BBO Dance Syllabus? Any good?

[Leafy2018]

Hi, does anyone have any experience of the BBO Dance syllabus please? We are thinking of moving and looking at new dance schools for our dd. I'd never heard of this before - she currently does RAD/ISTD. I'm a bit unsure as doesn't seem very well known here (UK).

Thank you.

My daughter did RAD & ISTD but almost every other dance school in my area is BBO. Some of them have excellent reputations and regularly send children to vocational schools and colleges.

My daughter started with ISTD and then moved to BBO, the curriculum is slightly different, but subtle something might be grade 3 in ISTD and grade 4 in BBO.
The BBO school was quietly enormously successful at getting students into professional training.

Thank you so much for those replies. I'm really pleased to read this! The lady who runs the dance school says it produces a really well rounded performer and it includes more 'armography' than other boards. I just wasn't sure whether it was a well regarded but it sounds as though it's as good as the others. Thank you very much.

@Leafy2018 my DD is in professional training now and despite only having only a year of ballet with her BBO teacher - her ballet teacher at college describes her as having and lovely open frame and beautiful arm placement.

If my daughter could go back again and choose she’d do ISTD Cechetti. But hardly anyone teaches Cechetti.

Thank you so much - really pleased as it makes some of our choices easier. I'm really keen to support our daughter in her passion but trying to balance it out with all other factors I. Moving is hard! @Lonecatwithkitten did your dd find it easy enough to transition between the two syllabi? And, would you mind sharing what she is studying now? Our daughter is in only inYear 9 but would ultimately like to go into professional training. How much dance did your daughter do at this stage? I'm trying to help my daughter think about her options but without narrowing it too much at this stage. She wants to do every genre under the sun as she feels this is the only way to give herself a shot at a future career in dance. She is our eldest so it's all a bit of a minefield to me and seems hard to access career advice on. No worries if you can't reply or don't want to share that

@Leafy2018 she is doing Cambridge extended diploma OCR in musical theatre ( equivalent if three A-levels) at Read College.
Year 9 she was grade 3 ISTD tap, had done prelim ballet (cecchetti) and was starting GCSE dance (contemporary). She took a break from tap to concentrate on singing. Then summer term year 10 she took BBO ballet (adult beginner/teen) and BBO grade 4 tap up. She auditioned for college December and got offered a place straight off.
She is now in lower sixth set 1/4 tap and 3/3 all other dance styles - mainly as she has very little jazz and commercial experience.

Oh yes transition her BBO teacher was very strict on good technique so some things she had to work hard to perfect.

It’s probably not a good comparison to say what my dd was doing in year 9 as she went to vocational school at age 11.

When she auditioned for Upper School (college/6th form) most auditions were pitched at about Intermediate Level. However this was auditioning for the Level 6 diploma (degree level) rather than the Level 3 Btec/UAL (A level equivalent). Some dancers go straight to Level 6 aged 16, others do two years at Level 3 first and start at 18 (unless you want to focus solely on classical ballet when very are 18. )

At age 11 my dd felt she was behind she hadn’t yet taken her Grade 3 in ballet, tap and modern) but she went straight into Inter Foundation classes at college and took her Inter F in year 8 and Intermediate in Year 9. She passed her Adv 1 tap in Year 11.

At college she was in B ballet (out of 2) A jazz (out of 2) & B tap (out of 4). She moved into A tap this year and us just waiting for exams to start again to take Adv 2 tap & Adv 1 ballet. She has some physical issues with pointe so can’t go further in ballet but that’s ok because she wants to focus on Musical Theatre.

(Incidentally Lonecat my dh is friends with Jamie Read. He’s an excellent singing teacher. Dh was involved when he took his training qualifications).

That should read she’s about to take Adv 1 Modern (not ballet) her exam was cancelled last year.

@Comefromaway we talk before about Jamie when you had a different user name. Jamie is amazing and team of people he and Helen have put round them is unreal.
DD has a singing lesson every week with the assistant MD of SIX.
Jamie's secret is that he is a demon tap dancer too, he takes DD for set 1 tap.
She is watching her upper sixth friends get into Urdang, Bird and Conti - seeing she is just a year of hard work away.

Hi all,

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for the replies, which I am reading now. I'm sorry - I didn't realise they were there as no email to alert me (I get for threads I'm watching but not ones I've started apparently?)

I will read tonight - thank you so much for taking the time to write them. It's extremely helpful.