Dulwich ballet school term dates - help!

[largeginandtonic]

I've lost the information about their term dates and can't find it on the website. Does anyone know whether the classes are running this week and when term starts after Easter? Thanks!

[sanity girl]

Do you mean South London Dance Studios - based in Herne Hill? Here's their website

[largeginandtonic]

No, I mean Dulwich Ballet School - it's run by Sally-Ann Hodge and they do classes in St Faith's centre and other locations around here.

[Debstar7]

Sally-Ann Hodge @ Dulwich Ballet School

020 8659 6354 Home

07958 753883 Mobile

Maybe give her a call....

[largeginandtonic]

I have called her! And left messages but she hasn't got back to me - that's why I wondered if a quick post on the forum might solve the problem! But I can call her again.

[orchard]

There are no classes this week. The term ended last week.

[candj]

I asked Sally last week and she said that classes start again the week of 19 April.

[largeginandtonic]

Great - thank you so much!

[new mother]

Maybe I should have started a new thread but I just wanted to ask- we are looking for quite a serious school(in as much as you can be serious as a child) for the girls. The reason I say this is that three generations of the family have been serious about ballet and my mother was, in particular. She considered it as a career. Anyway, we want somewhere that puts children in for RAD exams and where the teaching is, well again, serious.

Do you think that DBS is the answer and, if not, where would you recommend?

Many thanks for any suggestions.

[trinity]

I hace experienced both DBS and Chelsea Ballet school which holds classes in St Barnabus Church Hall in the village.

DBS seems the most serious - RAD syllabus, regular large scale productions of real ballets and lets the children know about auditions eg for the London Children's Ballet.

Chelsea Ballet doesn't seem to link the children to the wider ballet world and follows the Cecchetti method.

[new mother]

How interesting. Thank you so much, Trinity. Funnily enough, I did Cecchetti for a few years myself as I very much wanted to have a particular teacher who swore by it. I found it much harder to get good grades than with RAD and the actual exercises and barre-work were more challenging eg holding developes for much longer etc. However, this teacher was rather an outlier hence why I would like the girls to follow a more mainstream syllabus.

I think I'll get in touch with DBS this week - thank you again.

[Fidgetsmum]

From DBS website:

Classes: Monday 5th September ? Saturday 10th December

Half-term: Monday 17th October ? Saturday 29th October

Open Classes: Monday 5th December ? Saturday 10th December. Open Classes take place this term and the summer term only.

[SLDS]

Dear 'new mother',

South London Dance Studios in Herne Hill is my dance school and we cater for the 'once a week hobby child' as well as offer an all round training for the child who wants to take dance more 'seriously'. We regularly enter dance competitions and our students can audition for West End Shows and children's dance companies such as NYB and LCB.

My advice is that you should focus on finding the best ballet teacher rather than choosing a syllabus then finding a teacher. In the past I have (like many other dance teachers) taken my own examinations in and also taught all the main syllabi, so I know that it makes no difference which syllabus you follow as long as the teaching is excellent!

My chosen examining body is Imperial Ballet (ISTD) because I find the syllabus much more useful in terms of preparing my students for auditions and a possible career in dance. This is because, alongside the usual set exercises, there is also a lot of 'free work' in the examination meaning that the children have to actually use their brains and put steps together in the examination. So ballet classes at SLDS and the ISTD Imperial Ballet examinations are mentally as well as physically challenging!

I hope my point of view helps.

(Miss) Zoe

[new mother]

Many thanks, Miss Zoe. Will consider and come back to you if we want to take it further.

[damzel]

Hi new mother. I wanted the same as you for my daughter (for pretty much the same reasons - are you my sister?!) and chose DBS and couldn't be happier.