All About Ballet
-
on_ur_mark mama:
Almost all ballet schools practice that. More time to gear up the girls for their exams.Hi, am new to ballet classes but recently my dd's school issued a letter saying that for students who are going for the RAD exams are required to sign up for coaching sessions apart from their regular sessions.
That means apart from the once a week lesson, she will need to join additional one hour coaching class, and of course, additional fees will be incurred.
Appreciate any advice. Thank you. -
Thank you, Honesty and Oh My Gosh, for the advice.
-
Hi mummies,
My girl is 7 years old this year, a June 2007 baby.
I need some urgent advice here on the following questions:
May I know if there is a huge difference between RAD Primary Exam and Grade 1 exam? Are we allowed to skip the RAD Primary Exam and go straight to Grade 1 exam if we have a High Honors for CSTD Pre-primary exam? In other to skip grades, does my girl have to be assessed by the teacher and if the teacher flatly disagree to let her skip grades, is there any other way we can let her join another teacher to see if she can take the Grade 1 exam in April 2015? When is the last day to enroll for RAD April 2015 Grade 1 exam?
Appreciate replies from experienced mummies for the above to see whether I can still have any recourse or salvage the situation now.
It was only recently that I realise we may have wasted some unnecessary money and time (2 years) for my girl due to our lack of knowledge and perhaps some miscommunications with the ballet teachers, for which I am quite upset now with the approach and the arrangement that the teacher/school had taken. The scenario was as follows:
My girl started ballet lesson starting from Jan 2012. She supposedly can take the CSTD pre-primary exam in April 2013 but she has very bad stage fright syndrome then although she was dancing very well according to the teacher. So the teacher then who was australian trained asked if we still want to let our girl take the CSTD pre primary exam in 2013. She only told us my girl would not move up with her current classmates without detailed explanation. As she was only 5 plus then we decided not to push her and thought that she can take the primary exam in 2014 still even though we decided not letting her take the 2013 pre-primary exam. We were not made aware of the option of moving up with her class just that she does not take the pre primary exam in 2013 but will take the 2014 primary exam. This option was not explained or offered to us at all.
Subsequently the CSTD teacher left in September 2013 and a new teacher took over. As this new teacher was RAD trained she just picked up the pieces and went ahead to enroll my girl for CSTD pre primary exam in 2014. Meaning to say she was in CSTD pre primary preparation class from mid 2012 to April 2014! I remembered we (me and 2 other parents) only realise something was amiss on the day of the actual exam when we noted our girls seem over-aged taking the pre primary exam at 7 years old this year when those taking Grade 2 exam are 8 years old this year! So we asked the teacher if our 3 girls would take the Grade 1 exam in April 2015 and she flatly say jumping of grades is not allowed. Worse still, only then we realise we have to switch to RAD exam in 2015 as she is RAD trained and not CSTD trained. And from our dealings with this new teacher we feel that she is rather rigid kind.
Then recently on reading this thread we realise DSA requirement is to at least take Grade 5 at Primary six and at this rate, our girls can only take Grade 4 in Primary Six it seems. Though we may not eventually use ballet for DSA purpose, we just felt upset over the time and money spent over the last 2 years due to change of teacher and poor communications from the teacher/school in letting us know the alternative options available (i.e still move up with her class but don’t take exam for a particular grade). -
on_ur_mark mama:
This is the usual practice.Hi, am new to ballet classes but recently my dd's school issued a letter saying that for students who are going for the RAD exams are required to sign up for coaching sessions apart from their regular sessions.
That means apart from the once a week lesson, she will need to join additional one hour coaching class, and of course, additional fees will be incurred.
Appreciate any advice. Thank you.
This is normal.
RAD ballet exam occur in April, each year.
RAD is London based Royal Academy of Ballet Dance.
Six months before exam due, extra coaching lessons are required.
Six months from April, minus backwards, means extra ballet coaching to prepare for exam, start around October or November.
Means Either become twice a week ballet practice, or become 2 hours practice (example : for RAD Grade 1) per week practice, instead of the usual one hour practice per week.
Depend on your own ballet Tr, how she want to organize the extra coaching lessons.
Bear in mind that attending extra coaching lesson, does not guarantee that your dd sure or 100% can go for RAD exam, in April.
If your dd not serious in learning her dance foot steps properly, like play play type in class -
even after attending close to 6 months' of extra coaching, some ballet Tr very strict, will just tell parents that inspite of learning extra coaching for close to 6 months, their dd is still not ready, to take RAD exam. This happened before, to some of my dd ballet classmates.
It all depends on your dd learning attitude, in class, during these 6 months of preparatory hard work.
RAD ballet exam occur in April.
After exam in Sg, The London based examiners (angmo) will fly back to London, take some time to prepare your dd Certificate -
Indicate the grade : Whether is pass or fail ?
If pass, the certificate will indicate is it a good quality pass, or a poor pass grade.
Normally, ballet Tr will issue RAD exam Certificates to parents, with detailed comments on the Cert itself, about their dd ballet dance steps movement during the exam noted, latest in August.
Means exam in April, collect your dd RAD Certificate in August.
Keep all the Certificate well.
They'll form a portfolio, when your dd want to DSA into Secondary school next time in P6, using ballet under Performance Arts domain.
Note -
After RAD exam is over ended in April, then is back to once a week regular practice, from May to Sep.
Come next Oct / Nov, is time to prepare another 6 months, for the next RAD grade level. So, is back to twice a week extra coaching again.
Cycle repeat : until your dd complete Grade 8 RAD exam.
If your dd still keen to learn ballet after attain Grade 8, then go onto Advanced level. -
FantasyLandDreams:
Cannot skip grade. My situation almost similar to yours. I have seek opinions and was advised not to skip to Grade One from Primary. Thus, I let my child learn at Primary Grade RAD and she will take RAD exam Primary grade next year. I let ballet teachers assess too and was advised not to skip from CSTD Pre-Primary grade to RAD Grade 1.Hi mummies,
My girl is 7 years old this year, a June 2007 baby.
I need some urgent advice here on the following questions:
May I know if there is a huge difference between RAD Primary Exam and Grade 1 exam? Are we allowed to skip the RAD Primary Exam and go straight to Grade 1 exam if we have a High Honors for CSTD Pre-primary exam? In other to skip grades, does my girl have to be assessed by the teacher and if the teacher flatly disagree to let her skip grades, is there any other way we can let her join another teacher to see if she can take the Grade 1 exam in April 2015? When is the last day to enroll for RAD April 2015 Grade 1 exam?
Appreciate replies from experienced mummies for the above to see whether I can still have any recourse or salvage the situation now.
It was only recently that I realise we may have wasted some unnecessary money and time (2 years) for my girl due to our lack of knowledge and perhaps some miscommunications with the ballet teachers, for which I am quite upset now with the approach and the arrangement that the teacher/school had taken. The scenario was as follows:
My girl started ballet lesson starting from Jan 2012. She supposedly can take the CSTD pre-primary exam in April 2013 but she has very bad stage fright syndrome then although she was dancing very well according to the teacher. So the teacher then who was australian trained asked if we still want to let our girl take the CSTD pre primary exam in 2013. She only told us my girl would not move up with her current classmates without detailed explanation. As she was only 5 plus then we decided not to push her and thought that she can take the primary exam in 2014 still even though we decided not letting her take the 2013 pre-primary exam. We were not made aware of the option of moving up with her class just that she does not take the pre primary exam in 2013 but will take the 2014 primary exam. This option was not explained or offered to us at all.
Subsequently the CSTD teacher left in September 2013 and a new teacher took over. As this new teacher was RAD trained she just picked up the pieces and went ahead to enroll my girl for CSTD pre primary exam in 2014. Meaning to say she was in CSTD pre primary preparation class from mid 2012 to April 2014! I remembered we (me and 2 other parents) only realise something was amiss on the day of the actual exam when we noted our girls seem over-aged taking the pre primary exam at 7 years old this year when those taking Grade 2 exam are 8 years old this year! So we asked the teacher if our 3 girls would take the Grade 1 exam in April 2015 and she flatly say jumping of grades is not allowed. Worse still, only then we realise we have to switch to RAD exam in 2015 as she is RAD trained and not CSTD trained. And from our dealings with this new teacher we feel that she is rather rigid kind.
Then recently on reading this thread we realise DSA requirement is to at least take Grade 5 at Primary six and at this rate, our girls can only take Grade 4 in Primary Six it seems. Though we may not eventually use ballet for DSA purpose, we just felt upset over the time and money spent over the last 2 years due to change of teacher and poor communications from the teacher/school in letting us know the alternative options available (i.e still move up with her class but don't take exam for a particular grade).
I was told that RAD Primary grade is equivalent to CSTD Grade 1 standard. I was told RAD Grade 1 ballet is equivalent to CSTD Grade 2.
If you need to ask me more questions, you can pm me.
RAD ballet is more interesting as compared to CSTD. After my girl made the switch, I noticed the difference and through this thread and forum, I learnt more about ballet as previously I was clueless about ballet.
Read this blog written by another mummy on difference of CSTD and RAD: http://anewpiggy.blogspot.sg/2013/09/ba ... d.html?m=1
Read this blog for best ballet teachers: http://thebottomsupblog.com/searching-f ... singapore/ -
I am not sure if you can skip grade but I know of a girl who did 2 grades in one year and so she is now 1 grade in advance compared to her peer.
-
bebe:
I am not sure if you can skip grade but I know of a girl who did 2 grades in one year and so she is now 1 grade in advance compared to her peer.
That means example : she do RAD (Primary grade + Grade 1), concurrently together, since they don't allow her to skip RAD grade.
Train under the same ballet Tr, or different Tr ?
So in the same year, she sat for 2 RAD exam, one for different grade in the same month, April, to expedite, reach a higher level faster.
Means during RAD exam, she must remember 2 sets of ballet dance steps - one set for Primary grade, another set for Grade 1 steps.
Btw, does anyone have a video clip on youtube -
On how RAD Grade 1 dance steps look like ? Tq
(prefer to see our own local children dancing, not see angmo girls dancing) -
bebe:
I am not sure if you can skip grade but I know of a girl who did 2 grades in one year and so she is now 1 grade in advance compared to her peer.
That girl you mentioned should have taken old syllabus RAD exam.
The new syllabus RAD exam is more challenging and it is not advisable to skip grade but to build up the foundation first. The ballet teacher can do internal promotion to next level if child shows competency. It is not compulsory to take ballet exam too. There are primary 6 girls doing RAD grade 4 ballet too. If you rush through the process, the child may not do well in advanced stage of ballet grade if the foundation are not built up from Primary grade.
It will confuse a child to learn 2 different grades of RAD ballet at the same time. -
When did they introduce the new amended RAD syllabus, that is more challenging, compared to the old syllabus ?
Last year 2013 ? -
sembgal:
Yes, will be confusing to learn 2 sets of dance steps, for different grade.
That girl you mentioned should have taken old syllabus RAD exam.
The new syllabus RAD exam is more challenging and it is not advisable to skip grade but to build up the foundation first. The ballet teacher can do internal promotion to next level if child shows competency. It is not compulsory to take ballet exam too.
There are primary 6 girls doing RAD grade 4 ballet too.
If you rush through the process, the child may not do well in advanced stage of ballet grade if the foundation are not built up from Primary grade.
It will confuse a child to learn 2 different grades of RAD ballet at the same time.
As it is, even now the RAD \"Primary\" grade itself already got quite a lot of steps, to remember. Not so simple.
Can't imagine if they go higher and higher level.
And the split is quite painful
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login