What New Research Tells Us About England’s Private Dance School Sector
Kate Basile, on behalf of DST
What happens in the private dance schools matters and the new research from Arts Council England gives us an important opportunity to recognise just how much.
A new national study, Understanding England’s Private Dance School Sector, commissioned by Arts Council England and delivered by the University of Bedfordshire, takes a closer look at an area of dance that has, until now, been relatively under-researched: private dance schools, studios and groups working with children and young people across England.
The study is the most comprehensive research to date, as it covered more than 5,200 private dance schools across England, and found 94% of children and young people who dance do so outside of mainstream schooling.
For Dance Sport Trust, the key findings within this research provide us with important areas of discussion and thought, and are as follows:
Dance schools provide much more than dance technique
Perhaps one of the most significant messages from the research is something many dance teachers already know from experience: the value of dance cannot be measured only by how good someone becomes at dancing.
Young people involved in the research spoke about enjoyment, friendship, confidence, belonging, improving their skills, performing and future opportunities. Teachers also described the wider benefits of dance, including confidence, resilience, discipline, teamwork and experience of performing. Parents and carers valued many of the same things alongside fitness, structure and social connection.
The research makes an important point:
A professional career is only one measure of the value of dance. We think this is particularly relevant when we talk about children and young people in ballroom and latin dancing. Not every child who learns ballroom and latin will want to compete. Not every competitor will want to become a professional dancer. Not every young person needs to have a long-term performance goal for their time in dance to be worthwhile.
A child can dance because they love music. Because they enjoy being with their friends. Because performing gives them a sense of achievement. Because it helps them feel confident. Because they enjoy learning something difficult. Because it gives them somewhere they feel they belong. All of the above reasons matter.
Confidence, wellbeing and belonging are part of the picture
The research identifies health and wellbeing, belonging and community, and skills and confidence as three particularly important strengths of private dance provision. For us at Dance Sport Trust, this is an important recognition.
Dance can ask a great deal of young people. There can be performance pressure, competition, comparison, expectations, disappointment, physical demands and the challenge of being seen by others. But the same environment can also provide opportunities to develop resilience, self-belief, social connection, discipline and a sense of achievement.
That is why wellbeing should not be viewed as something separate from dance. It is part of creating a healthy environment in which young people can participate, develop and enjoy their dancing.
This does not mean that dance teachers are expected to become counsellors or mental-health professionals. It means recognising that the environment we create around young people matters.
From how we communicate to how we respond to mistakes, talk about results and support a young person who is struggling. Also how we make sure that their identity is bigger than their performance. These things can all contribute to a young person’s experience of dance.
Access isn’t equal
The research also highlights the barriers that can make participation difficult.
Financial pressure was one of the clearest findings. Only 5% of survey respondents said they were not affected by financial pressures, with families facing rising costs alongside increases in venue hire, teachers’ pay, insurance, costumes, examinations, utilities and other running costs.
Geography matters too. Around 88% of mapped providers were in urban areas compared with around 12% in rural areas, meaning where a young person lives can influence what dance they can access, how far their family needs to travel and what progression opportunities are available.
And barriers are not simply financial. The research identifies cost, geography, family circumstances, culture, gender, disability and representation as factors that can influence participation, sometimes in combination.
Many providers are already trying to respond through free tasters, discounts, payment plans, subsidised classes, bursaries, scholarships and partnerships with schools or community organisations. But individual dance schools cannot solve structural inequalities alone. That requires wider recognition, collaboration and support across the sector.
Progression should be easier to understand
For young dancers who want to progress further, private dance schools can play an important role. The research highlights their contribution to preparing young people for auditions, further and higher education, specialist conservatoires, vocational schools, Centres for Advanced Training, competitions, conventions and professional opportunities.
But it also identifies an important challenge: progression routes can be difficult to understand.
There are many different routes through dance, and awareness of these opportunities varies considerably. This matters because a young person should not need to already understand a complicated system in order to access opportunities. For ballroom and latin dancing, this raises some interesting questions about how we communicate pathways within our own world.
Do young dancers and their families understand the different opportunities available to them?
Do they know where qualifications can lead?
Do teachers have access to clear information?
Are there opportunities beyond competition that young dancers are aware of?
And are we doing enough to make the wider dance landscape accessible to young people who may not yet know what they want their future to look like?
Teachers need support too
One of the strongest findings from the research is that teachers want the private dance school sector to be better recognised, with 62% of survey respondents saying that increased visibility and recognition of private dance schools, studios and groups would strengthen the sector.
Teachers wanted greater acknowledgement of their skills, their contribution to children’s development, their role within local communities and their place within progression pathways. But recognition alone is not enough. Teachers also identified practical support around venue costs, equipment and space, partnerships with education, bursaries and teacher development.
The research also highlights the importance of qualifications, continuing professional development, safeguarding and inclusive practice, while recognising that dance is incredibly diverse and that there is not necessarily one qualification system that fits every dance tradition.
This is an important conversation for the ballroom and latin industry too. Good teachers need opportunities to keep learning. Young people need safe, supportive environments. Parents need confidence that the adults working with their children understand their responsibilities and teachers themselves need support if we want a healthy and sustainable sector.
A huge part of England’s dance landscape
The scale of private dance provision is striking. The research identified more than 5,200 active dance providers across England, with more than three quarters of survey respondents having operated for over ten years and almost half for more than twenty years.
This is not a small or peripheral part of the dance world. It is a substantial and established part of England’s cultural and educational landscape. And importantly, the research makes clear that there is no single definition of what a private dance school looks like.
The sector includes ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, street and hip hop, commercial dance, musical theatre, cultural and traditional dance forms, competition dance, ballroom and latin, and many other forms. That diversity matters.
Ballroom and latin dancing sits within this wider ecology, with its own traditions, teaching structures, competitive pathways, examinations, performances and communities. Any conversation about supporting dance therefore needs to recognise the breadth of the sector rather than assuming that one model fits everyone.
So what happens next?
Arts Council England describes this research as a first step rather than a complete account. It provides a national baseline, while acknowledging that some providers and communities remain less visible in the evidence.
There are still important areas to understand better, including rural provision, disabled dancers and people with SEND, boys and men’s experiences, LGBTQIA+ experiences, financial barriers, culturally specific progression routes and why some young people stop dancing. That means ballroom and latin dancing should be part of that conversation.
At Dance Sport Trust, our aim is to contribute to a culture where wellbeing, safeguarding, inclusion, education and healthy participation are recognised as an important part of ballroom and latin dancing, alongside the skill, artistry, discipline and joy that make it so special.
The research concludes that private dance schools, studios, teachers and community providers form a significant part of England’s dance ecology and provide much more than dance classes.
They support participation, skills, confidence, wellbeing, friendship and belonging, creative expression, community and routes into further training and careers.
We think that is something worth recognising and perhaps, more importantly, something worth protecting.
Because when a child walks into a dance studio, they may be learning to dance but they are also learning about themselves.
Dance Sport Trust will continue to follow research and developments across the wider dance sector and share resources that can help dancers, families, teachers, coaches and others within our community.
Research source: Arts Council England / University of Bedfordshire, Understanding England’s Private Dance School Sector: A national study of access, training and progression for children and young people.
