Morning! Spoke to BF yesterday whilst letting the DCs run themselves ragged in the park.
Ok, firstly with the Dance. They do look for creativity, but that doesn't necessarily rule your DS out, it means he would have to be quite lucky with whoever he auditions with. If he's auditioning with a load of people who are good and creative then he's going to get lost, if he's with people more like him then he could be OK......but then he could find he on a strand where he's struggling to fulfill what they expect from the students. I personaly have no idea what being creative in dance is, (BF seemed to though) so I'm just passing on what she's said here With her DS, he wanted to take the Musical theatre strand, but although he's great at the acting and singing side, he's not so hot on the dance (and all three are essential) so they decided against it because it was better to get in on another strand than not get in at all.
With the art/design strand, she said so long as he's got a portfolio of work, and you can get a teacher to give him a good reference he should be fine applying for that strand. She pointed out that doing that strand wouldn't stop him pursuing dance either, as you can take it as an extra class.
Also, although I think the School would deny it, the saturday school acts as a 'feeder' Apparently they are doing Art and Design from this September. If you can get him on this (difficult I know as you're in N London) you'll then be in a position to get a reference from a Brit School Teacher for the application........
HTH, apologies for crapness of typing, I'm just trying to get it down before I forget it all.