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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Advice about dance and drama

8 replies

zsazsa468 · 08/08/2017 09:46

Hi all

I'm a complete newbie to the world of performing arts and I was after some advice on my dd.

Hopefully it's goes without saying on this board, that all I'm doing at this stage is following my dd's interests while looking at what would provide her the best foundation and options should she choose to carry on in this area later on. Also everything is subject to change as the social/school/extra curricular balances changes.

She currently does weekly
Acro 30mins
Ballet, Tap and Modern 1 hour
Musical Theatre 1.5 hour

The days and times at which these run allows for a good balance of downtime for family, play dates, trips out or lazy time at home.

She really looks forward to each class and I've really seen her confidence and language skills improve greatly as well as making lots of friends.

So I was wondering, going forward what else would compliment these sorts of classes? In my area the access to classes with a good standard are limited and have a long waiting list.

I've got her wait listed for singing as the list is so long for a 'good' school that when she is old enough her name will be near the top of the list and then I can ask her if this is something she would like to try out. I thought this would be better than her asking and then having to wait 2 years to get a place.

What age is LAMDA exams from? I

If the expense get too much or her interests change would Acro be the class to drop? As right now she's doing enough classes, so I'm thinking something would have to be dropped should she start asking to try something else.

Am I right in thinking that Musical Theatre is the best 'all rounder' and Ballet, Modern and Tap and the ones to keep up for a good foundation.

I'm also very impressed that in her MT class they give lots of experience of putting together costumes, scenery, scripts, make up and production so would widen dd's knowledge, interest and appreciation of what work goes on behind the scenes.

It's really confusing!

OP posts:
Minimusiciansmama · 08/08/2017 10:11

How old is she? If she really takes to the dance side, the combined hour class is likely to increase significantly. as they get older, their ability to handle more activities/longer classes increases anyway and you'll often find these things happen fairly organically as her strength increases. But yes if I were going to pick one to drop, it would be the acro. That said, there are benefits to having a class that basically is for fun. It's so exciting seeing them grow in their love for their activities and seeing them go from something that's just a small part of their lives to a really special part of them

Note3 · 08/08/2017 10:18

I began taking LAMDA exams at 6/7 but I'd be surprised if they didn't offer younger.

I tried dance and drama but didn't like dance so dropped that and followed a solely dramatic course from then on.

It sounds like a good balance that you're doing now and you're likely to find your child wishes to chop and change at some point so just see how it goes and be guided by them.

GraciesMansion · 08/08/2017 11:16

You don't say how old she is but in general to do anything 'performing arts' at a high level (career level, when she gets to that age) you would be keeping the drama class, ballet class and adding singing when she can.

GraciesMansion · 08/08/2017 11:18

^anything performing arts aside from straight drama I should have said.

thepumpk1neater · 08/08/2017 12:41

Yes, agree. The acro would the first to go.

What age is she?

nonicknameseemsavailable · 08/08/2017 14:44

one of mine was 6 when she took her first Speech and Drama exam and the other 7. that was with a different board to LAMDA but when I was younger I did LAMDA and New Era and they basically do the same things.

I agree depending on her age the 1hr ballet/tap/modern class will have to lengthen if she wants to do dancing. From being 5/6 mine have done an hour each of ballet, tap and modern and another hour of a different dance style as well, 4hrs in total. Some of the weekend stage schools round us(not sure how to describe them) do a 3hr session which is singing, drama and dancing (I assume 1 hour of each) and they do shows and if they want to do exams then they can but I suspect they have to pay extra lessons to prepare for them. might be worth looking at something like that. I would agree the acro would be the one to go if she was really performing arts focused but of course she may decide that she really likes gymnastics so....

AlexanderHamilton · 08/08/2017 20:31

I replied on NAPM but I have two child performers, one at vocational school, I used to run MT classes & dh is a vocal coach.

4 is very young. At that age dd did a 30 minute ballet class & a 90 minute Musical theatre class (dance, drama, singing). She did a 10 minute Lamda session a week as part of her MT class.

That was more than enough. At age 4 it's about being creative, learning to move in time & using the imagination.

Dd's dance school didn't start modern until age 5/6. Dd didn't actually increase her classes until she was 7 when she added Tap & modern & did 3 hours of stagecoach per week. As she got older I wished in hindsight she'd added more ballet.

Dh wouldn't advise individual singing lessons until an older age (dd began in secondary) up til then children tend to learn best in group classes.

2014newme · 09/08/2017 12:01

My dad's started lamda at 7 but they just do performing arts for fun at stagecoach. They aren't auditioning etc it's not where their interests lie. They really enjoy performing arts but have lots of other hobbies.

How old us your dd op?

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