Auditioning for 2022 entry

[anastasia79]

Just looking ahead to the 2023 audition cycle and thinking of choices, and how to make the best use of the next few months in terms of training.


- top choices are RWCMD, GSA, Mountview but given how competitive they are to get in, we want to put some other good options down too, so considering which other 4 places to put down on UCAS.

Shortlist

Central
Urdang
Italia Conti
London College of Music
Brighton Academy

For those who have successfully auditioned this year or already training at these places, what sort of standard of dance do you need? Also for places like Urdang, is there any disadvantage to being on an actor singer track when it comes to securing agents? Just wondered if the agents are looking mostly for brilliant dancers when they look at Urdang and an actor-singer wouldn't be what they were looking for?

TIA

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

[Ditzi]

Daughter has been offered East fifteen foundation. She's an actor rather than MT. She's still got 1 or 2 other things to consider but will possibly be taking.

That’s great news, congratulations!

Thank you.

I thought I'd say something re straight acting as a few of the last posts have been about it. There are just not as many places for Acting than there are for MT. In addition the schools tend to like them older with 'life experience' Getting in at 18 is not the usual.

Also now having to audition via self tape has made it harder. DD got a recall for a very well regarded school. The 2nd audition was STILL a self tape (she got rejected after that). We also were told of another frequently discussed on here school who saw their MT auditionees in person, but their Acting ones had to send in a tape.

I know my DD does better in person - her recent offer was from an actual audition day and is only the 2nd RL acting audition she's ever had in 2 years of trying, last year she also got further if it was a Zoom call rather than a self tape. It makes it all the more frustrating that the process has changed since the pandemic. However I can't see it changing because there are so many more applicants paying the audition fee as it eliminates the cost of travel. accommodation as well as time, but it does mean there's far more people chasing these few places. Daughter has been told by a well known school that if you're not offered a BA Acting by your 4th attempt to do something else, which tells me they're aware of how many times it can take before you possibly get a yes. In fact some drama schools only allow candidates to audition a max of 3 times, BOV being one of them and Guildhall had the same rule until this year.

I'm not trying to put people off, but just making them aware, so they can discuss with their child if they want to do this so much they're prepared that it might take a few years to get in.

Not all is lost though. Daughter finished her most recent drama course and within a couple of weeks had got an acting job, immersive tourist attraction work but is learning loads 'on the job', things that can't be taught in a classroom setting and with a different live audience every 20 minutes or so.

I appreciate your posts, they are very informative, so thank you for posting.

I didn’t know much about straight acting courses a couple of months ago, but I am quickly learning. Dd is very aware of what she’s letting herself in for- she knows people who auditioned and didn’t get in, and people who ended up doing a foundation (not sure where they are at now, as this would be their second auditioning year, like your dd). Someone got to the 3rd rounds at RADA, only to be told they are too young and not experienced enough. She doesn’t turn 17 until the end of July, so she will still be very young at the time of auditioning. She is considering taking a gap year and doing some travelling and work, before auditioning the following year, maybe do some short acting courses - even though I don’t think that will happen. Thankfully she got into NYT, so doing the intake course will give her a flavour of straight acting and a little experience, we’ll see how she feels about it after that. It’s not a journey I am looking forward to, that’s for sure.

[LizzyBee]

Just looking ahead to the 2023 audition cycle and thinking of choices, and how to make the best use of the next few months in terms of training.


- top choices are RWCMD, GSA, Mountview but given how competitive they are to get in, we want to put some other good options down too, so considering which other 4 places to put down on UCAS.

Shortlist

Central
Urdang
Italia Conti
London College of Music
Brighton Academy

For those who have successfully auditioned this year or already training at these places, what sort of standard of dance do you need? Also for places like Urdang, is there any disadvantage to being on an actor singer track when it comes to securing agents? Just wondered if the agents are looking mostly for brilliant dancers when they look at Urdang and an actor-singer wouldn't be what they were looking for?

TIA

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

Thank you @anastasia I think the level of dance required at audition might be too high, though will keep urdang in mind.

Anyone got feedback on other places to try for more actor-singer?

[EsmeraldaFudge]

Last year Bird sent their uniform list at the start of the summer holidays I think.
It isn’t strict.
They tend to wear black tights even for ballet.
Leotards colour of their choice suitable style for ballet and for jazz.
Bird hoodies they can buy once they start.
The only thing they are quite specific on is shoes.
It might be best to wait for the list before buying shoes as they changed the recommended brands between 2020 starters and 2021 starters.

My DS is in year 1 at Bird. I have just checked my emails and they all came through on or around 2nd august last year

[lawn]

Just looking ahead to the 2023 audition cycle and thinking of choices, and how to make the best use of the next few months in terms of training.


- top choices are RWCMD, GSA, Mountview but given how competitive they are to get in, we want to put some other good options down too, so considering which other 4 places to put down on UCAS.

Shortlist

Central
Urdang
Italia Conti
London College of Music
Brighton Academy

For those who have successfully auditioned this year or already training at these places, what sort of standard of dance do you need? Also for places like Urdang, is there any disadvantage to being on an actor singer track when it comes to securing agents? Just wondered if the agents are looking mostly for brilliant dancers when they look at Urdang and an actor-singer wouldn't be what they were looking for?

TIA

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

Thank you @anastasia I think the level of dance required at audition might be too high, though will keep urdang in mind.

Anyone got feedback on other places to try for more actor-singer?

What about Trinity Laban? We went to an open day there and there was a student who described herself as actor/singer having taken no formal dance qualifications and certainly DD was mentored by an ex student from there and dancing is her weakest, she's been in panto, on a UK l tour, as understudy in a main role and a couple of one off concerts, 1 in the west end since graduating 2 years ago. She's with Michelle Blair management.

That doesn't mean they had no or very limited dance skills though, just not their strongest points.

[lotsolaffs]

Just looking ahead to the 2023 audition cycle and thinking of choices, and how to make the best use of the next few months in terms of training.


- top choices are RWCMD, GSA, Mountview but given how competitive they are to get in, we want to put some other good options down too, so considering which other 4 places to put down on UCAS.

Shortlist

Central
Urdang
Italia Conti
London College of Music
Brighton Academy

For those who have successfully auditioned this year or already training at these places, what sort of standard of dance do you need? Also for places like Urdang, is there any disadvantage to being on an actor singer track when it comes to securing agents? Just wondered if the agents are looking mostly for brilliant dancers when they look at Urdang and an actor-singer wouldn't be what they were looking for?

TIA

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

Thank you @anastasia I think the level of dance required at audition might be too high, though will keep urdang in mind.

Anyone got feedback on other places to try for more actor-singer?

https://cdmt.org.uk/
Pasted the above link first as everything I just wrote disappeared.
Anyway, hello.
At the last CDMT before lockdown, held at Mountview, parents and students were told that teaching is changing and now many of the drama schools follow a similar BA syllabus,
and drama schools need to be producing grads who can gain as much employment as possible .
You just don't know they are looking for - my DD was offered a place at Laine, she was a late starter in dance, 13 and didn't like it but worked very hard at it.
She had several offers and chose GSA , her first choice and loves dance there.
I think I am saying have a go at as many as financially possible to give yours the best chance, although mine loved GSA and the audition days ( offered a place a moth before lockdown ) we kept an open mind.
Keep an eye out for the next CDMT, well worth attending and lots of information on the website.

[LizzyBee]

Just looking ahead to the 2023 audition cycle and thinking of choices, and how to make the best use of the next few months in terms of training.


- top choices are RWCMD, GSA, Mountview but given how competitive they are to get in, we want to put some other good options down too, so considering which other 4 places to put down on UCAS.

Shortlist

Central
Urdang
Italia Conti
London College of Music
Brighton Academy

For those who have successfully auditioned this year or already training at these places, what sort of standard of dance do you need? Also for places like Urdang, is there any disadvantage to being on an actor singer track when it comes to securing agents? Just wondered if the agents are looking mostly for brilliant dancers when they look at Urdang and an actor-singer wouldn't be what they were looking for?

TIA

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

Thanks for this insight, sounds like all the tracks still lead to good outcomes then, I guess we may put it down and see what happens at audition stage!

[LizzyBee]

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

Thank you @anastasia I think the level of dance required at audition might be too high, though will keep urdang in mind.

Anyone got feedback on other places to try for more actor-singer?

https://cdmt.org.uk/
Pasted the above link first as everything I just wrote disappeared.
Anyway, hello.
At the last CDMT before lockdown, held at Mountview, parents and students were told that teaching is changing and now many of the drama schools follow a similar BA syllabus,
and drama schools need to be producing grads who can gain as much employment as possible .
You just don't know they are looking for - my DD was offered a place at Laine, she was a late starter in dance, 13 and didn't like it but worked very hard at it.
She had several offers and chose GSA , her first choice and loves dance there.
I think I am saying have a go at as many as financially possible to give yours the best chance, although mine loved GSA and the audition days ( offered a place a moth before lockdown ) we kept an open mind.
Keep an eye out for the next CDMT, well worth attending and lots of information on the website.

Hi lotsoflaffs, I did have the impression that it really is necessary to be pretty good at all three now. I guess dance is key though as a lot harder to train to high standard in three years than possibly the singing and acting if the necessary talent is there. Saying that, my DD is working on Intermediate Modern and Tap at mo, Grade 6 ballet, so she's not a beginner, it's just not her strong area. I would never have considered putting Laine down (or Bird), but maybe we will throw those into the mix!

[lawn]

Thank you @anastasia I think the level of dance required at audition might be too high, though will keep urdang in mind.

Anyone got feedback on other places to try for more actor-singer?

https://cdmt.org.uk/
Pasted the above link first as everything I just wrote disappeared.
Anyway, hello.
At the last CDMT before lockdown, held at Mountview, parents and students were told that teaching is changing and now many of the drama schools follow a similar BA syllabus,
and drama schools need to be producing grads who can gain as much employment as possible .
You just don't know they are looking for - my DD was offered a place at Laine, she was a late starter in dance, 13 and didn't like it but worked very hard at it.
She had several offers and chose GSA , her first choice and loves dance there.
I think I am saying have a go at as many as financially possible to give yours the best chance, although mine loved GSA and the audition days ( offered a place a moth before lockdown ) we kept an open mind.
Keep an eye out for the next CDMT, well worth attending and lots of information on the website.

Hi lotsoflaffs, I did have the impression that it really is necessary to be pretty good at all three now. I guess dance is key though as a lot harder to train to high standard in three years than possibly the singing and acting if the necessary talent is there. Saying that, my DD is working on Intermediate Modern and Tap at mo, Grade 6 ballet, so she's not a beginner, it's just not her strong area. I would never have considered putting Laine down (or Bird), but maybe we will throw those into the mix!

From our experience (my daughter is an actor but toyed with the idea of MT), I would say the dancing has to be at sufficient standard to get through that round. This was something we/she didn't grasp. Daughter auditioned Autumn 2020 for an MT degree partly because the school was then one of the few doing RL auditions and partly because on the school's website they had stated they were triple threat training and had students come to them that were stronger in certain areas (which we took to mean they were looking for a balance of dancers, singers and actors). Daughter attended with another girl and they were split into the 2 separate groups. They were all over the other girl in her first round of singing (she's a superb singer) until she got to her next round and it was discovered she'd no dance experience. Meanwhile DD with very limited dance experience (only danced when she went to sixth form MT course and due to pandemic only had 6 months of training) having the dance round first had realised their interest was in the strongest dancers only. Most of the day was devoted to the dance part, the singing was do your pieces individually at the piano and by the time they got to the monologues the bit which is daughter's strongest, the people auditioning her didn't even look up. Daughter could have been the best that day at acting but that would have made no difference as she wasn't good enough at dancing to score highly enough to get through. The girls made a group chat of those that attended and the only one offered from that day was the best dancer (who later accepted Bird instead).

At this stage I'd also consider funding options if you're not going down the fully funded degree route to see if they are financially viable.

[Dillydaffy]

Ah that’s great jazz hands- is yours a Dd or Ds?
Congratulations!

Quick Q as I’m new here, but what do all the DD and DS mean? What do they stand for haha I have no clue!
[/quote]

DS = Darling Son
DD = Darling Daughter
DC = Darling Child(ren)
[/quote]

See….now I always assumed it was Dancing daughter/son/child !!

[jacsrab]

Just looking ahead to the 2023 audition cycle and thinking of choices, and how to make the best use of the next few months in terms of training.


- top choices are RWCMD, GSA, Mountview but given how competitive they are to get in, we want to put some other good options down too, so considering which other 4 places to put down on UCAS.

Shortlist

Central
Urdang
Italia Conti
London College of Music
Brighton Academy

For those who have successfully auditioned this year or already training at these places, what sort of standard of dance do you need? Also for places like Urdang, is there any disadvantage to being on an actor singer track when it comes to securing agents? Just wondered if the agents are looking mostly for brilliant dancers when they look at Urdang and an actor-singer wouldn't be what they were looking for?

TIA

My DD is currently a first year at Urdang on their degree course. In the past they have always been known to expect a very high level of dance at their auditions. Currently their triple threat track is the most popular. My DD will be opting for the dance track going into 2nd year which she says will be quite small, similar to the actor-singer track. We’ve not been there long enough to say what specifically agents will be looking for. I can only go off which students are getting jobs, and there is a variety of students booking jobs from all three tracks.

Thank you @anastasia I think the level of dance required at audition might be too high, though will keep urdang in mind.

Anyone got feedback on other places to try for more actor-singer?

Have a look at the MTA- it's a 50/50 stage/screen split. I think the requirements are to be strong in two disciplines and trainable in all three. Auditions are free and they have dates available in June ( they start later than the other colleges). It's a great college.

[Elle’smom]

@LizzyBee DD and a friend both got through to the Conti recalls. The friend had had knee surgery so could not dance at recall ( she had been able to do self tapes) Conti told her there was no point coming.
DD got her place at Conti she has had two years at MT sixth form she is set 1/4 for tap and 2/4 for all other dance styles. So definitely not the full dance package, but she felt they were looking for trainability. She is a very strong actor and singer. She also has the fresh faced look that Conti is known for.
Her friend is a stronger singer and got Actor Singer at Trinity Laban.

[LizzyBee]

@LizzyBee DD and a friend both got through to the Conti recalls. The friend had had knee surgery so could not dance at recall ( she had been able to do self tapes) Conti told her there was no point coming.
DD got her place at Conti she has had two years at MT sixth form she is set 1/4 for tap and 2/4 for all other dance styles. So definitely not the full dance package, but she felt they were looking for trainability. She is a very strong actor and singer. She also has the fresh faced look that Conti is known for.
Her friend is a stronger singer and got Actor Singer at Trinity Laban.

Thanks @Elle'smom - do you mean your DD had 2 years dance training at 6th form before getting in to Conti? It's good that she was successful, does she feel her acting and singing was what got her a place?

[lawn]

Asking for a friend cos I don't have a clue but does anyone know what financial year they take into account for DADAs for Autumn 2022 entry? Her husband is self employed and his own financial year doesn't run from April so she's getting confused. Also do you resubmit financial details every year for the 3 years course or not?

Any help appreciated.

[jazz_hands]

Asking for a friend cos I don't have a clue but does anyone know what financial year they take into account for DADAs for Autumn 2022 entry? Her husband is self employed and his own financial year doesn't run from April so she's getting confused. Also do you resubmit financial details every year for the 3 years course or not?

Any help appreciated.

It’s April 2021 - April 2022. And just one year of records.