VerifiedDance has the shortest career of any profession on this site. Most dancers stop performing in their thirties. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is the reason the funding question here is different: what you want funded is the qualification that outlasts the performing years.
The teaching qualification
Dance teaching is the career that continues after performing ends, and it is funded far better than performance is, because education funders will pay for it. A dance degree combined with a teaching qualification opens the schemes on our education bursaries page, which are larger than anything in the arts.
Examination board qualifications from the international dance societies are the other route into teaching, and they are usually paid for course by course rather than by bursary. Budget for them separately from your degree.
Bursaries for dance
Dance has the shortest funder list in the arts, and that is the honest position rather than a gap in our research. These fund it within a wider field list:
- Allan Gray Orbis Fellowship
- Canon Collins Tom Queba Scholarship
- NYDA Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship Fund
- Bridgestone
The National Arts Council funds dance organisations as well as individuals, so a place in a funded company programme can be worth more than a bursary.
Where the work is
- The professional companies, which take very few dancers and audition rather than assess marks.
- School and studio teaching, which is where most dance income in South Africa comes from.
- Community and development dance work, often funded by the NAC or by provincial arts and culture departments.
- Choreography and production, which usually comes later and is project-funded.
See also our performing arts bursaries and drama and theatre bursaries pages.