Boys prefer salsa, girls prefer ballet

A survey conducted among 41 dance schools showed there were 4,305 students attending dance lessons during academic year 2009-2010, at par with the previous year, the NSO said today.
 
Of the 4,305 students attending the surveyed 41 dance schools, 1,836 sat for examinations, an increase of 19 per cent over the previous academic year. The number of examinations sat for in the academic year under review amounted to 1,987, with an average of 1.08 exams per student.

Males showed a preference for salsa, followed by Latin American and ballroom dancing. Female students preferred classical ballet, followed by jazz and modern dance.

The most popular types of dance taught were classical ballet (23 schools), jazz (13 schools) and modern dance (13 schools) (Table 5).

The majority of students attending dance classes were females (86 per cent), of whom 69 per cent were under 18 years of age. On the other hand, 85 per cent of males were in the  18 to 64 age bracket.

The majority of staff employed with dance schools were on a part-time basis (42 per cent) and were followed by sub-contracted staff (28 per cent). The majority of full-timers were directors, while most part-timers, voluntary and sub-contracted staff were dance teachers.

The recurrent expenditure for the year under review reached €930,765, an average of €22,702 per school. Labour costs comprised 47 per cent of the reported expenditure. During the same year, the total income for these schools amounted to €1,159,851, an average of €28,289 per school. Eighty-four per cent of this income was attributed to tuition fees, while dance shows
accounted for 12 per cent of the total.