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| Bird College – Conservatoire for Dance and Musical Theatre | |
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| Location | |
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Alma Road Sidcup, London ,DA14 4ED England | |
| Coordinates | 51°25′42″N0°06′20″E / 51.428467°N 0.105655°E /51.428467; 0.105655 |
| Information | |
| Type | Independent further and higher education college |
| Motto | When Performance Counts |
| Established | 1946 (1946) |
| Founder | Doreen Bird |
| Local authority | London Borough of Bexley |
| Department for Education URN | 50701Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| President | Stephen Mear |
| Chair | Geoff Pine |
| Principal / CEO | Christopher Costigan |
| Deputy Principal | Jamieson Dryburgh |
| Staff | 130 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Website | birdcollege |
Bird College – Conservatoire for Dance and Musical Theatre is an independentperforming arts college,[1] located inSidcup, South East London, in theLondon Borough of Bexley.
The college was founded as a dance school byDoreen Bird in 1946[2] and now provides specialistvocational training in dance and musical theatre, atfurther and higher education level. The college is one of many providers of vocational performing arts training in the United Kingdom. In addition, the college also receives a grant from Bexley Council to provide music services to schools in the borough.[3]
The college prepares students for a professional career in theperforming arts and has a reputation of feeding artists intoWest End and Broadway theatre,dance companies, television, film, pop music and other high-profile areas of the entertainments industry.[2] Key areas of study includeballet,tap,jazz andcontemporary dance, musical theatre, singing, voice and acting.
Bird College is an accredited college of theCouncil for Dance Education and Training. Full-time students at the college study for either the Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre, validated byTrinity College, London, or theBA Hons in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre, validated by theUniversity of Greenwich. The college is also an approved dance centre of theImperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), and students can study towards the ISTD dance teaching qualifications.
Doreen Bird first founded theDoreen Bird School of Dance in Sidcup in 1946.[4] This was the predecessor of today's Bird College. Bird initially taught pupils in her parents'living room, rolling up the carpet to provide a suitable dance surface, although she later used a local church hall. In 1951, she established a full-time performing arts course with six students,[4] which became known as theDoreen Bird College of Performing Arts.
In 1954 Doreen Bird acquired a former vicarage, which was renamed Vicarage House and would be the college's first permanent premises. In 1964, it moved to Studio House, which continued in daily use by the college until 2016. To enable the college to expand, it became necessary to seek larger premises and in 1979, Bird was successful in securing the freehold of a formerVictorian school, which was converted into dance studios and was renamed Birkbeck Centre. Birkbeck Centre was officially opened by former Prime Minister,Sir Edward Heath and was the college's main campus until 2007. In 2007, as part of the college's contract to provide pre-vocational music and dance services on behalf of Bexley Council, Bird College was granted residency of the former Bexley Centre for Music & Dance, which became the college's principal campus, renamed The Centre. The college vacated all of its existing buildings early in 2016, with the acquisition of a new one-site facility on Alma Road in Sidcup.
The Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts first offered a nationally recognised qualification with the introduction of aNational Diploma validated byTrinity College. In 1997, the college became the first of its kind in the United Kingdom to offer a professional dance degree, with the introduction of theBA Hons Degree in Dance & Theatre Performance. This course was specially devised for the college as a collaboration between Doreen Bird and theUniversity of Greenwich who validate the qualification. In 2004, the National Diploma course was regraded to Level 6 on theNational Qualifications Framework, becoming theNational Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre. The college has further expanded its range of courses with the introduction of theFoundation Degree in Creative Industries: Acting and theMA by Research in Dance & Theatre Performance, both validated by the University of Greenwich. A one-year pre-vocational foundation course has also been established, which offers an intensive course of study for students who need extra preparation before applying for a place on a full professional course.
Doreen Bird was principal of the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts until her retirement in 1998, when she appointed Sue Passmore as Principal and Executive Director. It is also around this time that the name Bird College was first introduced, replacing the full title that had previously been used. Doreen Bird continued to be a trustee and Governor of the college for the rest of her life and in 1999 she was awarded an honorary Master of Arts by theUniversity of Greenwich, in recognition of her achievements. She died on 4 February 2004 and a memorial service was held atThe Actor's Church inCovent Garden.
Before becoming Principal of the college in 1998, Sue Passmore had previously been Head of Theatre at the formerBush Davies School of Theatre Arts. She joined the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in 1988, as Artistic Co-ordinator and Head of Drama, becoming Artistic Director in 1989. She founded the Bird Theatre Company in 1991 and was also appointed to the Executive Council of theImperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. After becoming the college's Principal and Executive Director in 1998, she held the post for seven years. Passmore retired from Bird College in 2005.
From 2005, the college was managed by Shirley Coen as Principal & Chief Executive and Luis Abreu as Deputy Principal. De Abreu is an alumnus of the college, serving as Deputy CEO & Artistic Director but formerly he was Head of Acting and Head of Performance Studies. In 2019 De Abreu became Joint Principal with Coen and in 2022 he became Principal and Artistic Director. Coen and De Abreu were both trustees of the Doreen Bird Foundation and retired from their positions in December 2024.
In 2007 till 2021, Bird College became the providers of pre-vocational music and dance services for theLondon Borough of Bexley, working in partnership with Bexley Council.
Since January 2025Bird College - Conservatoire for Dance and Musical Theatre is currently led by Christopher Costigan as Principal/CEO and Dr Jamieson Dryburgh as Deputy Principal.
Live performances are an integral part of the curriculum, with students receiving performance opportunities throughout their training at the in-house Doreen Bird Foundation Theatre. The college used to perform in public under the title of 'Bird Theatre Company', staging productions both in the UK and Internationally.
Bird College productions have been staged at the Whitworth Theatre, theBloomsbury Theatre, theChurchill Theatre inBromley,[5] thePeacock Theatre, theShaw Theatre,Sadler's Wells, theRoyal Opera House and the Orchard Theatre in Dartford.
Bird College takes part in the annual event, 'MOVE IT'. Bird students perform in the showcase and give demonstrations, with staff of the college teaching workshops and giving lectures.
In November, Bird College moved to its new campus on Alma Road in Sidcup, bringing all of the college's facilities onto one site for the first time. The Alma Road site was originally built as the Sidcup Secondary School (1955–1965), with two matching adjacent buildings; one for girls and one for boys. One of these buildings now houses Birkbeck Primary School. The second, which now houses Bird College, was used as the Sidcup Adult Education Centre prior to its acquisition by Bird College. An architectural competition was launched by theRoyal Institute of British Architects in the autumn of 2011, with the design brief for a complete overhaul of the site, providing state of the art facilities for the college. The winning designs were submitted by Hoskins Architects of Glasgow, work started in 2015. The college took partial residence of the building in the autumn of 2015 and almost full residence in November 2016.
From 1965 onward the college was based at Studio House, a detachedGeorgian property occupying the corner plot of Station Road and Crescent Road in Sidcup. Originally a residential property, the ground floor reception rooms were used as dance studios until the 1990s, when a large studio/theatre extension was built on what was the rear garden. Studio House was the college's principal campus until the acquisition of Birkbeck Centre in the 1970s.
Birkbeck Centre was a formerVictorian school situated on the corner of Birkbeck Road and Clarence Crescent in Sidcup. Acquired for the college in 1977, it was extensively refurbished and re-opened by Prime Minister and Bexley MP,Sir Edward Heath. Birkbeck Centre comprised a number of dance studios of different sizes, including a large studio located in a pre-fabricated building to the rear of the property. Adjacent to Birkbeck Centre was the Admin Cottage, which housed the college's administrative, marketing and finance teams, the Principal's office and a teachers rest room and kitchen. Birkbeck Centre remained the college's primary campus until 2007 when the college moved to 'The Centre' on Station Road.
Studio House, Birkbeck Centre and the Admin Cottage were sold in early 2016.
The Centre Bird college's previous main site is a former school located on Station Road in Sidcup. It was a music and dance complex owned by the London Borough of Bexley and was previously known as the Bexley Academy of Music and Performing Arts. It was used primarily as a venue for pre-vocational dance and music training. When the College became the official approved provider for music provision in theLondon Borough of Bexley in 2007, Bird College took residency of the building and was responsible for the management of the site. The Centre offered (within the main building and annexes on site) a range of dance studios with sprung flooring and installed sound systems, tuition/practice rooms and performance opportunities in the larger studios.
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