I currently teach a group of children dancing and drama through a group which Im employed to teach. I started off doing every other Monday just dancing, then it became every Monday and then because they were only getting 6 children come to drama and I was hitting almost 30 dancers they asked me to do both as 'the kids relate' to me. I did both and had 25ish drama children too by the end of last year. We put on the production of scrooge and the nativity play and everything was good. Ive gone back to start teaching again and the group have told me they dont want me to do drama anymore, only dancing. I feel slightly shafted because Ive built up the group and they've snatched it back off me.

I was wondering about setting up a little dance group in my town (as there doesnt seem to be anything) but was wondering if anyone knew about grants for hiring rooms etc. Im wanting to keep the price as low as poss (i.e. £2 for an hours lesson) so people who are underprivledged can still bring their children along. I have insurance through my dance school as I am down as a teacher on their books and will probably use their name.

Anyone know where I can go?

Try your local Town Council first - I'd imagine they have venues for hire anyway and might be able to do a good rate or even better !.

Question where are you? If your looking for grants try your local council parish, City/Borough they have grant sytems as does County Council's.

Oh and police do grants and large companies.

your local community centre may employ you on a sessional basis to provide this and they could charge low rates due to having a budget for it.  They are likely to have a childrens/youth work budget and would shoulder many of the costs.  If you go alone you will need to look into public liability insurance etc but if you go through another organisation you will be able to come under their £5million or whatever the standard amount is now.

Each local authority/borough should have community safety money and although it is called different things in each area you may be able to tap into that as it would come under the heading of building stronger/safer communities etc and will keep children off the street. 

The Big Lottery fund is an option and also if you go to your local volunteer centre they should be able to point you in the direction of various trusts and funds.  There is all sorts of weird and wonderful trusts out there e.g. there might have been a Mrs Smith who loved dancing and left mega bucks to be spent of people called Smith who want to start dance schools/classes.

Good luck

I dont know if this is any use to you but my daughter done a similar thing in a deprived area of glasgow and managed to get her own lottery funding. Im not sure how you go about it though some of the smart ones on here probably do.

My local council (Medway, Kent) was advertising in the local paper this week that funding/grants were available, but it was for adult groups. I was surprised as i've never seen it before. So I would start with the council, it doesn't hurt to ask.