Auditioning for 2017

[chivers61]

I've just counted the hours up from a copy of last year's timetable & there are a lot more than 19 hours & that's not including rehearsal periods.

That's great news. Baffles me a bit that they're not advertising how many hours they offer as many will be put off by the 19 hours. Especially if it's many more and approaching 30. They're underselling the course.

[chivers61]

Couple of things which are worthy of highlighting. Do the ISTD extra ballet/jazz exams referred to above cost extra? .

My daughter is in Lower School & I have to pay RAD/ISTD exam entry fees (MDS funded students don't) but I don't pay extra for the classes.

Apologies not sure I understand your reply as I'm not sure what Lower School DD is at and what MDS is. My point was that I was wondering if the Hammond ballet/jazz classes/exams which are "offered" cost extra. Maybe she's in Lower School at Hammond in which case I understand.

[islandofsodor]

Yes, my daughter is in Lower School at The Hammond. (Years 7-11). Upper School is the 3 year diploma course aged 16 plus then there are the degree students.

MDS is the government funding for dance that pays for talented children to attend the Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst, Tring & Hammond. My daughter does not get this funding. Children with this type of scholarship get RAD exam fees included.

[2dancersmum]

chivers61 - I cannot give you an accurate answer as to if the RAD and ISTD classes at Hammond extra cost as I do not know. The classes themselves were included at no extra cost for all diploma students, regardless of whether they were on a DADA or self financed but exam entry fees were paid by the student. As I said my DD attended before the degree course started.

Despite the fact that my DD did the diploma, I have to say that I do disagree with the comment "Just don't see anything coming from a MT uni course unless teaching is the goal " My DD has met plenty of people working as performers who have degrees from MT uni courses. All courses and colleges are going to have advantages and disadvantages but at the end of the day whether you get the job or not is down to the audition and not where you have trained. Obviously in the graduate year, a good showcase and lots of industry contacts from a college can help get a student a step on the ladder - perhaps entry to a 'closed' audition or initial contact with an agent or casting director but it is down to the student as much as the college. It is a guess admittedly, but I would suggest that if ever you could get a list of every graduates destination/role 6 months after graduation, 1 year later, 5 years later etc I would imagine that regardless of college or source of training you will get a real spread from those who are constantly working as and earning their living as performers (range from west end to princess parties), those that spend half the year working (few months work, few months auditioning), those that have branched into parallel fields (become agents, vocal or dance teachers, musical directors, choreographers) and those that after 5 years are doing regular 9-5 jobs.

[jaybeeyellow]

Hi Lawn
I understand what you are saying. My daughter has a friend who also got in at 18. Very academic student, as well as having an outstanding voice. However, I would have to say that she is not the best of actors, and can't really dance. I would say that GSA really like singers. If you are an excellent singer and have the right academics, I would say that you stand a better chance.

[2girlsmum]

Thanks 2girlsmum
Well 2 places to audition yet, then decide between year off and work or take the foundation place. I am in favour of the foundation but DH not so sure yet. It seemed to be foundation students getting into GSA and why not I guess? They have had a year of training already so must be a good bet for the degree. It was sad to see one student very upset not to get picked after doing the foundation there too. I am sure they will get another great offer though. DD's confidence is taking a knock, she seems quite low but hopefully she will bounce back, she is normally quite resilient. Has your DD decided for sure on where she is going yet?

Good luck for yr DDs 2 auditions still to go. Hope something comes along quickly to put the smile back on her face.

DD is at Arts Ed today, which is her top favourite but will have to wait and see whether she gets through to stage 2 this afternoon. We don't think she will get to audition at Laine but we are taking that as it's just not meant to be.

Of the offers she already has she would be very happy to go to any of them but Bird is top of this list (but on reserve list for funding), next would be Performers but also waiting to hear about funding here too. Back up is the degree at Millennium.

Looks like more waiting for us.

[Munchpot]

Hi All

Just spoken to the admissions officer at Trinity Laban and she's just said that they hope you have the MT offers entered into UCAS by the of the week!

Re DADA's - Spoke to Tracey Lee at Move It about Performers DADA offers. She said they have had their pot of funds agreed and are working through the list . Hoping to make funding offers from mid April - said 'you'll see when they are being made as people will be tweeting about them' She also said they will offer the boys funding list first, then move onto girls.

She also explained about the offers process and said that some people will hold DADA offers for more than one college and it's not until they do their 'admin paperwork similar to UCAS' that they get told that applicants are holding more than one offer. Tracey said when they get told that information they write to the applicant asking them to make their choice so they can pass the funding on to others if the original applicant doesn't want Performers. She also said it's not unheard of for people lower down on the list to not hear until August!

So much for hoping it'll all be over soon!

[chivers61]

I've just counted the hours up from a copy of last year's timetable & there are a lot more than 19 hours & that's not including rehearsal periods.

Think we may be talking at crossed purposes based on your other posts and timetable information. The "19 hours" thread was initially about contact hours for the BA Degree course and not the lower school which your daughter is attending I think and presumably it's that timetable you've used.

[chivers61]

chivers61 - I cannot give you an accurate answer as to if the RAD and ISTD classes at Hammond extra cost as I do not know. The classes themselves were included at no extra cost for all diploma students, regardless of whether they were on a DADA or self financed but exam entry fees were paid by the student. As I said my DD attended before the degree course started.

Despite the fact that my DD did the diploma, I have to say that I do disagree with the comment "Just don't see anything coming from a MT uni course unless teaching is the goal " My DD has met plenty of people working as performers who have degrees from MT uni courses. All courses and colleges are going to have advantages and disadvantages but at the end of the day whether you get the job or not is down to the audition and not where you have trained. Obviously in the graduate year, a good showcase and lots of industry contacts from a college can help get a student a step on the ladder - perhaps entry to a 'closed' audition or initial contact with an agent or casting director but it is down to the student as much as the college. It is a guess admittedly, but I would suggest that if ever you could get a list of every graduates destination/role 6 months after graduation, 1 year later, 5 years later etc I would imagine that regardless of college or source of training you will get a real spread from those who are constantly working as and earning their living as performers (range from west end to princess parties), those that spend half the year working (few months work, few months auditioning), those that have branched into parallel fields (become agents, vocal or dance teachers, musical directors, choreographers) and those that after 5 years are doing regular 9-5 jobs.

Hi 2dancersmum. Totally agree with you to a point about it being all about the audition and not the college/Uni you attended. I've been guilty in reflection of implying that there are two categories of course - Uni and "London college" for lack of a better term. What on reflection I really mean is that there are courses where you will leave with a higher chance of succeeding because if you have done 40+ hours a week and have an agent, alumni and contacts then you're more than one step up the ladder. Of course some people will make it whatever including some who have had no training. But the quality and quantity of the training does matter. If it doesn't then we're all wasting our money big time.

You are of course totally correct about what constitutes success post-training and it will be different for everyone. That said if you're desired success is the West End, then you need to maximise your chances and in very few cases will it happen based on natural talent not backed up by a significant quantity and quality of sustained training.

[islandofsodor]

No, it is the BA Hons timetable I was talking about.

Lower School do not have an MT course, it is either Dance or Drama, they have a few vocational lessons in the day but it is mostly 4-6pm plus Saturday mornings so as you can imagine, their timetable looks very different than the Diploma students or degree students timetables.

[islandofsodor]

I've just been doing some more research (after all my daughter will be applying for degree or diploma places soon) and from comparing the timetables it is apparent that at Hammond the degree students do get less contact hours than the diploma students. However the fees for diploma students (when covered by a DADA) are £17,355 per year according to their website, wheras the degree is £9,000 per year. ( I believe bursaries are sometimes offered to diploma students who don't get a Dada but for these purposes I will assume full fees.)

So that difference in income, plus the academic content that has to be included for degree purposes does indicate that perhaps a diploma is the better option for those who purely want vocational training. However from what others have said and what I myself have seen from watching performances etc and knowing the calibre of the teachers, the degree students do get excellent training and far more contact hours than at a "regular" university.

[Robin64]

chivers61 - I cannot give you an accurate answer as to if the RAD and ISTD classes at Hammond extra cost as I do not know. The classes themselves were included at no extra cost for all diploma students, regardless of whether they were on a DADA or self financed but exam entry fees were paid by the student. As I said my DD attended before the degree course started.

Despite the fact that my DD did the diploma, I have to say that I do disagree with the comment "Just don't see anything coming from a MT uni course unless teaching is the goal " My DD has met plenty of people working as performers who have degrees from MT uni courses. All courses and colleges are going to have advantages and disadvantages but at the end of the day whether you get the job or not is down to the audition and not where you have trained. Obviously in the graduate year, a good showcase and lots of industry contacts from a college can help get a student a step on the ladder - perhaps entry to a 'closed' audition or initial contact with an agent or casting director but it is down to the student as much as the college. It is a guess admittedly, but I would suggest that if ever you could get a list of every graduates destination/role 6 months after graduation, 1 year later, 5 years later etc I would imagine that regardless of college or source of training you will get a real spread from those who are constantly working as and earning their living as performers (range from west end to princess parties), those that spend half the year working (few months work, few months auditioning), those that have branched into parallel fields (become agents, vocal or dance teachers, musical directors, choreographers) and those that after 5 years are doing regular 9-5 jobs.

Sorry my comment probably didn't come across that well and I meant that we "just don't see anything coming" for DD and us personally not in general. I just think it is important to be well informed on what you will get with a course. We know of students who have started MT at uni and have left after a year to re audition for other places because they were not getting enough training. Some of the MT courses are at colleges not universities and to be frank I am not sure they are totally honest about what they offer either. I do not think that is fair and does not really constitute a duty of care and value for money for the student. It is very tough to get a job and to me that tough process starts with getting into a tough-to-get-into college. For that reason DD has not applied to any uni and may not go anywhere in September but have to work and reapply. But that is my view and I know it is not the only option and of course there are many ways to get to an end goal and lots of things come into the decision making process. Apologies again I don't want to offend anyone.

[islandofsodor]

I think I may have got to the bottom of the unistats anomaly.

They appear to have used figures from a similarly named but more academically rather than performance based course offered by Chester Uni at one of their satellite colleges in Shrewsbury.

[islandofsodor]

I do feel that it is a shame that there is such negativity regarding GSA's audition process. Time & time again I hear of dissatisfaction with it, both in real life & on forums (and of course it's only real life people who I can really trust no offence NAPMers). GSA is an excellent institution offering obviously very good training but all everyone wants is a fair opportunity and it seems to me that they are putting people off auditioning by these academic requirements & not giving the opportunity in the first round.

I know my dd has been put off auditioning. (Not saying she's good enough but who knows).

We are at the stage now where she will be deciding what to do between the age of 16 & 18 before applying for s mixture of diploma & degree courses.

Top of her list are Arts Ed, Bird, RCS, Mountview (for some reason she doesn't fancy Laine I have no idea why), Performers maybe (they were not very forthcoming with info at Move It last year (Katymacs dd should have been there last year giving a better impression!!) Hammond too but she might want a change.

I do agree to a certain extent with a previous poster that some universities are setting themselves up to offer professional training when really they are offering academic degree courses with a practical element BA friend teaches for a uni that's often mentioned on here, not on their MT course but on another performing genre. She complains there is absolutely no way she can prepare her students to a certain standard on the very limited contact hours.

There is nothing wrong with such degrees as long as you know what you are getting & what the likely outcomes will be. For example I did a uni music/drama degree but with no aspirations to ever become a professional performer.

[Robin64]

I do feel that it is a shame that there is such negativity regarding GSA's audition process. Time & time again I hear of dissatisfaction with it, both in real life & on forums (and of course it's only real life people who I can really trust no offence NAPMers). GSA is an excellent institution offering obviously very good training but all everyone wants is a fair opportunity and it seems to me that they are putting people off auditioning by these academic requirements & not giving the opportunity in the first round.

I know my dd has been put off auditioning. (Not saying she's good enough but who knows).

We are at the stage now where she will be deciding what to do between the age of 16 & 18 before applying for s mixture of diploma & degree courses.

Top of her list are Arts Ed, Bird, RCS, Mountview (for some reason she doesn't fancy Laine I have no idea why), Performers maybe (they were not very forthcoming with info at Move It last year (Katymacs dd should have been there last year giving a better impression!!) Hammond too but she might want a change.

I do agree to a certain extent with a previous poster that some universities are setting themselves up to offer professional training when really they are offering academic degree courses with a practical element BA friend teaches for a uni that's often mentioned on here, not on their MT course but on another performing genre. She complains there is absolutely no way she can prepare her students to a certain standard on the very limited contact hours.

There is nothing wrong with such degrees as long as you know what you are getting & what the likely outcomes will be. For example I did a uni music/drama degree but with no aspirations to ever become a professional performer.

Don't be too put off GSA, they are changing the 1st round next year from what I heard and the recall was a very good day whatever the outcome. They do have high grade offers but that could be distinction BTECs if A levels aren't a DCs thing. Keep it in mind but if your DD has been at the Hammond I am thinking she is a great dancer so might want one of the colleges that emphasise that - Bird or Urdang maybe.