Twiggy Posted August 2, 2016 Posted August 2, 2016 My daughter has been talking to me about wanting to audition for postgraduate contemporary programmes and companies at the end of her training (she's going into second year so there's still a bit of time) however she came home today from a contemporary summer school completely freaked out because she doesn't know how realistic this dream is. She says from watching the strongest in her class and the older ones she thinks she need a lot more experience in contemporary despite being quite strong in it already. The only problem is that her school has a focus on classical ballet with a bit of 'dancey contemporary' as she calls it. I told her that she shouldn't give up on her dreams and dissmiss the opportunities but she replied with 'but the last time I tried that they turned me down' this broke my heart she really had her heart set on a different school but things didn't turn out too badly this way! The problem I have is that if this is the case I really cannot imagine financing another three years after these two but if it is what she wants and needs to have the career she wants I might have to. What I am trying to say is, would it be necessary to undertake another degree in contemporary dance to get into a contemporary postgrad programme or contemporary company? I think I could have written this so it wasn't such a Long rambling mess but right now I'm going crazy! I don't know how these things work...
Kate_N Posted August 2, 2016 Posted August 2, 2016 I'm not clear about a few things in your post - are you in England/NI/Wales? Is your daughter doing a BA (Hons) in Dance/Performance? A standard UK MA is 1 year, after an undergraduate Honours degree. An MFA (Master of Fine Arts) is generally 2 years. A little shorter than a year are postgraduate certificates and diplomas - generally a PG Diploma is the Master's course work, without the research dissertation. If she is doing a Foundation degree, which is 2 years, and roughly equivalent to an undergraduate certificate/diploma, then it needs a further 2 years "top up" (generally at a university) to achieve the Honours degree.
Jan McNulty Posted August 2, 2016 Posted August 2, 2016 I can't answer your question through experience but there are a number of dancers who are currently in or have been in contemporary companies who had a classical ballet training: Josh Barwick is currently at Rambert and trained at Elmhurst before dancing with Northern Ballet. Eryk Brahmania, (RBS) ex Rambert previously danced with Hong Kong Ballet before joining Rambert. Ben Mitchell (RBS) danced with Northern Ballet before moving to Deborah Colker in Brazil, Phoenix and now Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. 1
Twiggy Posted August 2, 2016 Author Posted August 2, 2016 England . She's going into her second year of a BA(hons) in dance. Thank you everyone x
Janice Posted August 2, 2016 Posted August 2, 2016 I second what Janet has said there are many dancers in contemporary companies who have trained at ballet schools, so it is not impossible for her to get into a contemporary company. Have a look at the background of dancers in companies that she is interested in or likes the style off that might help get a picture of what sort of training the company like.
2dancersmum Posted August 2, 2016 Posted August 2, 2016 (edited) I echo the words of Janet and janiceandellen. Remember also that your DD, if she is just going into second year of her course, still has two full years of training to go and will be a much stronger dancer in 2 years than she is now. In your position, if possible, I would encourage her to do further summer schools, workshops etc that have a contemporary focus. There are quite a few contemporary classes around although some ask for students to be at the end of their second year in training - and often at that stage they can apply to take company class. It really is a case of doing your research - check out also article19.co.uk and dancingopportunities.com - these are both sites that post auditions but also have details of workshops, masterclasses . Edited August 2, 2016 by 2dancersmum
Twiggy Posted August 3, 2016 Author Posted August 3, 2016 Thank you so much everyone we're going look into doing more contemporary. My daughter just came in to tell me about a dancer at ndt being classically trained so she's obviously one step ahead of me, hopefully it was just a blip of negativity and she back to her self! 1
Kate_N Posted August 3, 2016 Posted August 3, 2016 If she's doing a BA (Hons) then she may want to do a further year as a Masters, but I think that she needs to have a good reason - a Masters degree is often the start of specialist research training. If she feels there's a need for contemporary training, then she could seek out extra-curricular classes, or do some intensive weeks at somewhere like The Place, or Laban. Those are in London, but I'm sure there are other places across the country - Northern Contemporary, for example. But as far as I know, the Rambert School, for example, teaches a base of classical ballet - in my family member's company (principally ballet) they had dancers trained at Rambert.
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