Dilemma about changing classes

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Hilltop
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Dilemma about changing classes

Post by Hilltop »

My DD currently goes to an Italia Conti Associate school on a Saturday but although has greatly improved since she joined, she is finding it stressful and too serious. She does ballet, acro, modern, jazz, singing, musical theatre, tap, street, acting, private LAMDA and private acro there (it's a long day 9am-6pm). She also does ballet and tap on a Monday, private singing on a Wednesday, Italia Conti tech dance class on a Thursday, piano lessons during school time on Thursday and a drama class at a local theatre school on a Friday.

She wants to give up the Italia Conti on a Saturday and join a nearby theatre school that her friend goes to, which is 10am-3:45pm on a Saturday and from what I can gather, 'just' put on a performance each year, rather than formal training. They do have private LAMDA there.

I feel this would be good for her to join the theatre school as she ultimately enjoys the performing side rather than the all-day training, but I'm really worried about her giving up all her classes at Italia Conti. She's happy to keep her week classes although she'd probably give up the Thursday tech class and the Friday drama class.

So my question is is this the right thing to do? And if she did change to the Theatre school on the Saturday, what classes (mainly dance) should she be doing during the week to keep her standard up? She's hoping to do an 6th form extended diploma in musical theatre at 16 and she's 13 now. She's currently doing grade 5 ballet, grade 4 modern and grade 2 tap at Italia Conti.

Many thanks in advance for any replies.
2dancersmum
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Re: Dilemma about changing classes

Post by 2dancersmum »

my gut feeling for a 13 year old is that she needs to enjoy her classes. A career in performing arts is not easy and they really need to want to do it so keep her happy so that she keeps learning and does not lose her enthusiasm and passion.

MT is dance, singing, acting so some sort of class/experience in all 3 disciplines would be ideal.

From the dance point of view I would say that ballet and modern , (or jazz) are the most important disciplines to continue. I am more on the fence regarding tap as my DD had never done tap before starting at vocational college but it may well appear in some mt college auditions - I'm not sure on that one. If you can look at what an audition day consists of at some of the colleges/universities your DD may be interested in for post 18 study, you will get an idea of what areas she needs to concentrate on.

My DD is a professional dancer , having graduated from vocational college with a level 6 trinity diploma almost 4 years ago. Her college auditions included ballet, modern, vocal and acting sessions as have most of her post college auditions. She has never been asked to do more than cartwheel in an audition. Tap and street she only started at college and have been required in some post college auditions - but as I say she auditions as a dancer not a singer/dancer/mt performer.
islandofsodor
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Re: Dilemma about changing classes

Post by islandofsodor »

That is one heck of a long day.

My dd is aged 17 now and in the first year of a musical theatre diploma. (same place as 2dancersmum) She did go to a vocational school at age 11 but up until that age attended Stagecoach for 3 hours on a Saturday plus 1:1 LAMDA, an extra hour of dance troupe once every 2-3 weeks, plus did 45 min ballet, tap and jazz classes at a local dance school.

She felt (and still does) that although it means more work for the parent in terms of transporting them it was far better for her in terms of developing technique and physical development for her dance classes to be spread out over the week than all on one day. At vocational school they are there 9am-6pm but only 2-3 hours of dance, the rest is academic classes apart from 2 week summer show rehearsals. The most they did on a Saturday was 3 hours. 9-6 on top of the additional classes she does doesn;t seem to give her any down time which is very important.
Hilltop
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Re: Dilemma about changing classes

Post by Hilltop »

Many thanks for the replies. After chatting with my daughter more, I think we are going to cut back on some of the lessons on a Saturday when the new timetable for Sept comes out, as she’s decided that although it’s hard work there, she appreciates the standard of teaching and how far she has come and doesn’t want to lose that. Plus she’s made some good friends there.
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