In the year 2003/2004, the total number of dance students stood at 3,086. Although not exclusively the domain of women, this activity is certainly dominated by them – over 94 per cent of all dance students in the year under review were female.

With a 40.2 per cent share of all dance students, classical ballet is still the most popular. This is followed by jazz with a 24.2 per cent share. In the year under review, the majority of male dance students were studying Latin American and ballroom dancing, with 35 and 25.4 per cent respectively of all male dance students.

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 in 2003/2004.

The largest number of students practicing some form of dance are aged between five and nine, followed by the age groups 10-14 and 15-19. These three age groups make up 26.2 per cent, 25.3 per cent and 15.7 per cent of dancers respectively.

Children under the age of five are least likely to practice some form of dance – these make up just 9.6 per cent of the total.

In 2003/2004, the amount of time spent in dance lessons averaged at one hour per week for males and 1.25 hours per week for females. Classical ballet is the most demanding type of dance, involving 1.25 hours for males and two hours for females.

Contemporary and Spanish dance both take up 1.5 hours per week for both males and females. ‘Other’ types of dance also took up 1.25 hours for males and 1.5 hours for females. These ‘other’ types included hip-hop, wheelchair, disco and movement.

Dance students generally undertake dance examinations held under the auspices of foreign examining boards. In fact, of the 1,322 students sitting for an exam in the year 2003/2004, none of these sat for a local examination.

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. The majority of those employed, taking up nearly 80 per cent, were women. Most of these employees were working as dance teachers.

In the academic year 2003/2004, the surveyed dance schools had a total income of Lm353,559. The bulk of this – 83 per cent – came from tuition fees. On the other hand, dance schools total expenditure amounted to Lm260,579 in 2003/2004. Staff wages (including social security contributions) made up the largest share of expenditure, with 40.2 per cent of the total.

This was followed by expenditure on operational costs, with 31.5 per cent of the total expenditure for the year 2003/2004.