University Dance Degrees and Vocational Courses

So as I am in year 13 I am planning what I want to do next year. I may end up taking a gap year but so that I can keep my options open I am applying to degree courses. As a dancer you have a couple of options open to you; University Dance Degree or Vocational School. I personally would prefer to go to a vocational school but I am also realistic and understand how little spaces there are to study at those schools.

Vocational Schools:
These schools are the ones that you would go to if you want a career in performing, in particular if you want to do ballet as they don't tend to take people into ballet companies who haven't had vocational training. You spend three years training everyday in your discipline, or a mix depending on the school you go to. In this time you concentrate mostly on practical study not so much on theory. This doesn't mean that you don't ever have to sit in a lecture again but you just do less of it, in fact at one of the schools I've looked at you have to do a written anatomy exam whereas at the Unis I've looked at you don't do a written exam at all. These courses are highly competitive and you are competing against people from all over the country and international applicants for a place. For the majority of dance schools you can go from the age of 16 however a lot do wait and get A Levels, this is something that my ballet teacher recommended as they give you a back up plan of other career areas to go into. I do agree with this, even though I haven't really enjoyed A Levels, as doing A Levels has given me a higher knowledge of a wider amount of subjects giving me options if dancing doesn't work out.

University Dance Courses:
Courses at universities tend to be more for those who will go into dance related professions rather than performing. This doesn't mean however that you cannot become a performer, I know of many and that it still what I would pursue if I went to Uni. I have found that dance degrees at University tend to be the degree with the least amount of difference between them compared to other subjects such as history where different Universities tend to look at different periods. This makes it very hard to decide which five Unis to put down on your UCAS. For me what I looked for was;

1. Do they do any ballet? (Most unis focus on contemporary but then do a couple of other main styles such as Surrey looks at Classical Indian)
2. Is it a campus uni? (I prefer these to city Unis where they are all spread out)
3. Do the lecturers sound interesting and enthusiastic? (One in particular at an open day sounded very bored!)
4. What are their facilities like? (How many studios, quality, size, etc.)
5. Do you have to sit a written exam? (For a uni this was a big no for me as I've had enough of written exams!)
6. Are they close enough to home that I can get home if I need to but are far enough that I'm exploring somewhere new?
7. Did the campus as a whole feel nice? (I don't want to go somewhere if the campus itself makes me feel uncomfortable)
8. What connections does the course have with professionals and their reputation? (I want to know that I will look reputable when I graduate for going to the uni)

So yeah, I had other things that I looked at rather than at the modules themselves as they were all pretty similar.

I'm sure there is a lot more I could say about both paths, things I've missed out or opinions that others have but this I feel is the basics. I applied to Universities through UCAS last Friday and now have got replies from all five saying that they'd like me to go for an audition and interview - the scary thing about a course like dance, you don't straight off get an offer just from your application. The application is just the first stage. I have got dates and times for four and am just waiting on the date for the fifth one. I guess I should tell you which ones I have applied for, I plan on doing a post on my audition/interview experience with each one. I have applied for Chichester, Rhoehampton, Surrey, Bath Spa and De Montfort. At the moment my top if I were going to Uni is Chichester as it has the most performance based course which is what I want to do. My first audition is Rhoehampton on Wednesday the 6th December, which is right in the middle of my mocks but oh well!

As for vocational schools so far I have just applied to one as you have to do so through UCAS Conservatoires but I am very close to having everything I need to apply to the others. I am applying for Ballet West, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (the one I've applied to so far), Rambert, London Studio Centre and Northern Ballet School. So that means that if I get an audition to everywhere I'm going to do at least 10 auditions - more if I get finals! Crazy! So my life is very manic and I don't even know if I want to go to a degree next year or take a gap year but I'll just see where life takes me. If I did get into a dance school then at the moment my top two are Ballet West and Rambert - different end of the country and one is the closet out of all to me and one is the furthest. I will hopefully write a post on each of these schools too.

Wow! That's a long post and I'm sure I missed out something that I wanted to say on this topic but what's done is done. If you have any questions or requests for posts let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading,
Willow x