2727e?component=85df17e6-6fd5-3a06-a630-ee5af8e586b9