PERFORMING ARTS career route advice. Any good classes near BRIGHTON?

Oh and I should add - he does study dance (ballet, tap, modern, contemporary) - and he took those up late - started ballet at 13 for example- he's just not aiming for a top dance college.

His kiddie stuff will mean nothing for drama school btw.

As everyone else said dance needs to start early. Acting doesn't. You need to be pretty good at dance for MT.

My middle son has been in a few west end tours (before voice broke) but he doesn't think his dance is good enough for adult MT. It probably isn't.

He's doing quite a lot of youth/young adult theatre now (that you audition for). He was lucky enough to have a couple of professional film roles before his voice broke and now happily does student films locally.

I think that a lot depends on where the school places the emphasis. My D is at Central on the BA Acting[MT] course. She isn't a dancer, but is able to move, if that makes sense. Having said that, Central do place more emphasis on the Acting.
She would not stand much chance of getting in to a Dance school.

Agree with katymac about dance - you won't get into a top MT/performing arts school unless you are training at a high standard already. Competition for places at the best schools is truly fearsome and not only do you have to have buckets of natural talent, you have to be at a very high level of training to stand any kind of a chance.

Hi there,
My daughter did a BTEC at our local college, and 3 Alevels alongside . Fortunately she did very well academically, as well as gaining Distinction * in Btec.
She was a member of a local youth group for approximately 5 years.
She is now at one of the top Drama schools doing a BA in acting.
She has never, despite trying been accepted by either NYT or NYMT.
She got in to her drama school on her second attempt. It is hard to get in, and even harder once you are there. The regime is tough and some of the teachers take no prisoners.
i would advise you to just let her experience a wide variety of things. Get involved in the amateur scene, work hard, and do not let the academic side suffer. My daughter is good at english, and she finds that this helps her enormously when it come to interpreting texts, Shakespeare etc.
Drama schools are not looking for the finished product, and will not really be interested to know that your child has an agent, and so on.
Good luck. Just let things evolve

While I'd agree most MT college don't expect a tremendously high stadard of dance; if you don't have one you will spend the next 3 years playing catch up - at least at Bird, Laines, Performers & Urdang

Some of the other colleges are less dance orientated, but to get into the top 4 you need training or to be very naturally gifted

Hoolio makes very good points about it being the accredited drama school (so basically BA level) that counts. As well as teaching you essential skills, that will make it easier to get an agent and will give you access to a show-case at the end of the course which is when you need to start looking for work.

Basically, agents and casting directors are human beings: if they can get an assortment of what they are looking for displayed professionally under one roof in a showcase, and with a degree of quality control, they are quite going to like that. But they will be interested in the finished product at that moment in time: not what a budding actor may or may not have done 10 years previously- because that is not what they will be casting or adding to their books for others to cast.

Brighton Academy
www.thebrightonacademy.com

Pursue! Can you tell I didn't get to Oxbridge!!!

Dance is different, you have to start early, especially for classical.

For musical theatre though, if she wanted to do that, they don't expect you to be professional standard if you are going to do a 3 year course in it.

The acting world is terribly snobby. You get categorised very easily. Also child actors who really go for it develop a way of being that doesn't fit with a traditional drama school environment. So it can actually be detrimental.

The best way to become a professional actor is to do a 3 year course at an accredited drama school. Anything else, it will always be tougher. Not impossible, just a lot harder. There are no guarantees though.

Persue. Not peruse. Maybe spelt it wrong.

Anyway, it's a bugger of a profession. Really best to concentrate on A levels so that if it doesn't work out she has qualifications.

Oxbridge is still a brilliant choice for if you want a career. Old boys network still going strong!

There is no need to be a polished performer as a child to peruse a career in the performing arts. In fact, 'child actors' get looked down on a bit at drama schools.

Being part of a youth theatre will help hone skills when she (maybe) wants to apply for drama school after A levels. Have a look at accredited drama schools websites, e.g. RADA, Central etc. You might get a better idea. The National Youth Theatre is supposed to be great, very hard to get in to though. They look for raw talent, not polish.

www.arabesqueschool.co.uk/

Thinking further I believe there is a performing arts school in Chichester. Someone from ds prep school year had a y9 place there although I think she ended up at Arts Ed.

No experience of MT, so below is purely about acting (you did say she was interested in everything).

While ballet is one of those things you have to start really young, acting is quite the opposite: when it comes to getting onto a foundation or BA course at drama school, maturity counts for a lot.

Not saying that your dd should not grab every opportunity to do and learn more- of course she should- but if she is interested in straight theatre/film, it's not going to be a case of last trains having passed.

Apart from the kind of things you and other posters have mentioned, she should read as widely as possible and attend as many performances as she can (and that will hold true for MT too). And once she gets old enough, there are some very good residential audition courses out there.

My dd did not attend specialist school/college (no money), but did A-level Drama and BTEC Acting at a sixth form college with a good reputation for performing arts. A couple of her friends got into drama school straight from college, dd was probably too immature, so took a gap year (2 years, actually) and worked in a customer facing job which has improved her confidence no end, while at the same time doing as much am-dram as possible. She will be going to drama school in the autumn.

If you search on here there are threads about NYMT & also on 'NotapushyMum'

Move-it is annual - DD was there all three days this year representing the college & someone chatted to her that recognise me from NaPM -which was a bit odd!! nice but odd

If you want to message when life gets quieter, that's fine - Birthdays can be very busy!

Move it

Actually thinking about it - you should get yourself up to Move it (F/S/S this weekend) to see what it is all about

Your daughter will either love it or run away screaming!!

For Musical Theatre experience I would suggest joining a high quality youth musical theatre company (one that you have to audition for). I'm sure there will be a least one in Brighton.
My dd did this for a few years and was in some fantastic productions. She also met lots of like-minded people who became great friends. She's 19 now and studying MT at drama school.

If you have any 'Stagecoach' classes nearby they usually run summer and easter courses that last 1 week. They are a franchise, so the standard is variable, but a well run school will put on some excellent shows.
restarting dance is great, and your DD might want to look at adding in some modern/jazz with the ballet.

We are near Great Yarmouth so you can imagine the journey for her (she did it predominantly by herself after the first few accompanied trips & stayed at a hall of residence over night at 15 !!

Intermediate is a grade that give the student UCAS points (even tho' few of the unis would count them) so quite a high grade - they don't need to have done the exam just to be approaching that level

The courses are between 10K & 20K a year with no student funding or loans but a system of Dance & Drama Awards (DaDA) which are awarded for talent and then means tested

Associae schemes are run by schools/colleges & dance companies and offer intense training to talented children usually in dance but DD did one at London Studio Centre which also had singing - generally they are 'worth' more if they are audition entry

Now she is doing acting singing & predominantly dance, loads & loads of dacne

But you can do it as a degree - but with less classes(generally) 7 much less dance!!