Can anyone advise please ?

Ba_barbaraAnne

Hi

I have a 14 year old son who is absolutely mad about dance, music and the performing arts. However, we live in West Mayo and finding classes for him is very difficult. His Hip-hop classes in the nearby town were stopped earlier this year, so now he only has one ballet class a week 20 miles away.

Stagewise is booked out for this year, but I'm hoping to get him into at least one dance/drama summer school over the holidays, but long-term he is looking at this as a career.

Anyone got any suggestions as to how on earth I can give him the opportunity to develop his interests? ... bearing in mind that a) we live a long way from any major town or city and b) I'm a lone parent with limited funds. I am considering moving to Galway when he has finished his Junior Cert so that he can attend the stage school there if he wants to, but what do I do with him for the next two years?

-aboutagirl-

Keep encouraging him so that he doesn't lose his interest, thats the most important thing. So many boys that age lose interest and give-up especially because it is hard to find classes in Ireland. Try your best to let him take any available classes in your local area. To keep him interested perhaps he could join a dance forum/board like www.dance.net. This is a good website to get in touch with people who have similar interests and you can learn a lot off it.

If he is really serious about pursuing a career in the performing arts and has the requisite motivation and talent then perhaps you could consider letting him audition for summer schools in some of the major uk performing arts schools? Some of the school require auditions and some just accept postal enteries. If he takes ballet then that a plus because ballet schools in the UK are always on the look out for new male talent and many of the schools will offer scholarships.

For a list of UK courses :http://www.cdet.org.uk/downloads/Vocationadancecourses.pdf Most of these schools will also offer summer courses and some will offer scholarships with them too.

If he managed to get the experience of these summer courses it would allow him to really decide if he wanted a career in this area.

It sounds like you're doing a great job at encouraging and developing his interests. Just take up any opportunity that arises that you can!

Hope this helps

Ba_barbaraAnne

thanks Aboutagirl.

Probably a bit late this year for summer schools in the UK, but will do some research. My sister has a ballet school in Germany so will send him over there for a week or so anyway.

Know what you mean about the ballet schools crying out for guys. The one in Castlebar has a 2 -3 three year waiting list, but my lad and his 16 yr old brother got in in 6 months!

I've passed the dance.net link onto the lad anyway and will see what turns up.

Iompair

You could try the Mayo Youth Theatre, not sure what its like now, but I did some work with them a few years ago and they had a fairly talented bunch of actors at the time.