Musical Theatre at Emerson - Page 2

Sporti2005 · 12-12-2005, 06:24 PM

soozie, you may be able to answer this as i know your D auditioned and got into emerson last year, but i wanted to see any other opinions on it as well...

does anyone know anything about the dance audition regarding whether it is more focused into ballet/jazz/etc? i'm auditioning there and haven't really heard anything about the dance portion.

thanks, all!
maggie

BroadwayWannabe · 12-12-2005, 07:08 PM

i auditioned at emerson already. the dance audition at emerson was jazzish...but it wasn't even really that jazzy. it was mostly an audition to see how you move and if you have personality. it was really loose and calm. i wouldn't worry about it

soozievt · 12-12-2005, 07:16 PM

Maggie, just for the record, my D got into Emerson but NOT into the BFA, she was in EA to the college, deferred for the BFA and eventually denied for the BFA in April. She thought the Emerson dance audition was by far the EASIEST of all her college auditions and remarked that you did not have to know how to dance at all to do it. Like BroadwayWannabe says, it was jazzish I think and not really based on ANY technique but more if you could move/personality. You will have NO problem if you are not dancer in terms of doing the actual dance. It is more showing yourself as a performer. She said for anyone who IS a dancer, the dance audition was, well, a bit of a "joke" as it did not discern dance technique at all. This is not the case elsewhere. You'll be FINE, trust me, on this part.

Susan

BroadwayWannabe · 12-12-2005, 07:29 PM

yeah absolutely i totally agree with soozievt....there was no technique involved in it whatsoever. it was just your simple box step kinda stuff. i've taken a fair amount of dance and had no problem with it....and there were people in it who had no dance experience who also had no problem with it. of the few schools that i've auditioned at so far, it has been by far the easiest as well. i only wish they were all that easy!!

and just for the note, the head of the MT department at emerson made it clear that the dance audition would not make or break you (he was the one who taught it the day i was there). In fact, at the end of the dance audition, he individually asked each of us if we came to emerson would we place ourselves in beginner or intermediate ballet and jazz (apparently advanced was not an option for freshman MT majors). He wrote down for each person how we would rank ourselves. And a lot of the people who had no problem with the dance put themselves in beginner ballet and jazz.

Sporti2005 · 12-12-2005, 07:42 PM

thank you all so much for your quick responses! (and soozie, sorry for the confusion about your D and emerson, oops!)

i feel so much better now knowing that it's not that complicated. i can learn choreography reasonably well and have a tiny bit of ballet background and a LOT of useless scottish highland dance background (should've done more ballet....grrrr), but i can move pretty well.

thanks for the eased nerves!!
maggie

soozievt · 12-12-2005, 08:01 PM

Maggie, no problem. And yeah, what Broadway Wannabe added about them asking each person about dance also happened but I forgot it as it was a year ago and of course, it is not like I was in the room but that does remind me now that my D mentioned what BW just said too. No worries on this part for you.
Susan

ToTheStage · 01-10-2006, 02:16 AM

can anybody speak to the recent changes in administration at Emerson (I forget if it's the college or just the performing arts dept)

songanddance · 04-15-2006, 05:05 PM

My D auditioned but did not get in although that was her top choice and she wanted to be in Boston. I found out it's not an option to transfer into Emerson, but you can go for a BA in Theater. Do you know if in that case
you can also take courses in voice and dance (is it true they did away with
the dance classes?) and do you know what difference it makes either in school or afterwards whether you had a BA in Theatre or a BFA in MT if
you're really interested in MT? Do you think it's better to stay with an MT program? I don't know if you know the answer to these questions but it
sounds like you had a lot of experience with Emerson so I thought I'd ask!
Thanks.

kasl24 · 08-03-2006, 05:01 PM

I am going to be a high school senior next year and Emerson is my top choice school. I was wondering if any current students at Emerson could explain what the dance component of the program (not the audition) is like in the BFA MT. I understand that the auditions are quite simple, but I am looking for a program that can challenge me in dance as well as the other areas of theatre. Does Emerson have a good dance program?

lynnm · 08-03-2006, 07:39 PM

kasl24 - I think Emerson is part of the pro-arts consortium. If so, you can take classes at several other schools as well. You might check into that and see if dance classes can be taken at BoCo if Emerson classes are not challenging or in-depth enough.

kasl24 · 08-04-2006, 09:45 AM

Thanks lynnm, I'll look into that- I remember them saying somehting about that at a tour I went on.

Any other opinions on Emerson's dance program would be great as well!

Applegate13 · 08-18-2006, 06:25 PM

I too am really curious about the dance program at Emerson.