RAD grade 6

[elie]

Hi!

I am 28 years old and I am taking a RAD grade 6 class (my school doesn't offer other classes/levels for adults that are not beginners).

However I suppose that the level of this particular class is slightly higher, because we do lots of point work at the end (after the syllabus exercises) and we will perform on pointe at the end of the year.

Since I am not very familiar with the differences between graded and other systems (vocational maybe??) I would like to know how high (or low ) is the grade 6 level. The reason I am asking is that I am taking my classes very seriously and I would like to move on to something like intermediate or even advanced in some years and I am bit confused: do you have to finish all higher grades (6, 7, 8) in order to follow an intermediate class or are the higher grades somehow similar to that??

Thanx in advance !

[Mel Johnson]

Elie, the RAD assumes that successful completion of grade 5 places the student at an Elementary level of proficiency. The next step up in the vocational track is Intermediate Foundation, although you don't HAVE to take that, but go straight to Intermediate. You do not HAVE to finish Higher Grades (6-8) before starting the vocational track. You can go straight to Intermediate Foundation or Intermediate. You can even take the two tracks simultaneously, many do.

[elie]

Thank you so much for responding so quickly

Actually that's what I had suspected, but when I told someone, they laughed and insisted on that the higher grades are way way way lower than the elementary level..Which didn't quite make sense..

[Mel Johnson]

No, it didn't. Proceed immediately to Intermediate, if you like.

[Dance_Scholar_London]

But there is no pointe work at all in the graded exams, just in the vocational ones, right?

[Mel Johnson]

That's right - if you stick to THE BOOK, and nothing BUT the book. Teachers have sufficient latitude, when you read the WHOLE book, to add such work as is felt necessary to provide an adequate level of training for the students, in the teacher's opinion. You won't be examined for it, but you'll have it!

[Dance_Scholar_London]

That is what I thought. Pointe is extra-curriculum work then. :-)

[Guest beckster]

That is what I thought. Pointe is  extra-curriculum work then. :-)

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In an ideal world girls would be put on pointe based on their level "in real life" rather than their "grade" level. Because the exams involve attaining a certain level of skill AND learning the syllabus AND having enough people ready so that an exam can be scheduled, someone who danced a lot outside of the grade classes could be put on pointe before taking their grade V exam. In practice, from what I've seen, girls who have the abilities for intermediate will do pointe "automatically", whereas those doing grade VI may or may not, depending on what other classes they do and what they and the teacher wish. Both those classes can be started post-grade V.

[Dance_Scholar_London]

I agree on that. Most schools offer just certain grades, so everybody has to fit in somehow. I think it is easier to find vocational grades than graded (at least in London area).