From the outside, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts looks like an impressive Georgian building…read morethat is home to important academics. In actual fact, it's an all singing, all dancing facility where students are encouraged to live out their Glee and Fame fantasies! Built in 1825, the building was originally used as a school for boys with past students including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Hearing the building was empty and neglected in the late eighties, McCartney joined forces with entepeneur and Brit School founder Mark Featherstone-Witty to regenerate and re-open the building as a higher education facility for creatives. After a seven year struggle and mulit-million pound investment, the doors open in 1996 offering students diplomas, degrees and post-graduate programmes in everything from Performing Arts, Music, Dance and Sound Technology to Entertainment Management and Theatre and Performance Design. I've never studied at LIPA personally but if I was in my teens, I might aspire to. Alongside regular classes, there are masterclasses and Q&A sessions with industry veterans and musicians. Previous guests have included Trevor Horn, Malcolm McClaren, Antony H. Wilson, Alan McGee, Cathy Dennis and Will Young.

I lived with 8 LIPA students last year and dealt directly with the institute in helping to set up…read moreand promote performances across the city! I must say, this place breeds talent on a huge scale and I'd never lived amongst such a great group of people before. What's more is they all spoke highly of LIPA and all that it has to offer. LIPA has a huge success rate and many affiliations across the performance industry. It offers classes in singer/song writing, music management, performance, community performance, dance, acting and a wealth of interlinked modules. It's an expensive place to study and can be a hard place to get into due to the amount of applications that the institute receives each year.. But it's a great place, a really sound place (Excuse the pun). LIPA students have a great social community and I was proud to be a part of it as I met some fantastic and talented people from all corners of the globe!

Car-parking is always a pain there basically its non-existent and you'll have to contend with…read moreparking on one of the side streets which are quite a distance away from the school. Also, there is very little in the way of facilities for parents (and their other children) who have to wait in the premises for their children to finish class. Not enough seating room, no food and drink, etc. The interior of the building is just very tiny and cramped, not very clean, dark ,full of narrow walkways and just a tad depressing. The school head does not seem to be full of enthusiasm for the teaching profession she's involved in nor the students and their parents. She just comes across as rather unfriendly, unapproachable and only interested in taking money for the classes. I'm not surprised my daughter didn't enjoy lessons there. But now she does, somewhere else!

From the owner: Performing Arts training for 16 plus in Dance, Musical Theatre and acting. Our Academies offer…read moretraining to children from 3 years of age

julie and karen are first class dance teachers. zoe and…read moremyself have been dancing for about 15 months; up to then i could not dance a step. my confidence grows each time we go down. great fun great people in the classes. GO ON GIVE IT A GO. again a big THANK YOU to JULIE AND KAREN.