amum/Cathy

1 hour ago, Janice said:

Dd has a friend who has just started a year long course with Jasmine Vardimon, there are people on this course from a range of backgrounds. My DD is currently at Laban and she is loving it, she has gained so much from being there.

Thanks Janice. The Jasmine Vardimon thing looks very interesting but I think he's missed the UK audition dates for this year (which was the case with Ballet Rambert's equivalent as well). Really good to hear how much your dd is enjoying Laban. It sounds like a brilliant place. Good luck to her.

Just now, Pas de Quatre said:

I had a pupil do Trinity Laban BA hons degree some years ago and another has an offer a place for this September. It is a very good instution. From what you say this could suit your DS. He would have a year in London receiving excellent training and be able to see which way forward would be best for him afterwards.

Thanks Pas de Quatre. That's very reassuring and helpful to hear. 

Just now, meadowblythe said:

The daughter of a friend of mind did exactly that - 1st class physics degree then post-grad at Trinity.  She doesn't perform professionally but she does make enough from teaching contemporary plus physics tutoring and exam marking to make ends meet in London.

Ooh thank you for that meadowblythe. Very helpful!

Thanks balletbean! Your dd's friend will be up against ds's friend then 😁. Very helpful reverse psychology suggestion, thank you, we'll try that. Would be nice not to be bankrupt from September! 

4 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Sir Matthew Bourne went to Trinity Laban...

Thanks Janet! Yes, my mum pointed that out to us. She's become very invested in ds's potential application (to the tune of lending half the fees if ds goes) 🤣! 

2 minutes ago, balletbean said:

Hi. I’m not too sure on courses but if your son has continued his dancing from his younger years has he considered going straight to some open auditions? A friends DD went to one at Pineapple when she was 18ish. Offered a contract with a cruise company. No pro singing experience at all. Just came from a local dance school. Didn’t go to any dance college. Been working for the same company for the past 7yrs+ moving her way up through the ranks to solo performer incl singing, showing her worth through sheer determination and proving her hard work ethic . Not saying it’s necessarily the best route but she had nothing to lose at the time and with your sons impressive cv it may be a good way to judge his level before incurring the additional cost of one year course. There’s no rule that says to work in the industry you have to hold a Diploma/Degree. Follow ‘The Stage’ for more details. 

Good Luck. 

Thanks balletbean. Me and his old dance teacher have tried convincing him to try that but he doesn't want musical theatre he says. Doesn't want to sing 🙄. (And he's got a good voice! 🙄🙄) He wants to give contemporary dance a go. His flatmate/dance society friend at uni just got through 2 rounds of Lion King auditions and is waiting for the singing audition, but ds couldn't be persuaded to go along and try out himself! Still hoping that he'll consider it in the end, so thanks for your advice.

4 minutes ago, Picturesinthefirelight said:

London Studio Centre also do a 1 year Post- Graduate Diploma

https://www.londonstudiocentre.org/courses/one-year-professional-diploma

 

It does seem to be geared towards performers who have trained elsewhere and less flexible than the Trinity approach from what I can see.

 

Thanks Pictures, I'll point that out to him. As you say, it does read as if they're expecting people who have already trained and are looking to sharpen up their performing skills . . .

Hi all. I'm looking for any feedback on this course, or similar courses please.  Ds (age 20) is graduating from his Humanities degree this summer and looking at ways back into dance - teaching, choreography, or performing, he's not sure which, but probably performing for a while, if possible, and teaching in the long term. He's spent his 3 last years doing a lot of all 3 in various dance societies at university (ballet, contemporary, jazz, and tap). He has Adv 2 ballet, amongst his exam qualifications. He's interested in Trinity Laban's one year Graduate dance diploma, which sounds ideally geared towards someone like him. Does anyone have any experience of it? And does anyone know of any other similar dance courses he could also look at? He did all the usual stuff before uni; was a RBS JA, and Hammond Dance Associate, did YMT-UK musical theatre etc, but didn't want to go to a dance college at that stage. He doesn't want to do a Musical Theatre course. He wants to be in the South/London. Please let me know of any recommendations, suggestions, and/or experiences of young people who have taken similar career paths. Thank you if you can help.

If anyone is interested in seeing the standard of dance at university, the Loughborough interuniversities' dance competition is the biggest and the best and is usually live streamed by the university's student TV channel. It is on the 10th and 11th March and the link is posted on the following Facebook page, generally on the day itself, sometimes the day before. https://www.facebook.com/lborodancecomp/ 

Ahh thank you Kate. And your story too!

I've just come across this thread. Good luck finding suitable opportunities to continue your dance Polik. I agree with Kate that university dance societies are a mixed bag in terms of the teaching (depends very much on the students studying there at any one time) but definitely join up and make friends there if dance is important to you. Also opportunities to choreograph and try teaching. My ds is in his final year at Warwick and has had an amazing time in their dance societies, including tap, and has been teaching, choreographing, performing, and competing in inter university competitions. Last year they were competing at Loughborough and had Steven McCrae of the Royal Ballet as one of the judges. Ds has more or less decided he wants to teach dance, or perform after his (humanities) degree, but he already had his Advanced 2 ballet before he went to Warwick so the lack of syllabus classes over the last 3 years won't count too badly against him, hopefully. Just exploring his options at the moment.

Manchester University's Dance Competition is on Saturday. Anyone's dcs doing it? Hoping to make it to watch ds, who has co-choreographed one of the two numbers he is in. Details can be found on Facebook here (I hope)

1 hour ago, thewinelake said:

The winners of ballet were UCL...

Oh that's alright. I enjoyed that one very much. I just didn't think they were as accurate/together as RHUL. 

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.  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!

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.

Same, Living the Dream. Glad you enjoyed it. Aileen thanks for the tip about the instruments, especially that mysterious one - I was craning my neck from the lower circle to try to see where it was coming from/what it was. Such an interesting sound. Greek lure - off to look it up and hunt down some music with it in!

I can’t get over the pas de deux in Act 2, with that amazing music. Was it a cello and violin that start that haunting theme?

We managed a last minute meet up at Lime Street Station. So pleased! Hope everyone enjoys tonight.

Absolutely brilliant. Wish I I’d booked tonight as well. And wish I’d come on here earlier and known you would be there Aileen - really sorry to have missed you. 

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!

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.  

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.

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? 

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.

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!