Lots of luck to all auditionees! & a place to put results

[Danceandsing]

Hello everyone! Just wondered how all the DC's have got on? The 3 years have flown by and their experiences may help those yet to audition. My DD has just graduated from Bird and it's fair to say it's been a tough experience but she did it! She did fantastically well and came out with a first! Year 2 was the hardest by far and she's had various injuries throughout the 3 years but was lucky enough to be able to defer her assessments and complete them later. Full days from 8.30 to 5 or 6 and later when it's showtime. About 120 have graduated with around 70 of these on the degree but 2016/17 intake is close to 200! Not sure how accurate that is but there are definitely a larger number of students in years 1& 2 than the current graduating year. That said the standard of this years show was outstanding for all years ( particularly the graduating year but then I am biased!) Hope this helps.

[jasmine2]

Hello everyone! Just wondered how all the DC's have got on? The 3 years have flown by and their experiences may help those yet to audition. My DD has just graduated from Bird and it's fair to say it's been a tough experience but she did it! She did fantastically well and came out with a first! Year 2 was the hardest by far and she's had various injuries throughout the 3 years but was lucky enough to be able to defer her assessments and complete them later. Full days from 8.30 to 5 or 6 and later when it's showtime. About 120 have graduated with around 70 of these on the degree but 2016/17 intake is close to 200! Not sure how accurate that is but there are definitely a larger number of students in years 1& 2 than the current graduating year. That said the standard of this years show was outstanding for all years ( particularly the graduating year but then I am biased!) Hope this helps.

congratulations to your DD. My DD has just graduated from Bodyworks Cambridge with a distinction in the level 6 Trinity Diploma, she also received the Acting/Triple Threat Award!
She is currently teaching at the Theatre School at Bodyworks and is also in rehearsals for one of two professional jobs that she successfully auditioned for! Busy busy time but she is loving it all ..
Good luck to all the graduates from all of the colleges/unis xx

[Dance&Smile]

DD1 has also just graduated from Bird with a first class honours degree! The three years have flown by so quickly and I can't believe it is over! I did love the show- the theme was more to my taste this year. Some of the graduates have gone on to amazing opportunities whilst many of the others have still to find their first professional job or an agent. When I look at the larger number of students on year 1 and 2 I wonder if they will find work in their chosen career, it is so tough. My DD has been to auditions where there are 100s of people auditioning and they only choose 1 or 2 people to offer contracts to at the end.

[chivers61]

About 120 have graduated with around 70 of these on the degree but 2016/17 intake is close to 200! Not sure how accurate that is but there are definitely a larger number of students in years 1& 2 than the current graduating year. That said the standard of this years show was outstanding for all years ( particularly the graduating year but then I am biased!) Hope this helps.

Some of the graduates have gone on to amazing opportunities whilst many of the others have still to find their first professional job or an agent. When I look at the larger number of students on year 1 and 2 I wonder if they will find work in their chosen career, it is so tough. My DD has been to auditions where there are 100s of people auditioning and they only choose 1 or 2 people to offer contracts to at the end.

I feel a little uncomfortable about this post but have decided to go with it anyway as I feel it needs said and Dance&Smile has said it in so many words above. Apologies in advance to all those with DCs at Bird but this is not personal, it is a great college turning out great graduates who are amongst the best and as someone who has a DC in the industry I do sincerely wish them all well. Indeed my DC wanted to go to Bird but as I have mentioned in another post we abandoned it because of the way they string out their reserve list process. Had DC ended up there she would have been very happy. So as I say the point I am making is about their strategy and developments in the context of the industry as a whole.

I totally agree with you Dance&Smile. Bird are turning out graduates in industrial quantities already and if the 200 mentioned above is correct then it has stepped up to another level and should be of great concern to DCs, parents and the industry. On the one hand it would be easy to think that it's a good thing as it means that 80 more DCs will get accepted now so as parents there is a reason to be relieved, in the short term. As Dance&Smile correctly points out there is a risk that there will not be enough work when they all graduate. When they graduate they are not just up against their graduating year but against everyone who graduated in the 5 to 10 previous years who will also be in auditions. So by the time the current year 1's graduate Bird alone may have produced 600 performers including their year. The situation will be all the worse if the other colleges start to turn out prolific quantities of performers. Also they are unlikely to be turning out 200 graduates all of equal top quality. So the question arises as to how many will get agents (external not in house). Are there enough agents out there to cope with such numbers? Once again no transparent stats or information are available to parents will not know what the potential outcomes are.

Also it is interesting to contemplate what might be happening to funds generated by 200 students in each of three years each paying an average of say £11,000 (some will be paying £9,000 (BA) and some £13,000 (diploma). That makes a total income of 200 x 3 x £11,000 = £6,600,000 per annum. Even if you knock off something to cover bursaries and hardship funding it's a huge budget. But then again it may not all be going on salaries and running costs. Perhaps a good part of what is driving the prolific increase in numbers is to fund new premises which I recall being mentioned in a presentation. There are many establishments turning out performers as good as Bird and better in less ideal premises. Unless the idea is to increase numbers even further in future in an attempt to dominate the market by being the biggest? There is a great deal of merit in that strategy from a business perspective.

Apologies if I'm getting carried away but there is something in this which doesn't sit well with me and I'm happy to hear other perspectives as maybe I'm missing the point.

[jasmine2]

WOW over 100 in a year!! That's why we chose Bodyworks (DD was offered a place at Bird, Urdang etc) as it has no more that 35 in a year! very small, very friendly - very hard work - but so much more individual.. All were offered agent representation, and several graduated with work under their belts, or with work starting immediately after.

I know that the above mentioned establishments are excellent too, but I too would be concerned with the amount of students in a year.

Good luck to all xx

[RosaMac]

Looking at the programme for the summer show at Bird, there are 119 students in the graduate year and 160 in the first year. It is a big college but the standard of teaching is fabulous. I think because most of the colleges offer student funding for the degree course they can basically take as many as they like. I notice that Performers will be starting a degree course which will probably mean their intake will double. The Hammond started a degree course a couple of years ago and their intake is now approx 90 for diploma/degree, when previously it was 30 for diploma.

[jennifer1972]

About 120 have graduated with around 70 of these on the degree but 2016/17 intake is close to 200! Not sure how accurate that is but there are definitely a larger number of students in years 1& 2 than the current graduating year. That said the standard of this years show was outstanding for all years ( particularly the graduating year but then I am biased!) Hope this helps.

Some of the graduates have gone on to amazing opportunities whilst many of the others have still to find their first professional job or an agent. When I look at the larger number of students on year 1 and 2 I wonder if they will find work in their chosen career, it is so tough. My DD has been to auditions where there are 100s of people auditioning and they only choose 1 or 2 people to offer contracts to at the end.

I feel a little uncomfortable about this post but have decided to go with it anyway as I feel it needs said and Dance&Smile has said it in so many words above. Apologies in advance to all those with DCs at Bird but this is not personal, it is a great college turning out great graduates who are amongst the best and as someone who has a DC in the industry I do sincerely wish them all well. Indeed my DC wanted to go to Bird but as I have mentioned in another post we abandoned it because of the way they string out their reserve list process. Had DC ended up there she would have been very happy. So as I say the point I am making is about their strategy and developments in the context of the industry as a whole.

I totally agree with you Dance&Smile. Bird are turning out graduates in industrial quantities already and if the 200 mentioned above is correct then it has stepped up to another level and should be of great concern to DCs, parents and the industry. On the one hand it would be easy to think that it's a good thing as it means that 80 more DCs will get accepted now so as parents there is a reason to be relieved, in the short term. As Dance&Smile correctly points out there is a risk that there will not be enough work when they all graduate. When they graduate they are not just up against their graduating year but against everyone who graduated in the 5 to 10 previous years who will also be in auditions. So by the time the current year 1's graduate Bird alone may have produced 600 performers including their year. The situation will be all the worse if the other colleges start to turn out prolific quantities of performers. Also they are unlikely to be turning out 200 graduates all of equal top quality. So the question arises as to how many will get agents (external not in house). Are there enough agents out there to cope with such numbers? Once again no transparent stats or information are available to parents will not know what the potential outcomes are.

Also it is interesting to contemplate what might be happening to funds generated by 200 students in each of three years each paying an average of say £11,000 (some will be paying £9,000 (BA) and some £13,000 (diploma). That makes a total income of 200 x 3 x £11,000 = £6,600,000 per annum. Even if you knock off something to cover bursaries and hardship funding it's a huge budget. But then again it may not all be going on salaries and running costs. Perhaps a good part of what is driving the prolific increase in numbers is to fund new premises which I recall being mentioned in a presentation. There are many establishments turning out performers as good as Bird and better in less ideal premises. Unless the idea is to increase numbers even further in future in an attempt to dominate the market by being the biggest? There is a great deal of merit in that strategy from a business perspective.

Apologies if I'm getting carried away but there is something in this which doesn't sit well with me and I'm happy to hear other perspectives as maybe I'm missing the point.

Bird is a fantastic college and my DD had a great audition day there. One of the reasons she didm't accept her offer was because she felt it was just too big. When we were waiting for her it was the end of the day. I commented to my husband about the never-ending flow of students passing by us, we are talking about hundreds and that was a concern for me.

[Bambi]

Well done to everyone who graduated , my DD has also graduated from Bird and has had a fab 3 years and I can understand everyone's point of view from great teaching and there year was the first larger class numbers from previous years . The show was amazing with 120 graduates doing an fantastic job , but when such large numbers and only going to get bigger not everyone is show cased the same .

[islandofsodor]

This was something that was pointed out to dd by her current teachers.

We love Bird, my husband used to teach there, dd had a fabulous time at their summer school but the school dd is currently at in Lower School (Hammond) have had 100% success rate in their graduate year getting agents or job offers (if they wanted to as some more classical/contemporary dancers don't want or need agents).

Agent showcases can only last an hour (or the agents simply won't come or will even walk out).

Saying that its a balancing act as the training there is top notch.

[GillyM]

Can I just check those figures are right for Hammond? I thought it more like 25 - 30 on each? Thanks

[als17]

Well done to all your DCs who have graduated, a huge achievement!

My DD decided to take another route. After studying MT from the age of 2 she made the decision, at 16, that she wanted to pursue straight Acting. She took the local college MT BTEC Diploma as it was a better course than the straight acting, and also joined a local Shakespeare company. She also kept up her dance and singing classes. At 18 she auditioned for Acting School but, as we all know, it is immensely difficult to get in at 18. She was, however, offered a Foundation at East 15 and has spent the past year there. This has cemented her determination and given her a huge boost to her education. She was then offered the BA at East 15 and will start that journey in September. I've never seen her happier!

We went to see the Foundation End of Year Play and it was amazing. Only 9 of the 60 were offered the BA but they were all excellent actors which just goes to show how difficult it is to get a place at one of the top 10.

[Danceandsing]

Well done to all the graduates and best of luck for the future.

I agree with everyone's concerns about student numbers but with the DADA pot being so unpredictable and not guaranteed I can fully understand while all the colleges are moving from Diploma to Degree.

For us the most important thing was being able to fund it and as we are in the middle income bracket that has to pay for everything from the bottomless money pit everyone assumes we have and as we don't live in cloud cuckoo land with a goose that lays golden eggs, diplomas and private colleges were totally out of the question so that left Bird and Urdang (and Urdang is still £3000 over the £9000 available in funding!)

We are grateful to Bird for giving my daughter the opportunity.

[2dancersmum]

GillyM - I'm not sure that those figures are right for the Hammond. The diploma has always been up to 40 students but they rarely take on more than 30 in a year and remember that this 30 on the diploma is spread across 2 separate courses. They have the first year in common but the 2nd and 3rd years are on either Professional Dance or Musical Theatre and with the exception of tap, the two courses are taught separately so 30 does not reflect class size or competition to get showcased. The degree course is auditioned and taught separately again and I was under the impression that that was also roughly 30 a year - so there are now about 60 students on the degree course as it has been running for 2 years - but I thought 60 was total current number of students not yearly intake. Re the degree course numbers that is only the impression I have got from a friend whose daughter goes there though. My DD graduated before the degree course started.

[islandofsodor]

I can confirm that the intake for the degree course also is up to 40 students but more likely to be around 30 students.

[GillyM]

Thanks- that is very helpful