Ondine

I've posted on the 'other' Panorama Doing Dance thread and I'll add this here too. I've bumped the 2021 White Lodge thread back up the forum in order that members can read or re-read it. Despite all, the LADO and Met Police investigation concluded that not enough evidence etc etc. The Panorama programme this week, the columns in the press, the lawyer involvement, may or may not cast more light on the alleged abuse, or it could be that there is heat for a short while and again it all fizzles out. The allegations of course are now wider than White Lodge. We will have to wait and see.

I've 'bumped' the 2021 thread about White Lodge and the LADO and Met Police investigation (which came to the conclusion that basically, nothing was wrong) back up the forum, in order to further draw it and the posts to the attention of forum members, who no doubt have their own views on the matter. I'd suggest discussion on the issues remain on this thread to avoid confusion.

I'm bumping this thread back up the forum, in the hope it can be read again. It appears, following on from the Panorama programme BBC Sept 2023, which is currently under active dicsussion on 'Doing Dance', many issues are not actually resolved despite the review involving the LADOS and the Met Police. Now of course there's a lawyer involved, which may or may not in the end cast any further light on the alleged 'Dark Side of Ballet'.

Another perspective. @LukeJennings in a long and thoughful piece in the LRB, 2021. A few quotes. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n18/luke-jennings/learned-behaviour "But they crushed us. We were eleven years old and there was no kindness. They drew attention to us only to belittle us. I lost all confidence, and by the first term of Year Eleven, I knew I didn’t want to go on." "Emma, an experienced ballet teacher, works at a dance school unconnected to the Royal Ballet, but which regularly takes ex-White Lodge students. ‘We get the ones who’ve been assessed out, and when they come to us they’re trembling messes. The last three we took were all receiving psychiatric care. No art is worth that cost in children’s suffering.’ " "Scarlett didn’t have an easy time at first. The technical standard of the company is sky-high and he found himself at full stretch. One corps de ballet colleague remembers him ‘really struggling, really suffering’ in Frederick Ashton’s Les Rendezvous and told me he was picked on in rehearsals by a senior member of the company, a man with an established reputation for bullying younger dancers. Still worse, according to the corps de ballet member, Scarlett was ‘passed around like Manon’. ‘Everyone knew about it. Everything Liam was later accused of was done to him. It was learned behaviour.' " "All of the many people interviewed for this piece asked to remain anonymous. In the dance world, they say, the Royal Ballet has a long reach." There's a final paragraph which ends: "It isn’t enough for the Royal Ballet merely to go through the motions of change in the hope that everything can stay the same." All that glisters is not gold is it?

And of course this, which @LukeJennings links to in that thread. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n18/luke-jennings/learned-behaviour

A previous thread from @LukeJennings which I'll add here as it touches on similar / related issues. It's worth reading. I'm unsure what happened after this.

The lawyer is still posting on Twitter. If anyone wishes to add a school no doubt he'd listen, but again I suggest ask about fees before committing to any action. However, this issue is possibly the remit of the Dept for Education not the DCMS?

I believe the RBS is now inspected by ISC and has been since 2014. I have to say my view of the CC isn't altogether positive when making a complaint but who knows in this case and possibly worth trying if anyone has the time & inclination to make a case.

Ofsted inspects about half of all independent schools in England, which we refer to as 'non-association' independent schools. The rest of the schools belong to independent school associations and are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which has been approved by the DfE. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1179066/Inspecting_non-association_independent_schools_parent_leaflet.pdf

If there are legal cases going forward it would be very foolish to pre judge and possiblty prejudice those. A reminder, from 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58982951

I don't think OFSTED or King Charles should at this time actually be commenting TBH. I'm not sure that the DCMS operates in such a manner as to knee jerk react with public statements to a BBC programme without further investigation / consideration. This is the lawyer handling some cases against the schools. I don't think a Twitter campaign such as this is the way ahead, but lawyers are always keen to drum up business I suppose.

I can't at all understand how anyone can teach at these 'elite' schools and not feel joy in their hearts being in daily contact with such bright, talented, motivated young people, enjoy getting to know them each year and feeling a sense of responsibility to draw out their varied and various talents and make progress. I can't comprehend anyone not wanting to do their best for all of them. We know some won't become company members, but not to have a plan B to suggest for those who won't is deeply concerning.

Re that one... I found this interesting. I appreciate that the new AD was appointed as the previous one sadly died. However, it also sounds like there was a grand clearout and I wonder why? It's possible a number of people decided it was time to retire, all at the same time of course... As PR I'm not sure it's as positive as they'd like to think. In 2014-15, The Royal Ballet School: Restructured all operations, taking a whole-school approach to revamp all departments and offerings. Appointed a new artistic director, academic principal, assistant principal, and pastoral team. This well-trained team provides a high level of age-appropriate pastoral support to all students.

This one is from the US, a Congresswoman no less. Lauren Boebert escorted out of “Beetlejuice” musical in Denver after “causing a disturbance” https://www.denverpost.com/2023/09/12/lauren-boebert-removed-beetlejuice-musical-denver/

Interesting analogies, thank you, yes I think there is this moral dimension and are we ignoring that in order that we carry on supporting something we enjoy but which is clearly damaging to so many young people? With regard to the specific issues raised by the BBC, should we all be speaking out more loudly and with greater clarity to say what has been revealed is unacceptable? Luke Jennings @LukeJennings did indeed raise related issues a decade or so ago in the Guardian, I linked to his pieces a while ago in another thread. So many drop by the wayside and while no doubt they take up another career eventually, I wonder how diminished some feel, how much they feel they 'failed' and never quite come to terms with what might have been? The 'last of the castrati' recording is indeed on YouTube, a surreal and certainly other worldy sound. For anyone interested, this old piece from the Guardian raises the issues... and the horrors. Revelations that the Vatican encouraged the castration of choir boys in the name of art for hundreds of years have prompted calls for a papal apology. Human rights groups, historians and Italian commentators said the Pope, a singer himself, should ask forgiveness for his predecessors' role in the mutilation of castrati singers. New research suggests that the employment of castrati was tolerated by the Vatican as late as 1959, long after other states had banned it as barbaric. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/14/humanities.highereducation My own view on foie gras is that it is not something I eat and I do not condone how it is produced. I can't separate the cruelty of the production from the product. I'm now questioning my own decades long love of and involvement in the 'world' of ballet when reading of the horrific abuse to which some young people say they have been exposed. Boarding schools. So very British yes. So damaging to many, especially those sent off at seven as used to be common, while others say it was 'the making of them' and loved their time at school. It would be useful to hear from those who were at White Lodge and either loved it or loathed it. Should places like this carry on? Is there a different, better way? Are we kidding ourselves that ballet as an art form can be non damaging to bodies and to minds? We train children from an age where many are not able to really make decisions themselves. These are not easy things to consider but perhaps consider them we should.

He did say the list may be added to...

His tweets are here, for information. The schools he has listed are Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst, Hammond, Young Dancers Academy, English National Ballet, Ballet Theatre UK Though of course this is no way an 'official' investigation, this is a legal firm. Legal firms make money from litigation. So anyone wishing to contact him, do please ask about fees.

Possibly, but surely anyone wishing to attend a dance school would at least check out what expertise and qualifications those teaching have? I'm sure there are insurance issues at play. Also, to enter students for exams & competitions, membership of one of the dance orgs is required, and that's more than simply paying a fee. To put 'letters' after your name involves passing the exams. Reputable organisations will be only to happy to share the requirements / syllabi for those exams. https://www.istd.org/teach/teaching-qualifications/ If our 'elite' training institutions are employing those without teaching qualifications, that's a situation which those institutions need to be asked to explain.

Do you mean by 'exam board' RAD, ISTD etc? I'm sure even to gain the lowest teaching accreditation, first rungs of a ladder, is for those who have progressed themselves beyond the basics? Then of course there are higher levels and further qualifications which can be taken. Students can't be entered for exams by those who haven't some form of society / organisation accreditation. In these days of websites, most places which teach ballet are only too keen to list the skills, experiences and qualifications of their teachers,.

That thought crossed my mind too.

I posed the question so we could have a reasoned and hopefully informed discussion, yes. I can also see some of the perspective of schools which 'assess out'. That one is so difficult. Matthew Ball's mother was at White Lodge and was 'assessed out' after a year as she grew too tall. That's public info BTW. I can see the ramifications of that from both sides. It's out of the control of any human how tall they grow (without medical intervention).

I'd have hoped that prestigious schools employing ballet teachers only employed those with teaching qualifications for ballet awarded by accredited institutions. I'm pretty certain those courses passed include the theory of child development. I don't think it's really the case that the old way of 'setting up your studio' after a dancing career and teaching applies these days. So I'm not sure that qualifications and courses, if we are to believe all we are told on the Panorama prog and the forum thread, are all of the solution.

So the ends justify the means?

You don't think it's a valid question? Some of the stories from young people are harrowing. So either it's not really an issue or it is. If it is, then audiences are surely part of any solution? After all, it's the paying public which keeps ballet companies going, and companies are fed into by schools which allegedly are damaging lives. @LukeJennings featured in the programme and posted on the thread in 'Doing Dance' and he seems to think it an issue.

Unless of course they have a different perspective on those cases, different recollections. I believe this was mentioned. It wasn't 'balanced' in the sense that each case could be refuted in detail.