Tag: Training

Three New Training Opportunities

Dance AuditionThree brand new opportunities for young theatricals have emerged recently, offering further performing arts training at a variety of institutions working to create the next wave of industry talents.

Shakespeare’s Globe has recently acquired a new indoor space named the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, which is set to open in early 2014 and will house a youth company which will perform The Malcontent in April 2014. Young budding actors aged 12-16 can audition to be part of this challenging, early modern production through open auditions, a workshop, and a final round of auditions throughout the summer.

Moving in a more commercial direction, the National Film and Television School are offering a course in Entrepreneurship and Producing for the Creative Industries, which was launched in January this year. This unusual yet all-encompassing course is just one year long, first attracting fourteen young media entrepreneurs from across the media industry. As a diploma, the course offers its students the qualities required to build and run businesses across Theatre, Publishing, Online Entertainment, Film and Television, amongst others, developing proposals to be presented to investors later in the course year. In total the participants will have access to more than 120 key media individuals over the course of the year.

The third opportunistic course on offer is via Punchdrunk, which is running a series of professional development masterclasses and workshops for schools and colleges as part of the enrichment programme for its new production The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable. Performance and design workshops and pre-show talks will be led by the performance and creative company on site for school, college and university groups, and training sessions are also available for primary and secondary teachers. Led by Punchdrunk’s creative associates, and open to emerging and established artists looking to develop their practice, the classes will offer practical insight into the work of the company.

BalletBoyz – The Dancer’s Course

BalletBoyzBecoming one of the BalletBoyz is arguably every young dancer’s dream. With their slick performances, immeasurable talent and famous good looks, it is no wonder that the group lead by Trevor Nunn and William Trevitt is going from strength to strength, and may have the answer to these young dancers’ wishes.

Following their hugely successful project ‘The Talent’, BalletBoyz are launching The Dancer’s Course, which will start in September 2013. As an innovative one year weekend course, the Boyz are searching for men and women over the age of 18 to join the professional dance company in order to develop their versatility, contemporary dance skills and technique within their nurturing environment. Developing talent and grasping opportunities form the majority of yearning to be a professional dancer (the other part being a little luck!), so this BalletBoyz course seems the perfect chance to engage with an experiential approach to training, whatever your dance background.

The course will centre on working closely with ‘The Talent’ to develop the young dancers as artists and providing them with opportunities to perform and choreograph throughout the course. With the aim of the course to take individuals with raw talent and turn them into creative and employable dancers, it seems the course is every young dancer’s dream. Working alongside the BalletBoyz, the dancers will come to represent the BalletBoyz ethos of excellence, and a desire to perform at the highest level.

The dancers will also have the chance to gain firsthand experience of the technical aspects of performance, such as film, music, costume and lighting, in addition to working closely alongside ‘The Talent’ in order to be coached, mentored, challenged and inspired by some of the leading teachers and choreographers in the dance world today.

Life After Training

DancersAfter three institutionalised years at performing arts college, the big bad world on the other side of the studio door can seem a little daunting. Many students will graduate from college alongside their peers, only to be greeted with the graduates from all the other acting, musical theatre and dance colleges all over the world, all battling for the same jobs. This is even without considering graduates from years before the current year, in addition to the professional dancers already established within the industry. When auditions are looming, it could seem that a fresh-faced graduate is ultimately a minuscule fish in a huge high-kicking sea.

This is not to say that new graduates are unable to obtain jobs in theatres and on projects, as this decision lies purely with the casting director. Your pirouettes may have been the best of your third year, but if your hair colour and height are not what fits the production bill, the job may go elsewhere.

Alternatively, many graduates lean towards the teaching disciplines, eager to apply their three years of training and experience to a different venture and help young dancers to prepare for their future dancing years. Many institutes of higher education and examination boards such as the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, the Royal Academy of Dance, the International Dance Teachers’ Association and the British Ballet Organisation are able to provide professional dancers with the qualifications they need to take up teaching jobs and help pass on their knowledge of performing arts. It is arguable that the satisfaction gleaned from teaching and aiding young students is equal to that of performing on stage, the buzz of applying yourself to the job immeasurable.

There are ultimately many different avenues of work for performing arts graduates, and all waiting for a fresh influx of young professionals later this year!

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Project Y – Scottish Youth Dance’s Initiative

YDanceScottish Youth Dance created Project Y in 2006 in order to give talented young leotard-clad dancers the opportunity to develop their dance skills and experience what it is like to be a professional dancer. Over the past 7 years the programme has been hugely developed, and there are now two different ways for young dancers to get involved: the Performance course and a number of Foundation courses, open to any dancer who wants a taste of their possible future.

The Performance course is a four week programme designed for aspiring young dancers aged 16 to 21 who want an exclusive taste of what it is like to be part of a professional dance company. Dancers are able to work with some of the top choreographers from both the UK and abroad and as a result create a new programme of dance pieces. As a company in its own right, Project Y will then tour, performing at a number of venues, such as The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow), the Lemon Tree (Aberdeen), Eden Court (Inverness) and Carnegie Hall (Dunfermline), having  also appeared in the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay! The course takes place during the summer holidays, usually at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.

The Foundation courses are weeklong programmes for a younger spectrum of dancers, aged 12 to 18. These courses for aspiring hopefuls are a beneficial way of improving dance technique and getting a taste of the Performance course above. The courses include a daily contemporary class – leggings galore – and choreography workshops led by members of the YDance team for Scottish Youth Dance. The participants on the courses will also have the chance to be involved in creating an inspiring new dance work and get the chance to perform it too! The Foundation courses also take place during the summer holidays.

Life at Vocational Dance Colleges

Vocational Dance Colleges

For many dancers over the age of 16, the New Year spells auditions for vocational colleges. Many students who prefer to get their applications in early may have already heard from a college about whether they will have to pack up their tap shoes, ballet tights and jazz pants because they have or have not been awarded a place.

Some colleges have a specific uniform they prefer their students to wear both in and outside college during weekdays. Many sell tracksuits and other mandatory items, whereas most prefer a style of leotard, practice shoe, clothing colour, or all three! It is essential that as an emerging young dancer you are able to display a certain level of versatility, which also extends to your ‘look’ and style. Regardless of how you move or how high you can kick your leg, some choreographers prefer to focus on looks and clothing style before anything else in a class or audition. If you look the part then your performance will be much more convincing.

It is also important to look after your health whilst at a vocational college. For many students this is their first time away from their homes, and remembering to eat well and maintain your health can often get lost amongst other, additional parts of life. Your body will also change in terms of shape, strength and form, so looking after your body correctly is vital. Colleges which offer many dance disciplines and subjects can be extremely demanding: on top of remembering dance phrases, etiquette and class routines you must also remember to fuel yourself.

Whilst it is important to throw yourself into the course and enjoy every moment of vocational college life, it is also important to remain grounded and reasoned. The time will fly past – good luck!