Dance GCSE

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Dd is considering taking Dance as one of her GCSEs. If anyone else's dc has done it, I'd love to hear about their experience. Did they enjoy the course? How did they find the practical and written elements? Did they do well overall?

No experience, though both DDs started drama GCSE (one completed, one dropped our due to pandemic).

Does she understand balance for lessons between theory and practical?
Does she understand how it is assessed?
Does she get on with others for group tasks?
Does she already have a solid dance background?

She has been dancing since she was 3 and is doing ballet and contemporary dance now. It's her passion, she is okay in group tasks.

The pupils I have taught that did dance have loved it and several went on to do at higher levels (including degree). They can specialise at post 16 in performing arts schools like LIPA in Liverpool - dance/musical theatre etc

Don’t underestimate the written part. I have seen extremely talented dancers ace the practical aspect and struggle with the written exam. If your DD wants to go onto a dance career then a GCSE in it won’t matter one bit, but great technique and ability (which you invariably get from classes in outside school) will.

My daughter did it through her dance school. She really enjoyed it, particularly the choreography bits. She did fine on the written parts, it was just exam technique and practice. Make sure they get lots of practice at the written. Overall she got a great grade, everyone in her class got 7-9

I did an A level in dance, the written work wasn't too bad, the practical side of it was harder for me. But I enjoyed the course overall

Dd did GCSE Dance. Her and a friend did it as an extra as it wasn't officially run her year. Her and friend did all the work/course work themselves with some help from the teacher. She did it in one year, year 10. She loved it and has just finished Dance A level.

My youngest DD did dance gcse and got a grade 9. She danced twice a week out of school and loved the dance lessons in school
and found the theory ok too. Was a class of 9 so lots of good teaching

My youngest does a lot of dance outside of school. She is wanting to do GCSE dance, but her dance teacher keeps saying PE is the better option! She hates PE as isn't sporty but is an amazing dancer, so her head is all over the place. This thread has been interesting to read 👍

DD did dance GCSE, she really enjoyed it and did well getting an 8. She did ballet and Tap classes out of school and also MT training so she had a lot of other dance training. She did go on to vocational sixth form, but that was achieved by her outside school technical training, in school dance did not have enough basic ballet/jazz technical training.

if you pick a dance GSCE can you drop another GSCE.
for the ppl who did Dance A level, are useful for any university?

My daughter did dance gcse. I was sceptical however I now feel it was probably her most useful subject in terms of the skills she's taken from it. Confidence, communication, critique, team work, leadership. I've been super impressed. She doesn't dance outside of school (but has a strong gymnastics background). The theory is substantial but manageable. She's predicted an 9 and will be going on to A level dance.

someone asked about whether A level dance "counts" towards UCAS points for uni. As a uni admissions tutor I can confirm it absolutely does.

My dd has just done PE GCSE. Dance is one of the options for a sport for it so it isn’t completely off the wall.

However, the way GCSE PE works is a follows:-

30% Paper One - which is about the human body and movement. Completely theoretical. Closest other subject is biology.
30% Paper Two - which is about sports psychology, drugs, health, fitness, wellbeing. Completely theoretical. Closest other subject is biology / psychology / sociology.
3 * 10% of three sports. Dance can be one of these. But only one. All about how well you do at the sport. (Eg my daughter had athletics for one of hers and knew what cutting 2 seconds off her PB for the 1500m would do for her marks.)
10% coursework which about about analysing performance. You choose one sport for this.

So 20% of it would be dance / dance related, 20% would be two other sports and 60% would be academic stuff.

The type of child who does best at this is one who is good at science and also good at several different sports.

Just showed this thread to dd and she found it so helpful. She'll choose dance.