Do you need to be a good dancer to get into a good drama school?

Question

I absolutely love drama. My dream job is to perform at the west end and I know it's a risky business but acting and singing is what I love to do. I want to go to a really good drama school and I really want to stand out but I can't dance. I would probably be better at dancing if I could lift my arm above 90 degrees. I've got this thing called an erbs paulsy in my right arm so I can't lift it up all the way. But at the moment I am trying as hard as I can to exercise it to lift it above 90 degrees because I really want to have a career in acting if that means being a good dancer. At the moment I'm doing shows at my local theatre with a youth theatre group and they don't seem to mind about my arm.  So I was wondering if that would knock my chances of getting into a good drama school. 

Thank you for your time xx

? · Accepted Answer

Looks like we share the same dream! It depends on what you want to do. If you're just going for a drama course, then you'll be fine. This is because they don't particularly need you to dance, but they need you to be able to 'move'. I'm pretty sure that on the course, they have 'movement for the actor' units, but your arm should be fine with these conditions. If you want to go into musical theatre, the dancing can be really rigorous, and your arm will be a problem. Hope this helped! :)

P · Answer

It depends on what you want to do. 
If you want to do musicals, yes, you must be a good dancer. You will not get onto a musical theatre course without the ability to dance at a certain level (usually ballet, jazz and tap). 
If you want to do straight drama (not musicals), then it does not matter so much and you can get onto straight acting courses without so much dance, but you will need to  be able to sing, even for those.

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Do you need to be a good dancer to get into a good drama school?

2 Answers