Molly Lake Award & YBDY

[Totty]

Hi All,

 

I have a dancer very keen to work towards both the Molly Lake award and YBDY, I have sent for details and an entry form to the address advertised in last months Dancing Times for the Molly Lake info but haven't found any info about applying for Young British Dancer of the Year.

 

I was wondering if anyone here has any info they could share about either competition, or could shed any light on the application process for YBDY?

 

T.

[JulieW]

Haven't got time for a comprehensive reply so I'll come back another time - but just wanted to say that the entry details for YBDY won't be available until the end of the year (if my memory serves me right). Someone at the RBS upper school organises it.

[Totty]

Thank you I'll await your reply JulieW.

[JulieW]

I'm back

 

Molly Lake was interesting when we were there 2 years ago (nearly) in that there were quite a lot of RBS students (which there aren't usually). Unfortunately (depending on your point of view I suppose) it meant that all the finalists, bar one younger student, were from RBS. Also entries were a lot smaller than usual so they let everyone dance their solos (usually they do a class in their different age groups and then some are chosen to do their solos). It was nice that it meant they all at least got to do their solo, but you lost the feeling of achievement of getting through to that stage - there was no way of knowing whether they thought you were good enough to go through from the class.

 

We've never been involved in the the actual competition at YBDY - just been in the audience - but there are some parents on here whose children have competed, so I hope they post. Here's a little info from Wikipedia:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_British_Dancer_of_the_Year

 

giving the winners. As you can see, all the first places have come from the RBS (and are now mostly dancing with RB or BRB), as do the majority of the finalists, but there are usually one or two who get through to the final from other schools. Some prizes of summer school places are given to students from non-vocational dance schools who take part in the earlier round (or semi-final - not sure). One of our friends got a summer school place at ENBS just before she went to Elmhurst sixth form a few years ago. Everyone seems to enjoy taking part in the competition, but some find the standard of the class a bit tricky. The final's in March and I'm afraid I can't remember the closing date - but keep an eye open towards the end of the year.

[Totty]

Thanks so much for this Julie, very much appreciated.