Dance and drama classes for children in UK

Ask a child what they want to be when they grow up and well over half will now say Singer, Actor, Dancer, or just simply “I want to be famous”. We live in a society where fame is seen as a viable job option to children and whilst we know that it will come to few of them, there’s nothing wrong with letting your child go to dance, drama or singing lessons, knowing that they will improve their self esteem, confidence and ability to work with others.

Full time stage schools are prohibitively expensive for most people but luckily there are plenty of part time options for your budding stars. Probably the best known is Stagecoach www.stagecoach.co.uk who have been teaching children and young people for over 20 years. Stagecoach run kids’ classes that cover singing, dance and drama for children from 4-18 years old, although new intakes are not accepted older than 15 years old. The classes are usually after school although there are some weekend and holiday classes. They have centres all over the country.

Another nationwide option for performing arts classes for kids are Razzamataz Theatre Schools, who provide opportunities for 4-18 year olds across the country. They are much newer but their success rates are impressive. Their website is www.razzamataz.co.uk

If you don’t want to use one of the big companies, most large cities have dance, drama, singing or musical theatre classes for children and teenagers, either attached to full time drama or stage schools, or as a separate company. Some local amateur dramatic societies also have children’s sections too, and although they might not have the professional agency links that companies like Stagecoach and Razzamatz have, they still offer great training.

If you are looking at performing arts classes for your children, do check that they are registered and that staff have been CRB checked. Most are fine but there are always a few that operate under the law. Fees can vary considerably and there may be hidden extras, for example fees to appear in shows, so check these carefully too. If fees are requested to put your child on an agency list, then think about this very carefully and speak to other people who have done it. There are many reports of people spending a lot of money to register their children with agencies and getting nothing back.

Whether you go for a known company, a local company or part time classes at a local stage school, performing arts can help bring shy children out of their shells, can teach children to co-operate with others and can be wonderful for children with learning difficulties too. You can search for kids’ drama classes on this site, and please let us know how you get on – we’d love to know of any budding stars out there!

Alex is a software developer and not a professional writer. Being a non native speaker he sometimes do mistakes in English.