The classes
Ballet with a pianist, street and commercial in the black box, tap and modern back to back, four adult classes, exams twice a year and the show every July. Each has its own page with what it costs, who teaches it and which night. The free taster is where you find out which fits.
01
Royal Academy of Dance classical ballet from the Pre-Primary class for two-and-a-half-year-olds to Grade 8 and the vocational Intermediate Foundation for the teenagers who want it, taught by RAD-registered teachers with Rhodri at the piano for every graded class. Exams are optional and most dancers take them.
Pre-Primary £6 for thirty minutes; Primary to Grade 3 £7 for forty-five minutes; Grade 4 and above £8.
02
Street dance from five and commercial from eight in Studio 2, the black box with the mirrors and the sound system, taught by Marcus and Jade, who have both danced professionally and still do. Foundations, choreography, freestyle and a crew for the ones who want to compete. No exams; the show and the competitions are the test.
Minis (five to seven) £7 for forty-five minutes; Juniors and Seniors £8.
03
ISTD tap and modern theatre dance from five, in graded classes from Primary to Grade 6 with Lisa Parry, who trained at Laine and taught in the West End before coming home. Tap is rhythm and sound; modern is strength, contraction and the musical-theatre style. Most dancers do both, back to back on the same evening.
Primary to Grade 3 £7 for forty-five minutes; Grade 4 to 6 £8.
04
Four adult classes a week in the evenings: beginners' ballet on Tuesdays, improvers' ballet on Thursdays, adult tap on Mondays and adult street on Wednesdays, for everyone from the complete beginner to the dancer who stopped at sixteen. Pay on the night, buy ten, or add it to a child's unlimited pass. The oldest dancer in the building is seventy-one.
£9 a class on the night, ten classes for £75 valid six months, or included in a family's £95 unlimited pass.
05
Royal Academy of Dance ballet examinations in March and November and ISTD tap and modern examinations in June and November, held in Studio 1 with a visiting examiner, with the entry deadlines, mock dates and exam days on the website a term ahead. Entry is by the teacher's recommendation, exams are optional, and the pass rate over the last two sessions is 98%.
RAD entry £48 for Pre-Primary to Grade 3 and £72 for Grades 4 to 8; ISTD £42 for Primary to Grade 3 and £64 for Grades 4 to 6.
06
Two things that are not classes: the summer school, five days from 9:30 to 3:30 in the last week of July for eight to sixteen-year-olds with guest teachers in styles we do not teach in term, £165; and the show, a full evening at the Riverfront Theatre on the Saturday before, with every class on stage, tickets £14 and £10, and a costume hire of £35 a routine.
The summer school £165 for five days; the show tickets £14 adults and £10 children, costume hire £35 a routine, no participation fee.
The free taster
From the timetable, by age and style, or let Bethan pick two for you. Book by the day before so the teacher knows a new face is coming and the register is right.
Leggings or joggers, a T-shirt, bare feet or socks for ballet and modern, trainers for street, hard soles for tap (we lend taps). Nothing to buy for a taster, ever.
Stand at the back if you like. The teacher will put you where the grade fits and will not make a show of you. Parents of under-eights can watch from the reception window.
The teacher tells you which class, which grade and whether to come back. If it is a different class from the one you tried, the second taster is free too. Then register (£20) and start the next week.
The piano
Rhodri has played for every graded ballet class and every RAD exam here for fifteen years. A pianist costs more than a speaker and most schools do not have one; we think the musicality it builds by Grade 3 is the most obvious difference between our dancers and anyone else\'s, and the examiners\' comments say the same. He also knows every child\'s name and plays their birthday at the end of class, which is not in the syllabus.
Tell us the dancer's age and the style you are curious about, and the office rings back the same day with a class that has a space. Come in anything you can move in, stand at the back if you like, and decide afterwards. Or ring Bethan in the office.
