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Dance as an extracurricular activity at Uni


amum/Cathy

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Someone posted on another thread that their dd was researching universities with good extracurricular dance. I thought it would be useful to start a thread about it so dcs will be able to get a feel for the opportunities to continue dance at uni when they are studying something completely different. Maybe other people can post their dcs' experiences at various universities.

My ds is at Warwick uni where he has done ballet, jazz, commercial/street, contemporary and tap this year. He plans to add lyrical to that this term, and will be teaching one of the ballet classes. This year he averaged 16 hours a week with the dance societies (Classical and Modern Dance, and Warwick Tap) and his actual degree only averages 10 hours a week contact time. He took part in a show each term, and they competed at 3 intervarsity dance competitions. I asked him which universities stood out  : - Bristol, Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester, Kings (KCL), as well as Warwick, all did very well in a wide range of categories. Durham and Lancaster’s ballet is good, although I don’t know about their Jazz/Contemporary/Lyrical/Street. Loughborough uni are the most successful and they host the biggest competition. For 2 out of the 3 competitions I was able to watch them from the comfort of my sofa as they were lifestreamed. The other competitions he went to were KCL and Sheffield. Manchester Uni also run a good one. You can see where various universities placed at Loughborough here.  https://www.facebook.com/lborodancecomp/photos/a.260281204422124.1073741828.237324430051135/263638487419729/?type=3&theater. It would be great to hear about other dcs continuing their dance at uni. I'm seriously thinking of going to the Loughborough competition this year - anyone been?

Edited by amum/Cathy
typo corrected
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I'm well past university myself, but your post cheered me so much! I am a Warwick Alum and loved the Classic and Modern dance society (I taught the intermediate ballet class in my day!). They were a lovely, caring bunch with some really talented dancers - the advanced ballet was on par with the advanced class I have been to a Northern Ballet, as an idea of standard. I also spent a lot of time with the Warwick Devils cheerleaders, who have a stunt team, but also always had a strong jazz team too which repeatedly won competitions. You can easily clock up the hours of dance.

 

I also have a friend who was at Birmingham - she is a gorgeous dancer and found classes to suit there too. I think they also compete and place well, if that is what you're after. I know Gill Caplan (of York Scholars/RAD examiner) used to teach at Leeds Uni too, so I assume they are a good standard.

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Janet that's good having all the threads linked for convenience. I've posted on a few of those I think. I guess I was hoping we would get a picture on this thread of what actually happens in the uni societies.

Balletchick your post put a big smile on ds's face! He's teaching that same class this year. He loves CMD so so much, along with Warwick Tap. I've seen Warwick Devils perform at Pizazz. They were fab. It sounds like you put in the hours on dance at Warwick! 

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Hi chaperone. I'm glad it's helpful. Ds checked out the dance societies when he was chosing his universities and luckily Warwick ticked the boxes for favourite course and great dance scene. When they've spent so many years training in dance, but have chosen not to go down the vocational route it suddenly becomes a little lonely on here - I don't see why we can't keep chatting about our dcs' new dance scene. It would be great if there could be a chat about the university dance competitions and shows, for example.

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Does seem to be tricky for the 18-25 year olds to carry on with good standard of dance training/activity if they are not on vocational route (or left it) so its great that there are so many options to continue at University to train as well as perform. 

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My daughter went to Nottingham but sadly (from a dance point of view) she's on the Sutton Bonington campus. The dance society in Nottingham is really good I believe and there are decent dance schools in the area, but she couldn't face the one at SB as it was just too basic for her (she was looking for classes at advanced 2 level)  Sadly her course is too time-consuming to spend ages traveling to things - so she took up rugby instead and LOVES it. Four years on, she misses dance but has moved on (she gets her dose of performing each year in the vet review they put on) 

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A girl my DD went to school with (11-16) only ever danced recreationally and had no aspirations to be a dancer. She took a degree in a non performance subject and continued dancing at university, expanding her training with the opportunities available to her to the extent that she is now at Trinity Laban in vocational training

 

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16 hours ago, JulieW said:

My daughter went to Nottingham but sadly (from a dance point of view) she's on the Sutton Bonington campus. The dance society in Nottingham is really good I believe and there are decent dance schools in the area, but she couldn't face the one at SB as it was just too basic for her (she was looking for classes at advanced 2 level)  Sadly her course is too time-consuming to spend ages traveling to things - so she took up rugby instead and LOVES it. For years on, she misses dance but has moved on (she gets her dose of performing each year in the vet review they put on) 

That's amazing to switch to rugby, but it's good to do something new. Will she get a blue/university colours? 

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7 hours ago, 2dancersmum said:

A girl my DD went to school with (11-16) only ever danced recreationally and had no aspirations to be a dancer. She took a degree in a non performance subject and continued dancing at university, expanding her training with the opportunities available to her to the extent that she is now at Trinity Laban in vocational training

 

That is so encouraging 2dancersmum. I actually had a conversation with ds about this - asking whether he was having a rethink, when I realised how many hours he was putting in. I think he is better now than he ever has been as he does so many more classes than he ever had available to him where we live. His Hammond Associate scheme stopped at 16 and he focused more on academic work. He did manage to get his Advanced 2 in - squeezed in in the middle of his A level exams.

 

I think there should be associate schemes that carry on up to 18. Maybe there are and we just didn't think to check? Anyway good to hear of that girl's success. I've definitely heard of men doing it. I remember watching one man dance at 2Faced Dance (think it was, but could have been BalletBoyz) who had gone to Rambert school after his law degree.

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I believe Cambridge Uni is very good too. The society there puts on shows etc ....I think somebody on the Forum posted something about this last year .....and if Michelle Richer sees this I know she knows something about the Cambridge one too.

Bristol also comes to mind but that has already been mentioned.

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With regards to Associates, Tring Park's CBA goes up to 18.  

 

As already mentioned, Bristol certainly has a good range of dance opportunities. Cambridge has a wonderful ballet society.  There seem to be opportunities at Oxford and Leeds, Birmingham, and a good range of dance styles at Exeter (not yet sure about ballet opportunities there, but dd has a friend studying there so I will ask).  

 

Apparently there are also classes at Durham that go up to and including Adv 1 and maybe Adv 2. 

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Anna C that's interesting about Tring. We're in the North so would never have managed to get  ds down there though. Hammond was about his limit, once a month. It was so good for him to dance with other boys there (in particular another ds on here). Such a shame it stopped at 16. Mind you, by then all the serious ones started disappearing off to vocational courses

 

I seem to remember watching Durham compete in the Advanced ballet category when I watched the live streaming of one of the competitions, probably Loughborough. They were very good. I think they stayed very classical with their piece, if I remember rightly (but I have a terrible memory). Also I remember Lancaster's Advanced ballet being spectacularly good, on pointe (which is rare in competitions) and very classical - but they had a very small, presumably heavily selected/auditioned, group, and I have a feeling on one of their degree courses there is the option to do dance modules, or used to be.  

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On 29/09/2017 at 16:51, amum/Cathy said:

That's amazing to switch to rugby, but it's good to do something new. Will she get a blue/university colours? 

Her dance background certainly helped. She's been the vice-Captain, and vice-president in her time there, and has played for her campus team as well as the university team. 

 

Sadly she only gets to train occasionally with them this year as she's on work placements.

 

I didn't know sporting colours was a thing outside of Oxbridge (never having gone to uni myself)!

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Hi Julie. At my university you got colours if you played for the university team for X number of years, against other universities. Think it was 3 years (got mine for sailing) - so a vet student should have plenty of time to achieve that in terms of available uni years (obviously not in terms of actual free time!). Actually, come to think of it the captain of the women's sailing team, was a vet student!

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  • 1 month later...

Ooh, just seen this thread, and as an instigator of one of the others, it's of great interest.

 

So DD did end up at Cambridge, so we know quite a lot more about the dance scene there - particularly ballet - than we did when I first asked the question.

It seems to be thriving and DD is spending A LOT of time on ballet related stuff. She was selected to perform at the Law Society ball (some numbers from Nutcracker), a repeat performace in front of the Cambridge Graduate Orchestra (and some children's choirs for snowflakes) at West Road and one of the inter-varsity competitions down at KCL. 

The standard seems to be very high. Indeed they were joined by an ex Rambert professional (who seems too young!) and we're talking Advanced 1/2 level.

The competitions are a scream (at least based on the "Just Dance It" event at KCL) and an element of partisanship wasn't as bad as at most "proper" ballet competitions according to the ballet judge.

One of DD's friends seriously considered taking ballet forward instead of becoming a Cambridge NatSci, but is similarly split between work and dance, burning the candle at both ends.

So the take-home message is that dance can carry on (and perhaps get even more intense) at university - even a pressurised one with short terms like Cambridge and on the toughest courses such as medicine, Natural Sciences and Architecture. Where they get all this energy from is beyond me, though!

 

So Cambridge University Ballet Club are putting on Swan Lake (no relation) from 1-3 March 2018. Annoyingly they've chosen exactly the same performance days/times as EYB's Coppelia in Rickmansworth (in which DD2 has a part). So we'll be whizzing between Cambridge and Rickmansworth, Grandparents in tow, like mad people.

 

If anyone wants to see examples on YouTube, let me know and I can provide links.

 

No blues at Cambridge for ballet (maybe we should start lobbying!) - the only thing is "dance sport" (ballroom dancing?) where you can get a half blue if you beat Oxford or come high enough up in the national championships.

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Is that the one back in February? Warwick CMD went and were very successful.   Ds co-choreographed one number which won its section...just dropping that in there. Sorry, proud boast! Not sure if they are going this year. Will pop back when ds tells me what Warwick are planning.

 

Really interesting to hear about Cambridge. I saw they were doing Swan Lake.

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On 12/5/2017 at 22:06, thewinelake said:

No - it was just a couple of weeks ago. 

There's a YouTube playlist here of most of them. See if you can guess who won....

Thanks for posting that winelakex I enjoyed that. I'm guessing RHUL. So who was it? And did they move the competition to before Christmas, instead of after?

Sorry I missed you posting last week. Was away watching ds performing in their term show. 

2 hours ago, Anna C said:

I'm trying to picture my dd's face at the mid-ballet "whooping" and cheering. :lol: She takes her ballet deadly seriously! 

Anna, my mother's face was that picture last week, when one of ds's friends was doing the whooping and cheering next to me!

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