Which colleges or universities in the western United States have good ballet programs and allow a double major?
Maybe this belongs here:
Not many. My D25 is looking at ballet programs/double major now. U of Utah is very strong. Other contenders: UCI and UCSB, U of AZ (triple track ballet/jazz/modern from my understanding), Texas Christian U, and Southern Methodist U. Does your child need pointe to be happy? If not, many dance programs have a class to three of ballet, but no pointe.
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Maybe not what you are looking for but I love this company- LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican University of California
There are very few of these. My d22 is a double major in dance and chemistry and ended up on the east coast. Places that might work are Colorado State University, University of Oregon (their dance is a little light, but they have a great partnership with Eugene ballet, and possibly University of Utah.
I don’t know much about schools out west but I would start with schools that have a Bachelor of Arts degrees. They are typically less intensive than a BFA and will allow you more leeway for taking other courses. If a university has a school (or College) of Fine Arts you may find the student is looking for a dual degree not a double major. Your student would be getting two degrees such as a Fine Arts degree and BS or BA in Science. Both schools might have their own general education requirements and they may not match up. Double majors are usually two majors within the same college. There would be only one set of general education requirements. Good luck.
This FB group has a lot of info on this topic, including a master list of dance programs with various characteristics…area of focus, BFA, BA, minor, allow double major, etc
Paging @Twoin18 who had a dancer daughter at the U, I believe.
Yes Utah has a very strong classical ballet program (the top 4 are usually thought of as Indiana, Butler, Oklahoma and Utah) and a decent modern dance program. You have lots more choices for modern/commercial dance, western US options include Arizona, Chapman, USC (and Lines mentioned above).
D applied and was admitted to UCI and UCSB (with Regents scholarship at both) but they are not really pre-pro programs. On the east coast she was also admitted to Fordham/Ailey (again fairly modern, so not her preferred option).
Utah was great, easy enough to double major with a BFA and a BS in 4 years (most of her classmates did). And she had excellent (academically based) merit as a high stat student (4.0UW/35 ACT/9 APs with 8 5s). But be aware that ballet is a tough road, of the 35 in her class, 25 graduated with a BFA, 12 pursued dance careers, now 2 years later that’s down to about 7, and hardly any of them get paid. So it’s highly advisable to figure out how to take a second major.
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Thank you all so much for your advice! We live in Washington state and don’t have family on the east coast, so attending college there seems a bit daunting. She wants to double major (in either business or pre-physical therapy in additon to BFA) knowing that dancing professionally might not be an option. It seemed west coast options are much more limited. We have toured Arizona, Chapman, and Utah. I was hoping to add a few more to the list as I realize admissions to these programs and super competitive as well. Other than these top schools, what schools still have strong ballet programs (yes en pointe is a must and productions as well), but maybe a bit less competitive for entry into the school of dance? She has top grades, lots of APs, and great SAT scores and hoping to find a great match of both arts and academics.
Thanks again!
It’s going to be difficult. You do need to decide between more classical programs and modern/commercial, and if pointe (ie classical) is a priority then Utah is by far your best option in the west. Otherwise you might have to give up on the idea of a BFA and look at BA options, though that would very likely eliminate professional options after college (which are hard enough to find already as many dance companies prefer to take students after high school who will go to college later on or not at all).
But there are good reasons many people recommend BA programs which make it easy to double major instead of BFAs: most will not be successful in getting a professional contract after college even with a BFA from a top dance program, so people would advise that short circuiting that possibility now (by doing a BA) is not necessarily a great loss. My view is that if you can’t get into a top program now, then you aren’t likely to be able to dance professionally later on anyway. D’s backup was to do an academic degree and just dance for fun (people protest when we say UCB and UCLA were her safeties, but that was true).
My D loves what she is doing, but it is an incredibly tough life with no money. She was fortunate to get a full ride so has enough money left in her 529 to support herself for as long as necessary (now she’s in a cheap part of the country). But most either have families that continue to support them or give up pretty quickly.
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Any opinions on dance program at Cal state
Fullerton, Colorado State University, or San Diego State? I know they are not the highest ranked, but are they still good programs?
Tagging in some folks who might be more familiar with the Cal State schools:
@Gumbymom, @aunt_bea, @worriedmomucb, @tamagotchi, @ucbalumnus
While I fully understand that this isn’t quite what the OP is looking for, I think this program at USF sounds so cool: BA in Performing Arts and Social Justice, with a dance concentration.
So while it may not hit the OP’s target, maybe other dance students who find their way to this thread will be interested.
But, otherwise, at least at schools here in the Bay Area, most programs are more broadly dance, so not sure how strong the ballet specifically would be. Seems like a lot of focus on modern.
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Our D knew she wanted to be a Physical Therapist who wanted to continue dancing as opposed to a Dancer who was seeing Physical Therapy as a backup. She was a BA Dance major and worked with the PT department to make sure she completed the prerequisites. I won’t go into the details but she is now a PT and has the opportunities to work with the professional dancers. Her final Clinical was in Chicago working with the Joffrey Ballet. Her BFA friends are struggling. Some dancing, some teaching many are working at places that have nothing to do with dance. A few made it in to companies. All are wonderful people but I don’t think any of the dancers are self reliant financially. The average salary of a Joffrey Ballet performer was around $56k a couple of years ago. I have my own opinions about PT but it is a good career with good if not fantastic earnings.
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It sounds like it has all the disadvantages of dance (ie not leading to any sort of financially rewarding career) with no prospect of actually becoming a professional dancer. And at a private school where the cost of attendance is $80K per year (before merit). What’s “cool” about that?
It reminds me of UCLA’s dance program AKA “World Arts and Culture” where D18 went to a class as part of her college tour, and for the first 15 minutes they were told to lie on the floor and use their imagination to think about dance. It was hard to take seriously after that.
I could see it as a pathway to many careers in the nonprofit sector, particularly in arts nonprofits of which there are MANY in the Bay Area, including those that are dance focused. Yes, it is not as financially rewarding as the corporate world but, as someone who in fact works in the Bay Area nonprofit sector, I can say that it can be incredibly rewarding in other ways. I would find someone with the background very interesting as a prospective employee and, in fact, we just recently hired someone with a dance background.
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