Indian dance company in Birmingham offers diploma-level qualifications

An Indian classical dance company has become the first in the Midlands to offer diploma-level qualifications.

This means students with Birmingham's Chitraleka Dance Company can now gain the grades to teach others as well as pursue professional careers, something which has long been established in Western dance forms.

Chitraleka Bolar, the dance company's founder, said: "The interest is there and the children want to do it and they are realising the value of following what they love as a pastime and it can be a part-time or full-time profession."

Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing chairman Christopher Bannerman said: "We've always had the importance of the dance teacher as being central to the preservation and the continuation of dance forms.

"But now of course the demands in the modern age are very different. People have to develop different kinds of structures, supporting structures, to help teachers grow and develop and have continuing professional development and also to help students move out into the wider world of dance and the world of work."

BBC Midlands Today's arts reporter Satnam Rana has more details.