Are we training too many dancers?

[aileen]

It's partly the travelling to and from dance lessons, isn't it? At vocational school everything's on one site.

[taxi4ballet]

Definitely, and they are training with other talented like-minded youngsters.

 

No getting home worn out at 10 every night with no time for homework and getting told off by less-than-supportive academic teachers; no "Oh God, you're not dancing AGAIN!!!!" comments from exasperated friends; not having to conduct said friendships electronically...

 

I could go on  

[afab]

In her non vocational school, DD2 does 6 one and a half hours lessons in ballet, 2 contemporary ones and one floor barre a week after school... It is feasible but she doesn't finish most evening before 7.30 or 8.30...

[Katymac]

taxi4Ballet - I could have written that post

 

School is important - I know school is important; but for our children Dance is equally important.  I don't think we'd get that reaction if our children did 'Football'

[Fiz]

So could I five years ago, Taxi and Katymac.

[Thecatsmother]

I assume vocational schools get more money if they accept international students as fees are higher which must come into part of the equation at some point?

[aileen]

With respect, this thread is not about the number of international students training at UK schools. There is no evidence that they are being given preference over UK students for financial reasons. If that were the case then none of the international students would ever get into the UK companies (because they were not as good as the UK students), which they obviously do.

[Jan McNulty]

But it is about the number of school places, however they are filled.

[Melody]

I know there's a feeling that university places are going preferentially to students from countries where they have to pay full fees, so I suppose it's not surprising that there'd be a similar feeling about vocational schools.

 

But I think if a vocational school is routinely giving preference at the Upper School level to kids from other countries, for whatever reason, that school is risking questions being asked about why its lower school isn't producing students good enough for its own upper school; hopefully that would act as some sort of balance against the temptation to go out and offer too many upper school places to students doing well at international competitions, at the expense of the home-grown ones.

 

I think, though, these days there seems to be more of a problem with a proliferation of courses that claim to give the sort of teaching that professional dancers will need but don't, partly because the government seems to be pointing to those courses and claiming that ballet students should be doing that if their families can't afford the cost of the specialist schools. Then the problem is that too many people are getting insufficiently trained.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Melody

[hfbrew]

I totally agree with Melody's comment that too many people are getting insufficiently trained.

 

The proliferation in recent years of colleges offering dance courses of varying standards devalues the specialist training that our most talented students need because as Melody says, the government points to these courses rather than fund Ballet students to be at our top schools. So we are losing people who have the potential with the right training to get contracts because of the funding issues.

 

There will always be fewer jobs than dancers, its tough out there. Having said that there are more avenues than "teach" or "dance" these days. People I know of who have been through full time vocational training at some of the top schools who havent actually, for various reasons, ended up dancing professionally,are still in worthwhile employment.

 

The answer to the question "Are we training too many dancers?" could be both "No" and "Yes"!