‘About Dance’ is a business originally set up to help an aspiring UK teenager with an inbuilt dance duty. In order to try to raise the ongoing funds required to further her education and training within the dance field by utilising multiple online dance-related trading styles.
Although still quite young, Sophie had an old head on young shoulders and was very much aware that you cannot really expect to get something for nothing and as a result from a young age had always worked hard for her achievements.
Knowing for a good many years that all she really wants is to do is a job which she enjoys, she focused hard to try to get as far as she could with all opportunities available to her at any given time.
On the lead up prior to her entering her final year (GCSE year 2013/4) at secondary school, she was advised during a careers one to one meeting to “have a backup plan” when she mentioned that she wanted to be a dancer.
Although something which any 15-16-year old do not want to hear. She knew that due to the costs involved in further education and training within the area she wished to pursue. She had in order to stand a chance of realising her ambitions continue to try as hard as she could to get a scholarship/grant to a vocational school of her choice (Tring Park) as well as to have a backup plan just in case.
In the early 2014 auditions for Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, she was successful in being offered (a paying) place at Tring Park, but the sad fact was that she like many other girls with the same ambition – she would only be able to go if there was an award of some form of a grant.
Fortunately, she was lucky to be recalled along with a number of students for a further scholarship/grant awards audition, after which although not immediately successful she has been placed on the Dance and Drama Award (DaDA) reserve list, meaning that she still has a chance in being able to attend Tring Park although some/many would have considered it to be a very slight chance.
With only two months of secondary school left during whilst of course she was still taking her GCSE’s, she along with her parents were starting to put into place the ideas on how they could look to earn the money she needs, initially as more of a break from her GCSE revision as opposed to a distraction, and on the 19th June 2014 was the date the world changed upon receiving news of the confirmed offer of a DaDA award.
“It’s all about dance for this girl – are you into it the same?“