Expert: Dianne M. Buxton - 7/7/2010

Question
my daughter is 11 and did grade 5 and 6 rad then intermediate foundation and just started intermediate then we moved and i found a rad school but only did grade 6 and intermdiate and my daughter loved it then the school moved premises to far away so now we found a school and she wants to go back to grade 5 and do the exam and the new teacher thinks so to but the problem is she is all for my daughter doing grade 5 exam first before any vocational training she has spent 15 months in the oundation class already and misses intermediate i thought it was her age but se thought she was 14 as she is very tall and mature why do you think she is all for doing lots of grades as sh doe grade 6 aswell my daughter wants to dance and   if she does not do the vocational side it will be difficult to get in any schools she finds the foundation pointe exercises to easy and loves the intensity of intermediate do you think the teacher is perlitly trying to tell me something as i no the grades are more for fun also as she as spent 15 months in foundation do you think it is best to do this exam which the teacher said she can do after grade 5 in 2 years or work on intermediate slow like the other school did     kind ragards pixie

Answer
Hi Pixie. If I'm understanding correctly, your daughter has done classes in Gr 5 and 6, but did not do the exams. She then studied foundation.

I would guess that the current teacher wants her to do the exam for Gr 5, and then would probably want her to do the Gr 6 exam. And then go back to foundation.

Since your daughter is so young, there is no reason not to do this. In the future, after dancing she may want to teach and then it will be better to have done the exams. She has plenty of time to do everything in sequence.

Unless your daughter is aiming to get into a professional ballet school, in which case they would probably put her in what they deem to be the appropriate level, I would say go with the usual sequence of grades.

Also if your daughter does audition for a professional school, they will be concerned about her talent and potential to train, not the grade levels she has done.

I hope this helps - all the best, Dianne