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oliviaT

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  1. My daughter is at a college that teaches the diploma and degree classes together for all practical lessons (dance, acting etc) but they have separate academic modules.
  2. Brilliant news. Congratulations to your daughter. You can relax a bit now!
  3. My daughter’s offers last year were still conditional on her A level results. They still make an offer of a certain number of ucas points. She also got her offers directly from the uni / college before her ucas updated. Hope to don’t have too much longer to wait and good luck.
  4. Having gone through all this last year I would say that out of all the auditions, Wilkes gave the most away in their interview! Almost to the point where you could predict the outcome. However I think it’s better to try not to guess (easier said than done I know!) - if she doesn’t get a place for any reason then hopefully she can still use the positive feedback to give her a boost for the rest of the auditions. The offer letter comes in an A4 black envelope which is really nicely presented. It didn’t take long last year from memory.
  5. I think addict seems to be a good choice for someone whose main strength is dance - especially if they want to focus mainly on that rather than MT. My daughter’s teachers see it as a good up and coming school. Because it’s not quite as well known as urdang, performers etc it does seem to be a little bit easier to get in to but still of a good standard. Obviously that’s just based on personal experience of my daughter and her friends. Good luck for the rest of her auditions.
  6. I’m not on NAPM anymore - I can read it but can’t remember my password! - but I managed to join last year by sending them a message through their Facebook page. Might be worth a try
  7. I have a daughter in the first year of an MT degree. If she definitely wants to do an MT course but with strong ballet training then Laine and Bird would both fit that well. For the person who asked about funding, although the degree courses are eligible for student finance some of the courses do charge extras eg to cover head shots or individual singing lessons - Bird and Wilkes do this, it’s not 1000s but worth checking. Also some (private) degree courses do not offer full student finance so be aware of that too. My daughter knows people at most of these places. They are all slightly different. If you are in a position where you have a choice, I think the key is to find the one that suits them best. They all seem to cover more or less the same things but with a different emphasis - eg some are more commercial heavy, some focus more on ballet technique etc
  8. When I first started reading this forum I began to think it was the norm to attend from age 16 (whether that was for diploma or degree courses). Then I realised it was only the norm for ballet. For musical theatre it’s much more common to start at 18 - although there are some 16 year olds on the diploma courses it’s our experience that they seem to be in the minority. And for straight drama it seems that many are even older than 18 and some apply several times before being accepted. I think it really depends on your child’s talents and wishes. But I personally felt much better when I realised it was far from essential to move away from home at 16 years old.
  9. Having a daughter who has just gone through this process it is very frustrating! We had to tell her not to audition as we didn’t want to get her hopes up when we knew we couldn’t afford it. You can get the full student loan for fees along with the means tested maintenance loan from urdang, bird and performers if you want to consider other options,
  10. I don’t understand this if I’m being honest. could you explain more what the concern is? Who is it alienating? (Genuine question to help with understanding).
  11. Hi my daughter did two local, well respected associate schemes over the years (one at a time). She was never going to be royal ballet material but that doesn’t mean she can’t have a career in dance of some sort. I would suggest asking around locally and hopefully she has a supportive teacher who you can ask as well. We are more familiar with what’s available in the north. So for example KS dance and ballet boost are places you could look at. But I’m sure you will find something similar if they are no good for you geographically - what my daughter needed was a supportive class of a good standard but without the pressure to be the very best of the best! Some places also offer taster days in the school holidays which is a cost effective way of letting her try something new without the financial commitment. We sometimes bought tickets to a dance convention or a short course as a birthday / Christmas present just for a fun day out.
  12. My daughter is 18 and her long term aim is to own her own dance studio. She is going to study for a degree in musical theatre in September. She wants to dance professionally for a couple of years and then teach but will go straight into teaching if necessary. She has done 2 associate schemes over the last few years and has just finished her A level dance and drama along with another unrelated A level. I would disagree that associates and wider training aren’t beneficial to trainee dance teachers. Although they are not essential they enable the dancer to see a variety of good (and sometimes poor) training as well as seeing lots of different choreography. She has put a lot of thought into what type of teacher she wants to be and what she wants her dance school to offer. She has picked up lots of ideas by attending associates and summer schools and really enjoyed these. What I would say though is that there is no pressure to apply for elite schemes. You have the freedom to look at what your daughter will enjoy and which schemes suit her best. There are lots of good quality smaller associate schemes or holiday schemes that you can research and make a decision based on her goals and ambitions. She’s only young so she has plenty of time to decide what she wants to do and explore her options x (Also edited to add try not to get drawn into the competition between students - who is doing the most hours, doing the best associate schemes, in the highest grade, spending the most money etc! We made this mistake briefly and it really isn’t worth it. Focus on what will be beneficial in helping your daughter meet her own goals rather than what other people are doing)
  13. Hi my daughter is just finishing performing arts 6th form. They are all leaving with 3 a levels or equivalent. There is quite a long list of what people in her year group are going on to do: Musical theatre degrees Contemporary dance degrees Primary education Drama degrees Drama with teaching Dance school teacher training A couple are going straight into employment / starting apprenticeships Working with youth groups / children’s sports Costume design Choreography Stage management Some have moved away from a dance focus altogether and have successfully applied for other things. Some have continued to have an interest in dance but moved away from the performance element and chosen a different route.
  14. I believe it’s because they have ‘core subjects’ so much of the training overlaps. It’s not a route we went down in the end as my daughter has always done ISTD syllabus work so it made more sense to continue this with teacher training. I hope someone with more experience may see this to clarify but I’ve just found my email communication with them to confirm this is definitely what I was told (the email is from 2018)
  15. Hi just a couple of comments - please do check though that these are accurate as things change so quickly. ISTD - ballet, tap and modern are taught separately. You can do one at a time or all three together if you wish. If you don’t have intermediate exams then you can do them as a module as part of your DDE. You can enter children for exams in the genre you have qualified in - so you don’t have to do all 3 to start teaching. IDTA - you can enter children for exams in any genre even if you only qualify in one. This really surprised me to be honest but I checked it with them directly (two years ago so may have changed). If your daughter is happy to start these alongside her btec and stay at home then it’s definitely possible as you can study at your own pace on weekends / evenings. If she would like to go away to study then I would agree to look at Prestons or KS dance for a course with a teaching focus alongside dance and performing experience.
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