Northernballet Northern ballet school

[lovetoballetdance]

Hello, I was just wondering what people's opinions are for northern ballet school in Manchester. Thank you

[Tulip]

What I know of Northern Ballet School is that they have a very good track record of getting jobs. Most of them to my knowledge find work on cruise ships, which is brilliant. I don't know how many make it into company's though, hardly any to be fair. A young man I know traine there was fantastic. He ended up working in Germany in a cabaret type dance troupe. I saw this troupe on Facebook and they were very impressive , top notch.

[Curious]

My daughter is doing the Summer school this year so is very excited. One of her teachers trained there over twenty eight years ago and as very happy memories so is very keen to see what my daughter thinks. She is hoping to audition at 16 for this school.

[Petit Jete]

Hello, I was just wondering what people's opinions are for northern ballet school in Manchester. Thank you

In a word......fantastic, but depends on what you are hoping for/expecting after 3 years? Can't really comment on the classical course regarding jobs, but the Jazz focus course is absolutely up there with the very best and the employment record is second to none. 

[stardancer]

My dd friend attends and is very happy and she tells me the teachers are very caring,My dd was looking at the summer school,but is going to elmhurst instead,let me no how your dd gets on

[afab]

From what I know, really good for jazz and not so much for ballet if one wants a ballet career...

Edited June 21, 2014 by afab

[Mumofballetmaddaughter]

My experience of when my daughter was there is from quite a few years back so I'm not sure how valid this will be but here goes. She loved her time at the school and it was a very warm and caring environment. The principal had an open door policy for any issues the students had. My daughter did the classical course on which there were only a small number of students as opposed to the jazz focus course. She found the tuition to be excellent in all aspects of the course but it is fair to say that most didn't secure classical contracts. My daughter got fed up with travelling to Europe for auditions for classical companies only to find that even when getting through all of the cuts there weren't any jobs or being told you are too short, too tall etc despite being invited to audition based on details on her CV. During my daughter's time at NBS, the employment record was excellent. I think that is still the case. Most will go down the cruise ship route or land based cabaret shows abroad. My daughter has been very employable and is now on her 6th cruise ship contract. The current one and previous 2, specified classically trained dancers as they do ballet and pointe along with contemporary, lyrical, jazz, ballroom and Latin in their shows. The theatre at NBS is a great advantage when rehearsing shows and students get a great many performance opportunities. The classicals do a full length ballet in December, the jazz focus do an Easter show and all participate in the summer showcase. My daughter did Coppelia, Nutcracker and Swan Lake whilst there. She was also lucky enough to do an Easter show one year when extra students were required. Some of the jazz people were picked to do the classical shows when extras were needed for the village scenes etc. Unless things have changed, I would recommend NBS for excellent all round training.

[dancemad]

Most of the Northern Ballet School grads do go into commercial or cabaret employment. However I think this is because people don't rate it highly as a classical school and so the school doesn't attract a lot of classical talent. The training for excellent classical study is there though. There are current NBS students in Northern Ballet Theatre, Matthew Bourne, New Zealand Ballet (soloist), Adjkun Ballet, Cinncinatti Ballet and until recently BRB. There are also two second year female students that have passed the RAD Solo Seal this year and very many students (both jazz and classical focus) pass the RAD Advanced 2 each year.

All of the current third year, with the exception of three girls, have already found well regarded employment to go into. Thats usually the same case each year.

IMO it is a fantastic school, producing versatile, strong & highly disciplined dancers which is reflected in the employment statistics.

Edited June 22, 2014 by dancemad