DD 6 & Stagecoach

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Have a daughter who loves singing and dancing. Probably better at singing but who also loves high energy dance and I want to encourage all of that just because she seems to enjoy it all so much.

Quite a lot of musical interests in the family i.e. adults in choirs etc but how best to encourage a little one with singing? I'm playing her lots of different music and encouraging her when she makes up her own songs.

Drama is also something she's shown an interest in and so I was wondering if Stagecoach might be a good idea?

I heard it's very high pressure which I don't really want for her. Also - lessons are 3 hours each Saturday lunchtime - and we like to go away some weekends and have family days out...

Can anyone advise?

My 6 year old DD goes to Stagecoach and it's not high pressure at all. She's abaolutely blossomed in terms of confidence since she started there. We prob miss a couple of sessions a term so that we can go away/do other things.

Totally agree with pp. there was no pressure in our stagecoach. One of my dds went for 10 yrs, started at 4 because she was very very clingy and shy I thought it might help her, and me somewhat, it totally helped in transforming her to become the lovely confident young woman she is today.. although she has no interest in the 'showbiz' world at all. 😬 but worth every penny imo.

Same experience here. Dd is now 8 and loves stagecoach. It's done wonders for her confidence. We try not to miss too many lessons. It's not very pressurised, but understandably any parts in the show go to children who are there more as they rehearse every week, and dd is getting good enough for occasional parts and I don't want her to miss out.

It’s not high pressure at all. Ds2 went from 4-14. Eventually moved because he wanted something that was a lot more pressure. (He initially joined for fun and that evolved).

Early stages included a lot of games etc. It is quite expensive but I guess you know everyone is DBS checked etc.

No pressure at our stagecoach either. Dd loved it (but we’ve had to stop due to the cost).

In terms of missing sessions. You can miss them at stagecoach, although maybe not just before a performance. Where Ds2 is now he would be roasted for missing any session, even if very short notice given. Stagecoach isn’t like that. It’s just a fun activity. Maybe try and get a morning session so you miss fewer sessions though (can go out afterwards?)

Early Stages (up to 7) is often an hour and half rather than 3 hours.

Interesting ...

The showbiz' element of it also freaks me out a bit. Is it a lot of over pronunciation and jazz hands??!

I'm hoping not...!

My daughter goes to a theatre school that isn’t part of the stagecoach group. So I can’t speak about stage coach specifically but theatre school is worth every penny! She’s only 4 but was dreaming about being in “shows” from a tiny age so I let her try it. It’s such a lovely chance for her to be with other children who enjoy the same things she does, and she has made so many friends. They had to work pretty hard for the big production they just did (rehearsals every Sunday as well as usual classes on a Saturday) but taking part in the production isn’t required. She loved taking part though

I expect the nature of each group depends very much on the individual teachers, but I have been so glad I let DD join her theatre school.

Jazz hands isn’t really the name of the game these days. Ds2 has been in west end shows and even in MT they don’t want jazz hands. The teachers are usually professionally trained so I wouldn’t expect them to be jazz hands these days.

And definitely no over pronounciation (although festivals can still be a bit eyes and teeth )

What sort of pressure??