Anyone know about training options in musical theatre/drama?

[Giraffesdotty]

DD is seriously considering this as a possible future career but I have no idea what the options are. She is 18 and taking A levels this summer, so this would be instead of uni.
Her singing and acting are pretty good but she has no dance training - is it too late for her to pick this up? I'm very aware that the whole industry is super competitive with very high rates of unemployment, but she is passionate about performing and can't imagine doing anything else.
Any advice gratefully received!

Dd is doing MT at Chichester. She had done some dance, but not huge numbers. Some of the people on her course did none before. It's looking for talent rather than coached.

Thank you, that's interesting. She is considering a 1 year foundation course run locally, while working to earn some money. Hopefully that will give her a better idea of whether it's the right route for her or not.

DD took a year out.

They assess them at the beginning and put them in dance groups depending on how much they've done.
I'd suggest if she's serious she at least sees if she can find a 1-2-1 lesson once a week for the next year, that does jazz at least. It'll give her a head start once she starts if nothing else. They'll also potentially help her for video auditions.
I did say to dd for the auditions that I wasn't buying her ballet shoes, because if she had them, they might assume she'd done lots of ballet recently, and judge accordingly!

One of the reasons she liked Chichester was because they said they weren't looking for the finished product, but looking for people who would train. She applied for both the musical theatre (performance) and triple threat course there, and was offered a third course [musical theatre (music)] which was another thing she liked about them - they said if you auditioned and they thought you were suited to a different course they offered, then they would offer that. She hadn't really looked at that course before (it was new the previous year) but when she did, she thought they were right; it did suit her better.

My friend did a musical theatre degree without much dance experience. She then spent four years trying to get employment in London before returning to uni to do a different degree. Fortunately she had parents who paid for her second degree. She now does am dram and runs a little musical theatre school for kids one night a week with another person who teaches dance. She does that as well as her usual full time job.

I must admit that it's the potential employment prospects (or lack of) which are putting me off a bit...
Thanks for your advice anyway - I'll have a look at Chichester.

@Giraffesdotty has your daughter applied for any musical theatre courses? Most of the funded drama school degrees are still via UCAS or CUCAS ( basically UCAS for conservatoires). There are so many courses with different areas of focus/specialisms. Some smaller groups, some acting or dance focus, some triple threat. Other things to look at what type of work she wants to do after? Musical theatre, cruise work, mix of mt/ straight acting etc. There is a thread on here for 2024 applications which might be useful for you to read. I’ve gone through it this year with my child as have many others on that thread so there would be lots of helpful advice.

There are also lots of high quality foundations around to up her skills if she isn’t ready yet. Some attract student funding and not all are London based.

This thread might be helpful to you too.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/highereducation/4981184-drama-school-auditions-2024-actingmt?page=1

Thank you @AnnieLane that’s the thread I meant but wasn’t clever enough to link it 😂

Thank you both. Since I last posted, DD has been accepted onto a 1yr foundation course at a local college of performing arts, which she is thrilled about. My DH is happy enough for her to do this as a gap year thing but a bit sceptical about her going on to study for a further 3 years - he is unsure about the whole industry, career prospects and the general uncertainty of it all...but it is the only thing she's passionate about! I'll have a look at the thread you've linked.