Auditioning for 2016

[jesajo]

Thank you

[Silvery moon]

Hi I am new to this forum. My dd has been offered a place on Urdangs foundation course for 2016. She is currently in her first year at a relatively new MT college in leeds. She does enjoy her college however she wanted to try her luck in London. She would have loved to have got a place on the 3 yr diploma but is still pleased with foundation. Can anyone offer any experience of this course and how your kids got on with auditioning once they had completed be foundation course. She has only danced for a couple of years so she has a lot to learn! Really interesting reading all the posts. Thank you

[dancingmoll]

Has anyone got experience with the following email from Millennium!? We received it yesterday and aren't sure whether to celebrate her success or not! Also...we thought the degree at Millennium had been running for a year or so and that students could get funding aka student loan, is that not the case?

result email..:

We are delighted to inform you that, following your audition you have been provisionally accepted onto the BA (Hons) course in Musical Theatre starting in September 2016. The next stage of the application process is for our Head or Deputy Head of Studies to review your personal statement. If you have not already done so, please provide a personal statement. Please see link below for more guidance: https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate ... -statement

Following this you will receive the official result of your application to join Millennium Performing Arts.

[Sweep]

Hi dancingmoll, They have only just started the BA course, my dd was offered a place last year and she would have gone onto the degree course if they had completed all the documentation. So there may be some students who joined last September on the degree. I imagine the personal statement is a requirement from UCAS and so I would not worry unduly.

[2dancersmum]

I also think that the personal statement is likely to be a requirement from UCAS. Re funding - on their website it says:

"The BA (Hons) degree course will very likely be approved for funding for 2016-17 following a process called Designation. We should know the outcome of this process by the end of January 2016.



The cost of the first year of a three year full time course, available at MPA, is £11,750 in academic year 2015-16. It is likely that the course fee will increase for subsequent academic years by at least the rate of inflation or by a maximum of 3%, whichever is the greater. If funding is approved for the BA (Hons) in Musical Theatre course, £6000 will be attainable via a student loan. MPA offer a variety of payment options for payment of the remainder fee. "

So from that I would have thought they are expecting it all to be in place for September 2016 intake.

[tequila189]

Hi there, I'm new to this forum. My dd is currently in her first year of a BTEC level 3 extended diploma in dance in Leeds and isn't happy. She has only just sent off applications to Bird and Urdang so we'll wait and see but we are keen for her to finish her two year course. Does anyone have any experience of this? Is it worth her finishing the two years ? She has plenty of dance experience but has applied for dance and musical theatre at both bird and urdang as she loves that too.

We just aren't sure whether leaving the course after one year is the right way to go. I've suggested she uses this year to take extra drama and singing classes but she is adamant she wants to try and get in somewhere else as she feels the course she's on isn't challenging her enough. I'd be grateful of any advice from experienced parents.

[oscar]

It sounds like your dd has made her mind up. There is a huge difference between courses at different establishments . The contact hours alone can be a giveaway to how taxing the course is likely to be. Even outside of dance and musical theatre students change courses after a year as they haven't made the right choice. Bird and Laine are up there with the best so if your dd is set on making a career in dance it should be a positive move for her. The audition process is tough but hopefully her year at Leeds will put her in good preparation for this. Good luck to her she's obviously a determined young lady.

[DanceDiva]

Hi there, I'm new to this forum. My dd is currently in her first year of a BTEC level 3 extended diploma in dance in Leeds and isn't happy. She has only just sent off applications to Bird and Urdang so we'll wait and see but we are keen for her to finish her two year course. Does anyone have any experience of this? Is it worth her finishing the two years ? She has plenty of dance experience but has applied for dance and musical theatre at both bird and urdang as she loves that too.

We just aren't sure whether leaving the course after one year is the right way to go. I've suggested she uses this year to take extra drama and singing classes but she is adamant she wants to try and get in somewhere else as she feels the course she's on isn't challenging her enough. I'd be grateful of any advice from experienced parents.

Hi tequila189
I'm pretty sure Urdang have finished all their auditions for September now as they are on funding auditions this weekend for those that have been accepted.
My DD has an audtion at Bird at the end of April so you may be luckier with that one - otherwise you are looking at audtioning for 2017/18 entry now for those 2 colleges.
You may get a late audition with Bodyworks, Millennium or Performers but they are all usually finished by end of March.
In my opinion its certainly not something to be rushed so I'd take a deep breath and look for alternatives for her final year.
Move It at the ExCel is in a couple of weeks and we have always found that incredibly helpful for picking up info on colleges, watching showcases etc
Pre Audition courses we found were a god send, most colleges do them now and it would give your DD more insight into standards required.

From a parent coming to the end of our second year of auditions it is incredibly stressful, hugely expensive and all consuming for 6 months !
Good luck !

[tequila189]

Thank you Oscar and dance diva for your replies. we realise we are a bit late to start auditioning now but yes Bird do still have audition dates available. My dd has only just turned 17 so I have said to her that there is no rush as a few only accept from 18 anyway, but she seems to think that at her age she should be doing a much higher level course. We are at move it for the Friday and the Sunday and she has a show on the Saturday so a busy weekend! She is already down for the bird workshop and a couple of others so I'm hope it'll give us more of an insight.

She has already looked at audition preparation courses are there any that anyone recommends?

Thanks for the advice so far, this forum has been great!

[2dancersmum]

Good luck to your DD if she auditions this year. If not successful, my advice would be to hang on in there on her btec course and start researching thoroughly for when it finishes. There are so many colleges and courses and what suits one may not suit another. Remind her that the level 3 btec is a qualification in its own right and opens up doors to different courses and means of funding that will not be open to her without it - BA Honours courses for example where you need UCAS points from the level 3 btec qualification and would be eligible for student loans. My DD went to do the level 6 Trinity diploma in professional dance at 16 so we have no personal experience of the btec course but several of her friends have done it, at different colleges. I think , without exception, that none of them were impressed with the first year of the course - at least 2 of them auditioned like your DD at 17 (but did not gain funded places) but all felt the second year was a lot better - more contact hours and the levels increased. Out of the 5, 3 wanted to do dance courses and 2 wanted to do musical theatre. Both those wanting to do MT kept up separate singing and drama classes to college - one started last year (diploma course) and the other finishes her btec this year and currently has at least 3 offers. Two dancers are now in their second year of BA dance courses. The final dancer completes her btec this year but is giving up dance, having had 3 years of auditioning but with no offers.

[tequila189]

Thank you 2dancersmum for your reply. We have discussed other options and I don't want her to just go for the colleges that are still accepting auditions as it may mean she misses out on somewhere better, and she does agree. She has spoken to her tutor today who confirmed what you said in that the 2nd year of the BTEC is much harder and more challenging so in the mean time we are looking at summer schools for preparation, hopefully not the most expensive!

Thanks again xx

[Recless]

Hi Silvery Moon
I can definitely recommend Urdang Foundation course as my DD had a very enjoyable ( although also exhausting and intense) and successful year there Sept 2014 . She is now in her 1st year at London Studio Centre. She also had offers including dada's for Italia Conti, Bodyworks and Performers. The teachers at Urdang were fantastic. It was a very thorough course and the students were very well prepared for auditions. Most students on the course got offers from a range of schools.

[Robin64]

Hi tequila

I would look into workshops and summer schools - there are LOTS - Bird have an Easter one and summer and most colleges also do this eg GSA. They also do pre audition courses your DD would find useful. Many dance companies do one day workshops too eg RAD ENO, NYT have acting workshops and short courses eg audition prep open to all. Globe does Shakespeare workshops in the summer. Might be worth booking the Bird one - they do a pre voc MT course and MT/dance ones. I think they are pretty good value for what you get on the whole. There are quite a few dance workshops at Dancexchange in Birmingham and other CAT centres around the country.

[bethjinty66]

Trinity Laban, BA Musical Theatre .Does anyone have any knowledge of this ? Thanks

[mrs_lovett]

One of my students went to Trinity Laban this year and she's having a great time. She is definitely more of a vocalist than a dancer and had very limited dance training when she went so I doubt it's very dance orientated. Sounds more music based.
I'm not really in touch with her now so can't give much more info sorry but I know she loves it.