Dance sixth form options

Sounds like a key thing to investigate is costs of courses and any funding available, eg DaDa, and criteria.

If, for example, her parents’ income means she wouldn’t get financial support, that’d be a show stopper for a number of courses.

The opinions of this young woman’s friends are still only anecdotal evidence.

She has limited options, given her financial circumstances and parents’ stance. You may not be helping her by not challenging her in discounting this one.

Millennium have sadly recently lost their funding daisy )partly due to poor ofsted/hefce inspections) so is now fee paying only.

You have stacks of top-quality post-16 full-time world-class dance training on your doorstep in London. What does she want to do? Here’s three of each off the top of my head in London:
Ballet- Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School, Central School of Ballet
Contemporary- Laban, London Studio Centre, Rambert
Theatre- Laines, Bird College, Millennium
There are loads more. As people have said, she needs to ask her dance teachers for advice. All of these places have very competitive entry standards and everyone wants funded places. Virtually everyone will be living away from home at 16 unless they are in the very fortunate position of living in or near London. There are lots of other places to consider around the country too. I would expect a year 10 child to be investigating not just their dream dance job - do they want to dance at La Scala, or dance in the West End, or travel the world on cruise ships, or be a backing dancer for pop groups, etc- but also what might be realistically possible.

She could do drama and PE 'A' levels at college. My daughter has applied to do these as you can specialise in dance in both while still getting a useful all round education.

Hi- My dd is training to be a professional dancer and my dh has taught a related subject in several colleges up and down the country. Dd's fees are paid by a DaDa however it is income dependent. If her parents earn over a certain amount they are expected to contribute.

I'm not going to recommend dd's school as it would involve moving away from home for your friend's dd but I will say that we found that the standards in dance at the Brit School were not the highest compared to the other schools and colleges.

It's a real shame that she just missed the CDMT conference which was held last weekend. It's an event where all the accredited schools and colleges give talks, run workshops, mock audition classes etc and parents and potential can find about the different options available, funding etc.

My dd didn't want to go to London aged 16 so she stayed further north but colleges she would have considered (and has friends currently attending) are Bird College, Laine & Urdang. Performers College also but may be too far away. Arts Ed was her dream college but their 6th form is fee paying. If she is looking at ballet/contemporary you can add Rambert, ENB & Central to the list. As a pp said don't be put off by the fact that these courses are Level 6 diplomas or degrees. That is normal in the dance world.

A little further down the pecking order but good if she wants to apply for vocational colleges aged 18 then there are Btec courses run by dance schools in some areas. Emil Dale is worth looking into if it is accessible location wise. This then gives the option of applying to post 18 only colleges afterwards such as LSC or Chichester Uni.

Do not be put off by mention of diplomas or degrees and think these are only for post-18. These are 16-plus specialist courses. All dancers I know left “normal” school, if they were at a normal school in the first place, after GCSEs.

Has she not discussed this with her current dance teachers? Presumably she goes to some sort of dance school, not just through her ordinary school? Has she taken exams?

My DDs dance school are really helpful to their students who want to pursue dance to the higher levels. Advice on where to study, assistance with audition pieces etc.

If she wants to be a dancer then she needs full time dance school, not BTEC or a level, and these will all involve some parental commitment. Her teachers should be able to guide her in the direction of suitable schools to audition for.

Sounds like a more general dance course is what is wanted, as opposed to pure classical ballet. The obvious one is Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, Diploma in Professional Dance. It’s on the DaDA list. There will be fierce competition.

I would tend to agree with parents. If she is that driven she can start to narrow down her options, by talking to her teachers ( where did they train, do they have history of sending pupils to such places, what type of school might suit her, what prep would she need to do for auditions etc), others a few years older who attend courses, the internet and sources of funding. Her parents need to set her parameters such as budget, what limits they may place on day/boarding, travel. She also needs to consider what happens if she does not make it (there are lots of good dancers but it is a very competitive world) or gets injured, and have some qualifications to fall back on.

There are plenty of options out there but until she decides whether to go down a purely vocational route at 16 or a school with pa specialists it is tricky to suggest specific choices. .

No, my experience is not of "friends of friends " but my ACTUAL DD and I have direct experience of dealing with the school as a parent. DD has actual, long term experience of the school and is close friends with many people who have been at the school in all the strands. But what do we know eh?

You are so rude that frankly you don't deserve any replies but I persisted because there is a young person involved here who has no idea how little high level performance training is available in this country and could lose her chance of a career by discounting the best option available to her.

However I'm sadly wasting my time clearly.

BTEC and A level dance will not help you be a professional dancer. Don’t bother with these. You need a full time dance school or performing arts school. For advice, look on balletcoforum or notapushymum.

There is a dance A level.

But best option is to google DaDA (dance and drama awards). They are available at 16 for dance students at a range of independent schools and colleges. I can't remember if the English Ballet School is one of them but I think it might be

If she's most into ballet, google Royal Ballet School. Financial support Is available there through the Music And Dance Scheme.

Both DaDA and MDS are obviously very competitive, but worth investigating.

What sort of dance? This really matters. Many full-time dance courses start at age 16, if you haven’t been to a full-time dance school before then. Some full-time dance schools have government funded or subsidised places. At 16 there are more options - degrees in dance start at age 16 and last three years. You can get a student loan for these. Eg, Central School of Ballet in London. But it’s very competitive to get in. Most student dancers have to live away from home to access the training they need.

Have a look at FE colleges, a BTEC in a performance subject might suit her. I don't think they do a dance only option but the definately do performing arts.

Do have a look at the private options as there can be some funding / bursaries.

What do her dance teachers suggest? It is likely they have sent pupils to similar courses to BRIT etc. What style of dance may influence choice too ie. Specialist ballet school, or more dance disciplines, drama and musical theatre too? How academic is she and where in the country? Would she board? Plenty of sixth forms offer btec Dance without being a vocational college so that may be worth exploring as a back up.

Bursaries at fee paying schools will involve extensive cooperation from parents in chasing these down, providing financial information and being interviewed. From what OP says no way would parents bother with this.

Dance schools are usually fee paying although scholarships may be available for the best dancers so she could look into that. FE college dance programmes will be of variable quality, she needs to visit and also look at destinations statistics for those courses. Of course it is entirely up to her if she won’t countenance the BRIT school but that means she has basically discounted the best option. Having such a good provider available may also have a knock on impact on the quality of students at the FE colleges.

So BRIT isn’t an option for her. Moving on...

How is that challenging to understand??

Not really sure why I have to justify her opinion a thousand times??

Good grief. Dread to think how you respond to be people who aren't trying to help you

Oh and will her current dance teacher talk to you about which colleges she likes and which less so? That might be helpful