article: So how necessary is all the expensive tuition, if you want to help your child into a career treading the boards? Tallulah Treadaway is living many girls' dreams. Aged just 12 she has spent the last year leaving her sister and two brothers at home in Sussex, to take the train to London to perform in the hit musical Matilda. There's no question that it's a fulfilling experience for her. "It's an achievement," she says. "After the performance you walk out of the theatre and you hear people say 'those kids were amazing' and you feel great." Her run in Matilda has just come to an end and she is now in rehearsals for another West End production. But although she has been dancing since she was five, Tallulah is relatively untutored, at least compared to many of the other children she meets at auditions. She has noticed some of them turn up already knowing all the words and all the steps. Increasingly, parents of a new star-struck generation are forking out for a whole battery of lessons in the hope that it will help fulfil their child's dream of a show business career. But it's not a path to embark on lightly. Whereas you might happily pay £20 for a chemistry set for an aspiring scientist in the family, the parents of a promising performer can spend thousands on what is a notoriously fickle career choice. Costs vary around the country but one-to-one tuition in the south-east of England starts at £20 an hour. Group classes range from £5 - £10. The costs of uniform, costumes and exams can mount up too. And the more classes that are on offer from jazz to musical theatre, street dance to singing, the more your child will want to do. "I want to keep my daughter's dreams alive," says Naomi Phitidis, mother of one enthusiastic young performer. Her daughter Juno attends singing, drama and several dance classes, although some are scheduled fortnightly to limit time and cost pressures. "But I also want her to have some sort of security in her life," says her mother. She does sometimes wonder whether she's putting all her eggs in one basket, but firmly believes the skills and confidence that Juno is acquiring will help her whatever she does later in life. Vanessa Karl's daughter, Zoe, hopes to become a professional dancer. But she knows she's unlikely to win a place at a dance college without reaching a demanding technical standard. So Vanessa spends around £100 a week on classes for 30 weeks of the year. "If someone has a passion it's good to let them follow that passion, if you can afford it," she says. She thinks you need an absolute minimum of four years training to get into a post-16 dance school, and more is better. "If you're serious you need to be doing at least three ballet classes a week. And I think most dancers would want to do at least that." If Tallulah, Juno and Zoe do pursue careers on the stage they will
summary: If you're the parent of a budding Darcey Bussell or Benedict Cumberbatch you'll know how quickly the bills start flooding in from drama teachers, singing coaches and dance schools.