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

[PorridgePot]

Dd is 12 ( a young Year 8) and has heart set on a career in the performing arts. She is interested in EVERYTHING! theatre, musical theatre, TV, film, you name it!

The thing is, i'm the opposite of a pushy parent and she certainly isn't the sort that has been doing ballet and acting since the age of 2!

So, how can i help equip her with the basic skills that she might need if she wants to pursue an adult career? is it too late already? so many 'stage school' types already have honed skilled by 12, don't they?

This is what we are doing:
-She goes to a rather low key Saturday musical theatre school already
-She is trying out Italia Conti Saturday school in Brighton soon
she has started doing LAMDA
-she has just resumed ballet (she did it for one year when she was 8yo and got a distinction at grade one)

I think that she has a reasonable amount of talent for singing, dance and acting but is no child prodigy! How do i ensure that my 'all rounder' has the best chance of pursuing her chosen career?

Do children like dd has any chance of getting into a decent performing arts sixth form? or do you have to be really polished by that stage? (if she is still very keen, she could board for sixth form.)

Can anyone advise me about any good classes in the Brighton area?
Or any schools (nationally) that we could consider further down the line (sixth form)? Or any general advice, for that matter.

TIA for any advice!

Brighton Academy
www.thebrightonacademy.com

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

His kiddie stuff will mean nothing for drama school btw.

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.