As we go through life friends can be so important to us. Finding out who is truly a friend and who isn’t might be said to be a vital life skill. Where better to start finding friends than in a theatre school? If you dance, act and sing together the chances are that you will quickly make new friends. In fact, it can be easier to make friends through the performing arts than in other situations. Why is that?
If you think about it singing, dancing and acting classes are a bit different. They are more connected with people’s feelings. You have to put yourself out there a bit when you join in. It’s a risk if you don’t know anyone but generally, everyone else knows this and wants to welcome you. So, children and young people who attend these classes are usually a bit more open, a bit more receptive than other leisure activities tend to be.
If you are in a theatre production you automatically become part of a team as you start to work with the other people in the show. The point about all this is that new friendships emerge more quickly because everyone is put under the pressure of performing – they are in it together. In Theatretrain we have given nearly 100 performances in West End Theatres and that involves travelling from where you live and sitting on a coach with a group of other people like you. Conversations are struck up and before long the performers realise that the person sitting next to them has more about them than they thought. They go through several shows together and have a past to talk about. This happens all the time and some of these friendships are for life. I’ve met many ex pupils who tell me that they are still friends 20 years later – all because they went to a performing arts class on a Saturday morning.
And aren’t good friends a great way of finding out about yourself?
Kevin Dowsett
Artistic Director
tags: friendship, drama classes dance schools, singing lessons, singing lessons near me, acting classes, acting classes near me, drama school, acting school
