Posted on: August 16th 2020

Northern School of Contemporary Dance

Congratulations to Pranju Rai who has secured a place at the Dance Conservatoire, Northern School of Contemporary Dance. They are keen to nurture versatile and independent dance artists to shape the future of dance. Pranju has written this review of her journey:

"Hello, my name is Pranju Rai and I am part of the class of 2020 graduates here at Highworth. I had for the longest time planned to continue my education through university, just like most of my peers, where I would study Human Biology.  With my subjects being Maths, Biology and Dance and a genuine interest in the course, I felt it was a suitable path to follow. However, I took a leap of faith when I decided to audition for an established dance school. The majority of my dance training has been within Highworth, I took GCSE and A Level dance purely as the fun exciting subject to have on the side of other academic classes. This interest soon grew into a passion and dance quickly became a career option I pondered over many times throughout Sixth Form.

In Year 13, I decided to apply and was fortunate enough to receive a place at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) under their CertHe Contemporary course, which is a one year intensive programme consisting of modules such as: Dance Techniques: Ballet; Contemporary Dance; Dance Performance; Choreography; Dance Repertoire; and Contextual Studies. As described on their website, this course allows dance artists to take the necessary steps to prepare them for further in depth professional training in an institute like NSCD or another conservatoire.

A little background on NSCD, it was established by Leeds City Council in 1985 as the first dance school within the public sector. Its founding principal Nadine Senior was awarded an MBE for her services to dance, as well as the current principal Janet Smith who received hers in 2015. Just one of many successful students from NSCD is Akram Khan, who directed the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony."

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