One of Britain's most prestigious dance schools will no longer require candidates to perform a ballet routine as part of their audition.
The Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) – the UK's only dance conservatoire outside London – has dropped ballet from its auditions branding the artform 'elitist' and 'built around particular white European ideas and body shapes'. The move is intended to attract dancers who do not fit this 'aesthetic ideal'.
The school, on Chapeltown Road, will continue to teach ballet but lessons will be made more inclusive. The conservatoire's head of undergraduate studies Francesca McCarthy told The Telegraph there were 'issues relating to body, money, language and movement vocabulary.'
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Ms McCarthy said that class costs impact students unable to afford to study ballet. The school charges £9,250 a year for British students and £17,500 a year for foreign students.
She said the terminology used in ballet had 'strongly gendered' roots with clearly defined, different roles for ballerinas (female) and danseurs (male). Ms McCarthy said this was 'problematic in relation to inclusion of non-binary and trans dancers.'
Ms McCarthy added the school is encouraging people to use gender-neutral words such as 'dancers' and 'they' instead of he or she.
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