School for a talented dancer - Help!

[yogamatcalling]

I think I might be looking for the impossible, is there an independent school including boarding schools that can cater for a talented dancer who is strong academically? I don't want to narrow her options too early and send her to a vocational school at 13. She is passionate and committed to dancing, (ballet, modern, tap, street and latin & ballroom) she also sings and acts. We've looked at Hurstpierpoint college but they don't seem to be able to cater for G&T dancers, although have dance GCSE.
Any current parents of Legat school? I don't quite understand how this school works with Bede's.
TIA

[errorofjudgement]

How many hours per week do AB & Bedes students spend on dance studies?

[errorofjudgement]

Anyone?

[marl]

The Hammond. They are quite 'musical theatre' but lots of other dancers there too.

[CountessDracula]

Arts Ed in Chiswick has a dance program
I think they do boarding too

[SueSueDonahue]

@errorofjudgement It increases as they get older. The info is definitely on the website somewhere, but from memory it's 4-5 hours a week from years 5, 7-8 ish from years 7, then up to 10 for GCSE and even 20 hours from sixth form, depending on if doing the full vocational course plus other dancing.

They can give up normal PE earlyish if they like, or do it as well. They don't have to get changed for academic lessons inbetween ballet lessons. They wear a personalised tracksuit thing over their leotards.

My little one is in the prep school, and does 5 classes a week. Three ballet, one tap and one jazz. She is looking forward to doing more from year 7.

[christmaswreaths]

I thought Queen Margarets school in York was also ballet/boarding?

[cantkeepawayforever]

What is available to you locally?

DD, and a whole group of similar girls / boys, attend a range of local schools (excellent comprehensive, good comprehensive, decent but not stellar independent, single sex selective and mixed superselective grammars) and then congregate in one of the two excellent local dance schools for lessons in the 3 main genres (ballet, tap, modern theatre, all up to Adv 2 - most of the 14/15/16 year old 'serious' dancers are just taking their Advanced 1/2 grades, with distinctions being the norm and anything below a Merit in any exam almost unknown) in the evenings.

DD has, probably from Y6, danced 9-10+ hours a week. Because the dance and academic schools are all local, there is very little travel time involved - so DD usually gets home from academic school at 4, does homework till 6ish, eats and then goes out to dance for 2-3 hours. Timetables are adjusted for older students so that they do fewer, longer evenings, and have some available for concentrated study, and no dance at weekends.

Seems to work well. No dancer wanting to go on to further training at 18 (the most common exit point) has ever failed to get a place at a high quality college if they wish one, and very high GCSE and A-level grades are the norm as the academic schools are very good.

[SueSueDonahue]

@cantkeepawayforever As below, evenings after a proper full day didn't work for mine.

It worked when we were living abroad and if we had an outstanding dance school literally on our doorstep within walking or easy driving distance, I'd consider it!

But I think you are in the minority, lovely as it sounds.

[SueSueDonahue]

@christmaswreaths no, it's not the same there as the other schools mentioned.

[wwwwwwwwwwwwww]

Have you looked at Woldingham School?

[christmaswreaths]

@Suesuedonahue I would be very interested to understand the difference as I am in the exact same situation as the OP but I was not aware of these other schools, which I will now consider

[cantkeepawayforever]

Appreciate how lucky we are to have two outstanding schools within walking distance!

However, perhaps more relevantly for you, the private boarding schools (also within walking distance) do have pupils who attend both dance schools, just like the day pupils from the range of other schools. One also has teachers from one of the dance schools go into the school to give lessons. So if you could find a town with great dance schools and a good school, you might find that they have the kind of symbiotic relationship for good dancers that happens locally to me.

[SueSueDonahue]

@cantkeepawayforever sadly, that's also not always the case. Neither Abbots Bromley or Bede's allow non pupils to attend their dance classes. They simply have to concentrate on their own students and don't have the time for more.

I think that is the key difference between them a trad boarding school @christmaswreaths. Something like woldingham (an excellent school by the way!) and Queen Margaret's just offer dance classes as one of the numerous options they are quite good at. They might have a few students who are good at dancing, and maybe one or two over a decade that end up making it a career. But they are just not the same as they are not set up to offer the fully integrated dance in amongst/instead of academic subjects. They also do not have the staff to offer all the vocational qualifications that Bede's and AB do alongside A levels.

And they are separate again to the dance specialist schools (such as White Lodge, etc) as the two of them also have many students who do other things and don't dance at all. I like that mix very much personally as who knows what an 11 year old might change their mind to? 😂

As I said earlier though, my eldest is a very traditional boarding school because a more dance school wouldn't suit her (she likes extra niche things like astronomy and CCF!) and she will still leave school with grade 8 and Advanced Two. So a trad boarding school isn't bad! But she spends less than half the hours on it, and doesn't want to do it as a career.

I am so going to have to change my username after Christmas 😂 way too outing.

[cantkeepawayforever]

Sue,

Apologies, i obviously wasn't clear.

The cases I know about work the other way round - where traditional private schools with boarding have strong relationships with excellent local dance schools, so that their boarding pupils attend evening dance classes at the dance school along with pupils from lots of day schools. One also has curriculum dance lessons within the school day, and some 1:1 lessons, taught by staff from the dance school but in the boarding school.

So IME it is possible for serious dancers attending good boarding school to attend excellent local dance schools, rather than there having to be a compromise in either school or dance work

[SueSueDonahue]

@cantkeepawayforever ah, I get you!

That's actually what my eldest does exactly as her trad boarding school.

It's not something I'd recommend a more serious dancer though as she hardly manages much (maybe three lessons a week, five hour max). God knows how her recent exam went as her teacher discounted a distinction.

The teacher also puts her own dance school dancers first (classes don't run when "the show" is about to happen, etc.)

But I agree, it does work to an extent!

[cantkeepawayforever]

The ones I know do the usual amount of evening classes for their age / grade - 8 hours or so for the serious older ones, plus lessons in their own school - though they don't tend to take troupe lessons as their holidays don't match the ones when the troupe competitions take place.

Obviously day pupils from the same schools are brought by their parents / walk themselves to lessons the same as the state school pupils do.

[AlexanderHamilton]

At Hammond Years 7-11 get about 9 hours of ballet per week plus approx 6 hours of other dance styles per week.

6th Form (or Upper School) is a lot more as they only do 2 A levels the rest of the time from 9am - 6pm is dance/MT

[AlexanderHamilton]

Incidentally I was led to believe we'd be informed about the results of the AB scholarship auditions by the end of term but nothing yet.

[cantkeepawayforever]

I am absolutely not claiming that a boarding school + excellent local dance school can match the 'specialist dance schools' in terms of hours and range of dance. The BRB dancer from one of the local schools went to Elmshurst at around 13, IIRC, because the hours of pure ballet just weren't available.

However, it may reduce the level of compromise between dance and academics required for more generalist dancers or those who want an academic 'backup plan' - so pupils can leave with 10 high level GCSEs and 3 A / A*s at A-level, plus 3 Advanced 1 / 2 Distinctions and a place at a high quality post 18 dance college (or a place at a top university - it varies).

[errorofjudgement]

Thanks for the updates.
I was interested given the comments on the uniqueness of AB, Bedes and Hurtwood. Looking at the specialist schools, we only researched Tring (mainly because my DD is an actor more than a dancer)
At Tring the students in year 10 onwards have 22.5 hours per week of vocational training be it Dance, or a wider performance foundation, plus spend around around the same time studying for 9 GCSEs.
At 6th form, the timings are the same, but for 3 A-levels and the vocational is specialised, ie, Dance, Drama or MT.

The dance students also study for the Trinity Diploma either alongside or in place of, some of the A levels.
Plus additional dance training is available on Saturdays and is open to all students at the school regardless of their specialism.

[homebythesea]

WRT Tring for 6th form the reason why we rejected it was the feeling that the A levels were very much a sideline not a focus and the results are really not great. We (parents) have always felt the focus should be far more on academics until 18 to keep as many doors open as possible to reflect the reality that very few make a decent living out of performing, and a dance career is only one twisted knee away from being a disaster.

[cantkeepawayforever]

We (parents) have always felt the focus should be far more on academics until 18 to keep as many doors open as possible to reflect the reality that very few make a decent living out of performing,

Exactly. Couldn't agree more, which is why if DD chooses dance / DS chooses music performance it will be post 18, with A-levels from a good academic school under their belts.

[katymac]

Hmm, in order to get a place at a good post 16/18 vocational school, I wonder if some of you are under-estimating the level of dance you need to be at

DD was dancing upwards of 20 hrs aweek (in GCSE year) incuding 2 associate schemes & got 2 places no funding the first year she auditioned.

After a year FT training she got 7 places, 6 with funding

[cantkeepawayforever]

katymac,

Nobody who has applied from DD's dance school for FT post 18 training has ever failed to get a place - though of course not every 18 year old graduating from the school applies for post 18 training, as the principal is pretty good at indicating what is likely to be possible. I do remember a girl about 4 or 5 years ago who didn't get funding - it was the talk of the school because it is rare.

[katymac]

That is impressive

DD started dancing Ballet/modern etc at the start of yr 9 & only 1 boy from her school has ever gone before