With the major achievement of television series, including BBC’s So You Think You Can Dance as well as the re-birth of Strictly Come Dancing, along with Sky 1’s Got To Dance in the UK over the last few years, there has been a surge of interest in just about all forms of dance not witnessed ever since the hay day of the eighties, when Fame brought Dance along with the performing arts school to the masses. Not even the relative poor showing of the re-make of Fame in the box office, looks to have dented the attention of the public in general, in all things dance.
State run Schools continue to be providing a vocational GCSE in dance and performing arts and uptake from students is definitely at an all time high. Many students view it as first stepping stone to a job in dance, with all the lights of the west end seemingly pulling them towards this career choice. Whilst a large amount of students simply opt for this subject for their enjoyment of dance, combined with the physical prowess needed , over the conventional subjects taught in state schools. Alongside state schools you can find estimated to be in excess of 80’000 private dance schools, ranging from 5 - 500 students, the vast majority of of pupils in private schools appear to be beneath the age of 12. There is, as in most forms physical sports or hobbies and interests, a decrease in interest in the early teens. Those students following the various dance syllabus’s shortly after the age of 12, are in the main focusing entirely on a career in dance or the performing arts. Leading on from this, with the increase of students leaving both the state and private schools, and wishing to discover a job in performing arts.The amount of specialist performing arts colleges that take students from the age of 16 has grown. Students wanting to progress their performing arts education after leaving state schools, colleges of further training and also private dance schools, will discover an estimated 30%+ increase in available spaces over the last five years.
Even those who leave dance at a young age after losing interest in the much more traditional taught styles of Ballet, Modern or Tap are now finding it once again, BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing is certainly seen by many as the primary driving force powering the ground swell of interest in Latin, Salsa and Ballroom adult courses, which can be seen as not just a technique to re-discover dance again, but additionally as fun way of maintaining fitness added to this of course there is the social aspect of meeting similar minded people. Although no official figures are available it is believed by individuals close to the industry that these forms of dance have encountered the highest level of interest in the past decade.
All in all, it appears that Dance is definitely very much alive and well and in the most, thriving in the United Kingdom, despite the bite of the recession of the last few years, the fun of participating and watching Dance seems to have a magical pull over the country, like no other of the so called ‘arts’.
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