Intermediate Ballet

At the start of the school summer holidays, five weeks ago, my ballet teacher asked me "So what are we going to do over the summer?!" I had an idea, but didn't want to sound ridiculous by suggesting it. Luckily, she knew exactly what I was thinking, and grinned determinedly as she said "How about we get your Intermediate exam done?" When I started ballet, five years ago now, the teacher id had put me in an Intermediate Foundation RAD class, then quickly moved me up to Intermediate when the rest of the class moved up. Unfortunately, I wasn't really given corrections, so when I started at Rochelle ten months ago, I had been studying RAD intermediate for 4 years but still wasn't particularly at Intermediate standard. Miss Kaye was horrified by how my previous teacher had never really 'taught' me anything, but was incredibly determined to help me to improve my technique. We did a lot of non syllabus work, refining the basics; I did grade classes en pointe- I found that I could learn a lot just by watching how the grade 2 and 3 students danced, even though they were several years younger than myself.

In June I did my Classical Award 2- I passed with Distinction (88%), which gave me a lovely, much needed confidence boost. 

Learning the Intermediate work so quickly was a challenge, but Miss Kaye kindly allowed me to use the studio to practice whenever I wanted- often, I would have 3 hours of private coaching in the morning, then practice by myself, working on my corrections for a further three or four hours. It definitely made the summer holidays this year very special- there is just something so magical about having private lessons, and finally seeing a bit of progress!!! 

I did my exam on August 24th- the week prior to which, I had been on a family holiday to Menorca, so I was a bit stressed that I'd only really had a month to learn and practice all the syllabus!!! I don't usually get nervous about exams, but knowing that I was the only candidate in the exam (therefore if i forgot the enchainement I wouldn't have anyone to copy!) made it seem incredibly daunting. The night before the exam, at midnight I was still going over my syllabus notes.... I wasn't the only one having trouble getting to sleep though- Miss Kaye told me that she had had a nightmare, and dreamt that I turned up to the exam with my hair in a stiffly curled blonde perm!!!!

On the morning of the exam, I felt sick with nervousness, but Miss Kaye was wonderfully calm as usual, reminding me that I'd be fine as long as I danced as well as I'd done in my private lessons. "Don't go whacking your legs up too high, placement and control is more important!!"

Another young Rochelle student was going to the exam too, to do her Grade 3- she was incredibly hyper and giggly, which was a cute distraction from how apprehensive I was feeling! I felt as if I was going to forget the entire syllabus!! But once I was in the exam it was fine- although I did make quite a few silly mistakes, which I was annoyed about! Nonetheless, Miss Kaye and I were both incredibly relieved after the exam- even though when she asked me how I thought it went, I promptly reeled off everything that id messed up on, until she playfully said "okay shut up now, I don't think I want to know any more!" I wasn't overly pleased with how I'd done, and thought that I'd be lucky to scrape a low Merit, although it was nice to have finally just done the exam!

I got a text this morning from Miss Kaye, to say that.... I passed the exam with 86%, Distinction!!!!! I am so incredibly happy, and grateful to Miss Kaye for all that she has taught me ❤️