The RCS Junior Conservatoire is a nurturing and empowering space for young people aged 8-18 who want to improve their artistic skills, gain self-confidence and learn with other like-minded people.
In this blog series, we hear what some of those young people like about the Junior Conservatoire, and why they look forward to coming to classes every week.
Cara and Ruben are both students on the Contemporary Dance programme from the Junior Conservatoire of Dance, which is available for young people aged 13-18. Contemporary Dance is just one of the dozens of courses that we run at the Junior Conservatoire. Find out more and apply.
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| Cara Macdonald Junior Conservatoire of Dance Contemporary Dance |
Ruben Shearer Junior Conservatoire of Dance Contemporary Dance |
“I enjoy the professional atmosphere and how the teachers push you to be your best.” Says Cara. “It encourages creativity.” Ruben agrees: “I enjoy the creativity of it the most.”
Cara and Ruben are both students on the Contemporary Dance programme within the Junior Conservatoire of Dance. They have weekly Sunday lessons in RCS’ state of the art facilities throughout term time led by expert tutors.
“One of the main things I have learned so far is small ways to improve on my technique that make a big impact.” says Ruben. “The course covers a lot, it’s really expansive, but at the same time what it teaches is very valuable and helpful.”
“It’s intense and you need a lot of dedication, but for me it has really consolidated my Contemporary dance technique.” says Cara. “It’s great that you are also around others that share the same drive as yourself. At my audition, I was really nervous but I was also excited to be in a room with lots of other young people that have the same dance interests as myself. The audition had a professional atmosphere but the RCS staff made you feel welcomed.”
Ruben was also nervous in the audition but he says he had fun at the same time! “The staff at the audition were very reassuring and comforting even though I was nervous. First we had a chat about what would happen and we did some group warmups and phrases. Then we learnt a little bit of choreography, which was quite hard but fun. We then sat down and talked about any questions we had.”
“If you love your art form and want to work hard, you should go for it!” thinks Cara. “It’s definitely worth it” agrees Ruben.
For 50 years, the Junior Conservatoire has nurtured and empowered young people to fulfil their artistic potential, develop essential life skills and explore a world of possibilities within the arts and far beyond. Many Junior Conservatoire alumni have gone on to study the performing arts full time (at RCS or elsewhere) but many have also taken the self-confidence and life skills taught at the Junior Conservatoire and gone on to excel in other fields such as journalism and medicine.
We believe that encouraging and supporting young people to be the best they can be in a vibrant, happy and encouraging environment can help them grow, finding self-confidence, new artistic influences, and making life-long friends in the process.
Young people aged 8-18 can come and study lots of different genres within music, dance, drama, production and film techniques, all within the same world-leading facilities and from the same expert, knowledgeable tutors that our undergraduate and postgraduate students have access to. Find out more about the Junior Conservatoire.