With the huge success of television series, including BBC's So You Think You Can Dance as well as the re-birth of Strictly Come Dancing, along with Sky 1's Got To Dance in the UK over the last couple of years, there has been an explosion of interest in all forms of dance not seen ever since the hay day of the eighties, where Fame brought Dance and the performing arts school to the masses. Not even the relative poor showing of the re-make of Fame at the box office, looks to have dented the interest of the public in general, in all things dance.

State run Schools are generally providing a vocational GCSE in dance and performing arts and uptake from students is at an all time high. Some students view it as first stepping stone to a job in dance, with all the lights of the west end seemingly pulling them towards this kind of career choice. Whilst a great deal of students simply go with this subject for their enjoyment of dance, combined with the physical prowess needed, over the traditional subjects taught in state schools. Alongside state schools there are estimated to be in excess of 80'000 private dance educational institutions, ranging from 5 - 500 students, the vast majority of of pupils in private schools appear to be beneath the age of 12. There is, as in most forms physical sports or hobbies, a drop off in interest in the early teens. All those students following the many different dance syllabus's just after the age of 12, are in the main focusing solely on a profession in dance and / or the performing arts. Leading on from this, with the increase of students leaving both the state as well as private schools, and wishing to find a job in performing arts.The quantity of specialist performing arts colleges which take students from the age of 16 has grown. Students keen to advance their performing arts education after leaving state schools, colleges of further education and also private dance schools, will find an estimated 30%+ increase in available spaces over the last five years.

Even people who leave dance at a young age immediately after losing interest in the more traditional taught versions of Ballet, Modern or Tap are now finding it again, BBC's Strictly Come Dancing is certainly observed by many as the main driving force powering the ground swell of interest in Latin, Salsa and Ballroom adult courses, which can be viewed as not just a strategy to re-discover dance again, but also as fun means of keeping fit added to this of course there is the social aspect of meeting similar minded people. Although no official bodies are available it is believed by those close to the industry that these kinds of dance have experienced the highest level of interest in the past decade.

All in all, it appears that Dance is actually very much alive and well and in the most, growing in the UK, in spite of the bite of the recession of the last couple of years, the enjoyment of participating and also watching Dance seems to have a magical pull over the country, like no other of the so called 'arts'.