Dance students top 3,000

There were 3,068 dance students in the year 2003-2004 and over 94 per cent of them were female, the National Statistics Office said.

With a 40.2 per cent share of all dance students going for the genre, classical ballet is still the most popular, followed by jazz with a 24.2 per cent share.

The majority of male dance students were studying Latin American and ballroom dancing - 35 and 25.4 per cent respectively.

The least popular forms of dance were salsa and Argentine tango, with 0.2 and 0.3 per cent of total students respectively.

No students were studying line dancing.

Dance schools mostly employ part-time staff.

In the year under review, the dance schools surveyed employed 91 part-timers in contrast to 21 full-timers.