The Advanced Foundation ballet exam

The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Advanced Foundation ballet exam is a vocational ballet exam, which very few ballet students do. It is the third vocational exam and follows the Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate ballet exams.

To be ready for the Advanced Foundation ballet exam, the RAD recommend 150 hours of class time, with an additional 125 hours of practise. Practise at home can be difficult for families with limited space and doing ballet on carpet is almost impossible.

The Advanced Foundaton is a tough syllabus and a gruelling exam, which takes 55 minutes for one student on their own. Students really need to work on their stamina to get through it.

Up to four students can take the exam together – with some exercises, particularly the barre work, performed together. Other exercises are performed in pairs or solo. For a group of four, the exam will take 85 minutes.

The vocational exams run alongside the regular ballet grades (up to Grade 8). The Advanced Foundation would probably be the equivalent of a Grade 8, but is much more rigorous. Most people would neither want to do the vocational exams nor have the required strength and stamina to do them. The regular grades are inclusive for everyone, whereas the vocational exams are for students who are much more serious about ballet and have the time and commitment for tough training.

Grades up to Grade 8 are designed to be more inclusive for everyone from recreational dancers to serious dancers, and anyone should be able to pass them if they put the work in. To pass or to get the higher marks in the Advanced Foundation ballet exam is much more challenging.

Going en pointe isn’t actually part of the syllabus up to Grade 8. Under the RAD syllabus (I don’t know about other exam boards), it is only required for the vocational exams. This ensures grades up to Grade 8 are inclusive for everyone.

Going en pointe can be painful and not everyone wants to do it or is physically able to do it. Not wanting to go en pointe shouldn’t hold kids back from working through the grades in ballet, so pointe is only used in the vocational exams from Intermediate Foundation onwards.

(Of course, ballet teachers may decide to teach pointe to teenagers and older kids anyway, because going en pointe is basically the ballet dream.)

There is a minimum age of 13 to take the Advanced Foundation ballet exam, although most candidates will be a few years older. There is no maximum age limit for the exam. To take the exam, students must have previously passed their RAD Intermediate Foundation ballet exam. It is unusual for students of local ballet schools, who train just a couple of times a week, to take the exam. It is usually only taken by students studying ballet full-time at the big, internationally recognised ballet schools.

The exam is marked out of 10 for 10 different categories. The weightings of the categories might seem a bit odd to a parent or someone who isn’t heavily involved with ballet.

For example, barre work is worth just 10% of the mark, despite there being a lot of exercises, most of which are quite challenging, which take up a significant proportion of time in the exam. There is a lot of pointe work in the exam, which is really challenging and also takes up a significant proportion of the time. But pointe work is also worth just 10% of the final mark.

Towards the end of the exam, between Allegro 1 and Allegro 2, the examiner sets a free enchaînement. This is a piece which the candidates haven’t had chance to practise beforehand. It doesn’t matter how many times they need it repeating or how many mistakes they make while practising eg facing the wrong way/ using the wrong arm, all that matters for the mark scheme is how they perform it.

The full list of categories, which are all marked out of 10 is:

• Barre
• Port de bras, centre practice and pirouettes
• Adage
• Allegro
• Free enchaînement
• Pointe
• Music
• Performance
• Variation – technique
• Variation – music and performance

The grade boundaries for the RAD Advanced Foundation ballet exam are:

• Pass – 40-55 marks
• Merit – 56-74 marks
• Distinction – 75-100 marks

For a student taking ballet a couple of times a week at a local ballet school, it is highly unlikely they will achieve distinction in the Advanced Foundation ballet exam.