churchmusicmom

This caught my eye and I would like to offer additional perspective on the issue of what actually can be characterized as "pre-professional".

I certainly cannot speak to Skidmore's dance program but Barnard's can and does produce dance professionals. The difference is that, at a "traditional liberal arts school" such as Barnard, one can also take a broad range of academic classes and chose to either double major or minor in an academic subject and dance. Those opportunities are usually quite limited in convervatory or BFA programs.

My d was in a professional cast (an Equity show) the summer before her first year in college. She was the youngest adult cast member. The veteran performers all were very encouraging and supportive of her decision to attend Barnard BECAUSE she would have the option of taking a broader-based curriculum over a BFA.

I do not intend to denegrate the BFA as an appropriate choice for many. Only to point out that one can receive "pre-professional" dance training along with an excellent "academic" education at Barnard.

manuelo

churchmusicmom --

I agree with you completely. I did not mean to suggest that "traditional liberal arts" schools did not train competent, professional dancers. I meant simply that the BFA programs are, in general and there are exceptions, not striving to the same extent as the liberal arts schools to educate the student in the other areas of the curriculum. Hence, they are more "training oriented" and less "academically oriented." There are, of course, exceptions.

nyumom

The BFA program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts is conservatory training with the academic component; students can double major/minor/take classes in many other subject areas, so that they graduate with a well-rounded education. The students who we know that are pursuing ballet professionally are doing just that - they've elected to apprentice at companies instead of matriculating at a college at the present time, since the idea is that if they want to be able to dance, this is the time to do it, while they're still young.

kidzadancer

This is all such good conversation. We'll have to visit Barnard in April.
This is the question then: There are schools that produce more professional dancers than others, which ones are they? Not including schools that are strictly ballet. I'm afraid Skidmore may not be the school for her, but they have a variety of dance in their curriculum and several dance groups and we wanted to visit for comparison sake. Any opinions on that?

I know at Pt Pk D can Minor in a language while in the Dance BA program, though the Liberal Arts college has been referred to as community college-ish, which could be fine. U Arts too offers some languages , but I'm not sure if you can use your electives for those and they offer a BA only.

I must admit that I'M doing most of the research at this point, but it's D's high school musical season and with dance classes and homework ....
well, it's kind of fun. too..and she's my last one!

'We're' still looking at some of the others mentioned earlier. ~Still greatful for all of your input.

churchmusicmom

manuelo, thanks for clarifying! And, well put.

NYUmom, my d also checked out the NYU/Tisch program. And, while it is possible to double major with a BFA, it is not the "expected" route as in a BA/liberal arts setting. It was her impression that, for her to get the well-rounded and challenging academic exposure she desired, it would have been pretty difficult at Tisch/NYU. It also was significant to her that she did not know exactly what subject area she would want to pursue in addition to dance, and the BFA did not allow for THAT much academic "exploration". At least that was her impression and the reason she did not chose to go that route...

nyumom

churchmusicmom,
I have/had two kids who are/were at Tisch, one who just graduated with a BFA in Film with a minor in Philosophy. He could have double-majored in Philosophy, but chose to take the minor instead, because he wanted to take other courses in other subject areas, plus attending two NYU study abroad programs and taking internships. He was able to receive a well-rounded education from Tisch by doing the following: he entered NYU with 12 college credits (8 from NYU and 4 from another school), he attended both NYU summer sessions either via study abroad or taking courses at NYU in NYC, he took a full-load of course credits during the school year - it's the same rate whether it's 12 or 18 credits, so he averaged 16 credits. He had the option of graduating in 3 years, but elected to stay the extra year (the 4th/senior year), because he wanted to take more courses and also made his senior thesis film. During the senior year, he was able to drop down to part-time status as far as the credits were concerned, since he had taken so many courses that he had extra credits - and many of these courses were in CAS and Steinhardt - he could have probably put them towards obtaining a Master's degree. He was able to take advantage of all the resources that NYU offers in terms of courses, study abroad programs, internships, etc. If a student is motivated, has direction and is persistent, it is certainly possible to obtain a very well-rounded education from Tisch.

churchmusicmom

NYUMOM:: Absolutely! Tisch is a wonderful school for many obviously talented and motivated students such as your two kids. My point was that it was my d's impression that it just would be more problematic for a dancer to do what she really thought she wanted in that environment, and while pursuing a BFA (and she really wanted a BA).

Your kids obviously ended up in a WONDERFUL place and it's great that there are so many choices and opportunities out there for talented kids like yours.

nyumom

kidzadancer,
I sent you a pm with regard to the UArts info.

jasmom

nyumom,
Do you/did you have a d at NYU in dance? We just saw a (1st & 2nd yr)student production there. We were all very impressed!

nyumom

jasmom,
I sent you a pm with regard to your above post.

kidzadancer

We had a visit to Skidmore. Lovely, charming town, relatively small campus. The dance studios were well kept and spacious and the performance space was terrific. D took two classes, int/adv tap and modern II, but did not feel challenged enough at that level to study there for four years. One of the students did say that when the instructors know you want to be a performer they will work with you and push you. In any event D would like a bigger school. Skidmore has about 2600 students. We'll head to the cities next. How are your visits going?

MomOf3Stars

Hi Kidzadancer,
Butler is in Indiana. They have a wonderful program according to my DD's pointe instructor, who graduated from Butler and then went on to join a professional company in California before getting married and starting a family.

I know your situation well. For my DD's whole dance life she has focused on and competed in tap, clog, lyrical, and jazz. She is 12 now but in last few years it became more and more apparent that she needed the technique that a strict ballet program would provide. So this past year she enrolled in 4 hours a week in an RAD certified school of ballet that has a close affiliation with a local professional dance company (the school director also is founder and creative director of the dance co). Needless to say she has flourished beyond any of our wildest dreams. One of the aspects of this studio that I love the most is that a google search of the studio name or owner name will give you a lot of results showing a good number of her students that have gone on to professional dance careers.

Anyway, I digress. What are your daughter's career intentions after college?
Does she intend to open a studio and teach? If so, a minor in business and accounting may be better suited for her. (She could still continue Spanish courses in college)

If she plans to turn professional, it should be considered that there are far more (taken with a grain of salt) jobs out there for ballet dancers than for tap and jazz dancers. Needless to say any professional tap and jazz gigs often require a certain amount of singing and acting so formal training in those aspects may be helpful.

So, if tap, jazz, and modern are indeed what she is looking for I would definitely suggest SUNY Purchase. It has a close enough proximity to NYC so that she could visit ofand is a very artsy school. Also might want to check out Adelphi and Long Island University CW Post Campus. Both are located on Long Island. I have a friend who's daughter is at Adelphi and she loves it there. She is an MT major but there are so many opportunities to perform.

If proximity to NYC is not a factor for you then I do believe that University of Vermont has and excellent reputation for the fine arts. Mercyhurst College in PA and Kent State in Ohio are also excellent fine arts schools.

Hope this helps. My DD is only 12 but was serious from the day she stepped out of the womb and has pretty much known since she could talk that she wanted to be a dancer. Here is hoping she changes her mind!!! JKJK

Chedva

As far as I can tell, UVM doesn't have a dance program. It only has a dance team and an extra-curricular company.

MomOf3Stars

Sorry, my bad. Got it confused due to the music major factor. My oldest DD (who is a Junior in HS) has been glancing at UVM bc of the music ed major and that program comes highly recommended. Too many arts majors in this family and I can't keep track of all the info anymore!!!

dancersmom

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