D and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain yesterday and had a nice LONG day together without arguments, fighting or D running off when she is confused.
I even got her to go up to the top of the Sky Tower and into the Log Jammer ride, although both had heights that worried her. She is very proud of the fact she faced her fears and did some fun things as a result.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Class warfare in the halls of dance
As I have indicated before, D takes classes at the local professional dance company (there's only one, so you look it up). She has been going there for five+ years (along with the three years at Gretchen's before that) and has progressed through the levels as required. Well, this year it may be different because of the new principal at the Academy.
The new principal is a graduate of the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C. and wants to turn the local dance academy at "The Money" (aka Summerlin) into a Kirov clone. She has already changed the class structures, fired all the company dancers who were teaching classes (there are now LESS teachers than before) and requires a mandatory training program for the students as if they ALL planned to join a dance company when they grow up. If they do not indicate that desire, the students are relegated to a general ballet "training track" where the instruction is not as good and the girls are not pushed to the limits of their skills (some look downright sloppy when you see them perform; their training is treated as "casual" because they are supposedly there "just for fun"). So what if they all do not go into some professional company for $200/week (what they pay locally) in the Corps du Ballet? They are learning skills, healthy habits and grace that will serve them well their entire lives.
All this restructuring is bad enough, but the final straw is going to be the Youth Companies. The big event every year is "The Nutcracker" performances and the students look forward to their chance to dance with the company. In years past, all students were allowed to audition for the show and it was pretty fair all around. THIS year, this is not going to happen.
The new plan is to make all the students who want to dance in "The Nutcracker" audition for a Senior or Junior Youth Company from which the cast will be chosen. The kicker is that the students are then required to commit to one of those companies for the entire year! They will be required to give up every single Saturday from September to June, dance in every performance showcase the adult company requests and are not going to be allowed to miss more than three days total, even for school or family functions! Our children will be worked like galley slaves for the year and we have to pay even more fees!!!
For the Company commitment, the parents are going to have to PAY either $250 (junior) or $300 (senior) upfront for the dubious privilege of allowing their children to be exploited by the company. The only kids who *may* not have to pay are those in the "Future Dancers" program (free ballet for girls from "at risk" schools). Their will be covered by grants, gifts-in-kind and tax money. "The Money" is talking about how reasonable the cost is like it was just another pair of shoes or a trip to the Strip. OK, nice for them...
The problem is that those kids who are NOT in Future Dancers or do NOT have parents who pay more in taxes than I make in a year before taxes are being winnowed out. Ever since the dance company moved from the more egalitarian location on Flamingo to "The Money", the trend has tended to be toward catering to "The Money" and telling the rest of us to fuck off. The scaled tuition based on number of classes a week has changed to a set fee based on class level. There are so many extra expenses because now the principal is requiring specific brands for shoes, leotards, etc. and of course, they are only locally available at the Academy Boutique (with, to be sure, the appropriate "profit" markup for the house). Oh, and with the extra required classes, we are going to get hit for a minimum of four costume fees at $80/costume right at Christmastime.
Then there is the process they introduced to exclude girls from scholarship consideration if they aren't popular or have connections. The auditions used to be open to ALL students and are now "invitation/approval only". That means that a lot of girls with talent were not and will never be considered because the teachers now have to recommend them for the auditions--"pets", anyone? Scholarships are now pretty much given to those girls invited to audition, even when they ALREADY GET FREE TUITION via Future Dancers!!!
In my daughter's class, only two girls were recommended and one of them was NOT even close to the best in the class. The one we all thought should have gotten a scholarship was not even considered. The teacher's excuse? She was "rushed and couldn't come up with a proper list". WTF? She's been teaching the class all year and she didn't have a clue?!? Many of us stood there in disbelief when we saw girls whose tuition was already covered (Future Dancers) or whose parents could well afford paying for 15 or 20 classes a week without breaking a sweat being given EVEN MORE breaks. My daughter actually spoke up about it after the recommended two did indeed get scholarships because even an 11 y/o knows a screwover when she sees it.
This is NOT what ballet should be. But here, it has become so political and so kissy-face to "The Money" (the ballet company is even featured in commercials for Summerlin as if that municipality owned them) that it is hard to justify the effort to our kids when they see the same few girls getting all the leads and scholarships and preferential treatment while they see us busting ass until we break under the financial strain.
Of course, when we brought our concerns up to the principal and company head, we were poo-poo'd. The adult company's director seemed shocked that there were children coming there for classes that were NOT from "The Money". The principal was equally shocked that there are working mothers bringing their children there. She has a dream to turn the Academy into an all-day dance school (with a hefty price tag) as "the mothers will be homeschooling". No more evening classes for "those who are not serious about dance". Can you imagine the reaction of the working women in the room? We all went ballistic!
I have talked to other parents in my income bracket and we all seem to have the same opinion of what is going on. For the rich kids, ballet is de rigueur and for the poor kids, it is an entitlement. For the middle-class kids, it is fast becoming out of reach. I'm even considering seeing about getting my kid in Future Dancers so I can afford her extra tuition and all the fees. We all agree that we will keep sending our children there as there is no other professional company in the entire state. But it will mean giving up food and most extras in order to come up with the extra gas money and the fees, along with the time sacrifices because this is for our kids in the long run.
Added on the 23rd: I have enrolled D for the fall. BEFORE pointe and character shoes which I still have to get, the fees to date have been almost $400. The shoes will be another $100 or so. And there is still the pesky $300 YC fee to come up with if necessary. YIKES!!!
The new principal is a graduate of the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C. and wants to turn the local dance academy at "The Money" (aka Summerlin) into a Kirov clone. She has already changed the class structures, fired all the company dancers who were teaching classes (there are now LESS teachers than before) and requires a mandatory training program for the students as if they ALL planned to join a dance company when they grow up. If they do not indicate that desire, the students are relegated to a general ballet "training track" where the instruction is not as good and the girls are not pushed to the limits of their skills (some look downright sloppy when you see them perform; their training is treated as "casual" because they are supposedly there "just for fun"). So what if they all do not go into some professional company for $200/week (what they pay locally) in the Corps du Ballet? They are learning skills, healthy habits and grace that will serve them well their entire lives.
All this restructuring is bad enough, but the final straw is going to be the Youth Companies. The big event every year is "The Nutcracker" performances and the students look forward to their chance to dance with the company. In years past, all students were allowed to audition for the show and it was pretty fair all around. THIS year, this is not going to happen.
The new plan is to make all the students who want to dance in "The Nutcracker" audition for a Senior or Junior Youth Company from which the cast will be chosen. The kicker is that the students are then required to commit to one of those companies for the entire year! They will be required to give up every single Saturday from September to June, dance in every performance showcase the adult company requests and are not going to be allowed to miss more than three days total, even for school or family functions! Our children will be worked like galley slaves for the year and we have to pay even more fees!!!
For the Company commitment, the parents are going to have to PAY either $250 (junior) or $300 (senior) upfront for the dubious privilege of allowing their children to be exploited by the company. The only kids who *may* not have to pay are those in the "Future Dancers" program (free ballet for girls from "at risk" schools). Their will be covered by grants, gifts-in-kind and tax money. "The Money" is talking about how reasonable the cost is like it was just another pair of shoes or a trip to the Strip. OK, nice for them...
The problem is that those kids who are NOT in Future Dancers or do NOT have parents who pay more in taxes than I make in a year before taxes are being winnowed out. Ever since the dance company moved from the more egalitarian location on Flamingo to "The Money", the trend has tended to be toward catering to "The Money" and telling the rest of us to fuck off. The scaled tuition based on number of classes a week has changed to a set fee based on class level. There are so many extra expenses because now the principal is requiring specific brands for shoes, leotards, etc. and of course, they are only locally available at the Academy Boutique (with, to be sure, the appropriate "profit" markup for the house). Oh, and with the extra required classes, we are going to get hit for a minimum of four costume fees at $80/costume right at Christmastime.
Then there is the process they introduced to exclude girls from scholarship consideration if they aren't popular or have connections. The auditions used to be open to ALL students and are now "invitation/approval only". That means that a lot of girls with talent were not and will never be considered because the teachers now have to recommend them for the auditions--"pets", anyone? Scholarships are now pretty much given to those girls invited to audition, even when they ALREADY GET FREE TUITION via Future Dancers!!!
In my daughter's class, only two girls were recommended and one of them was NOT even close to the best in the class. The one we all thought should have gotten a scholarship was not even considered. The teacher's excuse? She was "rushed and couldn't come up with a proper list". WTF? She's been teaching the class all year and she didn't have a clue?!? Many of us stood there in disbelief when we saw girls whose tuition was already covered (Future Dancers) or whose parents could well afford paying for 15 or 20 classes a week without breaking a sweat being given EVEN MORE breaks. My daughter actually spoke up about it after the recommended two did indeed get scholarships because even an 11 y/o knows a screwover when she sees it.
This is NOT what ballet should be. But here, it has become so political and so kissy-face to "The Money" (the ballet company is even featured in commercials for Summerlin as if that municipality owned them) that it is hard to justify the effort to our kids when they see the same few girls getting all the leads and scholarships and preferential treatment while they see us busting ass until we break under the financial strain.
Of course, when we brought our concerns up to the principal and company head, we were poo-poo'd. The adult company's director seemed shocked that there were children coming there for classes that were NOT from "The Money". The principal was equally shocked that there are working mothers bringing their children there. She has a dream to turn the Academy into an all-day dance school (with a hefty price tag) as "the mothers will be homeschooling". No more evening classes for "those who are not serious about dance". Can you imagine the reaction of the working women in the room? We all went ballistic!
I have talked to other parents in my income bracket and we all seem to have the same opinion of what is going on. For the rich kids, ballet is de rigueur and for the poor kids, it is an entitlement. For the middle-class kids, it is fast becoming out of reach. I'm even considering seeing about getting my kid in Future Dancers so I can afford her extra tuition and all the fees. We all agree that we will keep sending our children there as there is no other professional company in the entire state. But it will mean giving up food and most extras in order to come up with the extra gas money and the fees, along with the time sacrifices because this is for our kids in the long run.
Added on the 23rd: I have enrolled D for the fall. BEFORE pointe and character shoes which I still have to get, the fees to date have been almost $400. The shoes will be another $100 or so. And there is still the pesky $300 YC fee to come up with if necessary. YIKES!!!
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