RAD Ballet Classes

[Guest chocolate_chuchu]

Hi, I'm 17 years old and I have been dancing for almost 3 years. The dance school I attend follows RAD Ballet syllabus and the teachers push me really hard to take the graded exams. I'm already doing Grade 7 and I'll take the exam in about 3 weeks. All we do in class is the set exercises over and over again. It can be very tedious and boring. Anyway, I heard that dancers who have been taught this way aren't very good dancers at all. I've heard the words "dull" and "lifeless" being used to describe them . Is this true?

 

Thanks!

[Mel Johnson]

Goodness, you're from where my gran was born. I have no idea what Nana Wood (she was West Country) was doing in Brighton in February, but I've always laid it to pregnancy cravings. Maybe she wanted a frozen whelk on a stick! Welcome, welcome, anyway!

 

You certainly have advanced quickly through the grades if you've only been taking for 3 years and are doing grade 7! Your personal application must be highly commendable. Such is the good fortune in the UK to be able to hold frequent examinations.

 

To address your question, there's often a charge laid at RAD that its students are too "boxed in" or don't dance freely. I can understand how this state of affairs can come to pass if the students are fed a steady diet of syllabus, the whole syllabus and nothing BUT the syllabus. The Academy recommends, and I believe that it should insist that teachers include free combinations and even whole classes to break people out of the mold, and to enhance and increase fluency in the whole vocabulary of ballet. Does this answer your question?

[Guest chocolate_chuchu]

Brighton isn't bad on its good days! However, I must admit that it can be rather horrible, dark, wet and windy! Anyway, thank you very much for your answer.

 

I've another question if you wouldn't mind answering. I have always wanted to go on pointe but everytime I ask my teacher if I could do some pointe work, she always says no because "it's not on the syllabus" and that "you don't need it for the exams." I would totally understand if she'd told me that I wasn't ready for it. Should I insist that I want to do pointe work? Should I give up wanting to do pointe work? OR should I stop having RAD classes all together?

[Mel Johnson]

I've always thought that Sir W.S. Gilbert had it right in The Pirates of Penzance:

 

PIRATE KING:  For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no desire to by dis-

loyal,

Some person in authority, I don't know who, very likely the Astronomer-

Royal,

Has declared that for such a beastly month as February, twenty-eight days as a rule are

plenty....

 

Sounds like you have a "syllabus literalist" there. It's quite true that Higher Grades doesn't require it, but there's certainly no harm in asking to join the Intermediate Foundation students in pointe/pre-pointe work. If your teacher says no, I rather doubt that she's the only school in town in a busy place like Brighton. You could find someone who teaches ISTD Imperial or Cecchetti or maybe even Legat or Vaganova, and take additional classes there. Remember that the prerequisite study for pointe is: 1) At least 11.5 years of age in skeletal development. 2) At least 3 years study. 3) The latest year of study should have consisted of at least 3 1.5 hour classes per week.

 

I wouldn't give up the RAD. It's jolly good stuff for getting correct grounding in everything, but I think you've run into the type of teaching I've described above with regard to a sort of "fundamentalist" approach to ballet. That's why I wish that the Academy would demand more free material from teachers, whether it be in the Recreational or Vocational tracks.

[M26]

My teacher is from Brazil and was taught the RAD syllabus. I have not heard bad things about it, yet I am still puzzled how you could do the same class everyday! Are there ever any differences?

[shulie]

I was taught by an Royal Academy absolvent for 7 years and it did not feel too boring since my teacher was not one of those syllabus fans you are describing. I was taught mainly classical ballet but also character (frequently ) and she herself mixed in some modern and jazz from time to time which was fun to do.

I enjoyed the variety of her style a lot.

[Poppiedancer]

I have just started intermediate foundation RAD and I find it really good. After 4 years of learning a hotch potch of RAD, Vaganova (sp???) and what one of my teachers called "Royal Ballet" its really good to have set exercises, and to have a definite way of doing things!!! I will be hopefully starting grade 6 either next term or August.

[Guest chocolate_chuchu]

My teacher is from Brazil and was taught the RAD syllabus.  I have not heard bad things about it, yet I am still puzzled how you could do the same class everyday!  Are there ever any differences?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Unfortunately, there really isn't any differences. It's getting quite boring and I'm starting to not like Ballet anymore *gasps*! I'll tell you how my Ballet lessons usually go but be warned, it's sooooo boring that you probably don't want to read it! Well, I have 3 to 4 lessons per week. Once I get to the lesson, we work on 1 or 2 set exercises at the barre over and over and over again until I get it perfect. And when I say over and over again, I did mean over and over again! Once it's 'perfect' technically, we move on to centre work. Then we work on 2 or 3 set exercises in the centre over and over and over and over again. Then we spend 10 to 15 minutes of the lesson working on either free movement, character, or the dance. Again, these are all set exercises. Then for the last 10 minutes of the lesson, we go through all the exercises we have done in class, over and over again until the lesson finishes. Then I give her a curtsey and run away.

 

That was my typical class. I have about 9 weeks of lessons until I take the graded examination. So the first week or so is spent doing nothing but learning the whole syllabus until I can remember everything. Then for the next 7 weeks, the lessons go as I have just described. And the last week before the exam, the lessons are usually just 'mock' examinations - run through of everything.

 

Well, aren't Ballet lessons fun?

Edited February 15, 2005 by chocolate_chuchu

[Mel Johnson]

You have my sympathy. That's not what the Academy recommends when it comes to pedagogical method. That's "teaching to the test" and it produces dancers who can't let go and dance. The Academy's idea is sort of like "a rising tide lifts all boats". The class is gone through completely without excessive repetition (and what you've described is excessive repetition). Correction and improvement all through the term is desired, and does not depend on any one class to produce an overall result.

 

When I said that the Academy recommends the introduction of "free" combinations, I didn't mean "free movement" in the syllabus sense. A free combination is original material devised by the teacher incorporating necessary elements of the coursework, but of the teacher's own making.

[balletnast]

My daughter has been doing RAD for a few years, and it is nothing like what Chocolate describes. It is more like the others describe. They work all different things throughout the year with different emphasis at different times. I am sure that the teacher is teaching syllabus moves throughout the year, but the real memorization and all comes beginning in February. We have now begun syllabus work, and the girls enjoy it. THey are also learning some Russian (very little) and Royal Ballet, so it is definitely not like what Chocolate describes!

 

I think it is a great foundation and have watched my daughter greatly improve as a result of being beholden to something.

[Guest chocolate_chuchu]

Huh! I guess I can't 'let go and dance' then! Well, at least I'm taking the exams at a fast rate!

[M26]

Chocolate, that sounds awful! Well, not awful but really, really tedious. I think you should take a ballet class, like a drop-in, to see if you like ballet better with more freedom (as in not repeating things over and over and over) to see if you still love it. Because, maybe you do, you are just sick of repetition, like all of us no offense intended in any of this post

[Guest livebreathedance]

yes , i think it's true.it seems silly to do the same steps in class all the time , sort of boring.

[intermezzo]

As a RAD student for ten years, I have not found it to be particularly tedious at all. However, through my experience, we haven't done exercises so repetitively. Your experiences sound pretty awful. I find that it's really nice to have set exercises because you can concentrate on alignment corrections and expression, rather than wondering what steps comes next. Of course, we do not always do syllabus work-- if there are no exams coming up soon, we may do 'free' work at the barre or centre. The only thing I rather dislike is the character in the grades, but its good for me to learn new things-- it will make me more versatile I suppose.

Edited February 19, 2005 by intermezzo

[Dance_Scholar_London]

Knock knock. I wonder why there is no character dance in the vocational track. Or are pre-pro students supposed to follow both tracks?