Colleges with dance for non-majors

College Search & Selection
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Hi everyone. I’m a rising senior and right now I’m looking for schools to add to my college list that have good dance options for non-majors. I do ballet very seriously during the year at a pre-professional school connected to a well known company, and dance during the summers doing more of a contemporary ballet kinda thing. I also am interested in choreography and have had the chance to choreograph during the year through my academic school. I’m looking for colleges with either a good dance program that allows non-majors to participate, or a colleges with good, professional student run ballet or dance groups that put together choreography/shows.

To give you a background on my stats- 92.07 GPA (for context, I go to a very rigorous school and not many people have crazy high GPAs, plus my continuous B/B+ in advanced math classes all 3 years bringing GPA down a bit), 35 ACT. SAT IIs: 780 US History, 730 Math II, 670 Chem. 5’s on all APs: APUSH, WHAP, AP Lang. As you can see I’m more of a humanities person. I’m really into politics/feminism/activism and my EC’s are pretty strong and revolve around that type of thing, as well as (obviously) dance. I’m from a state with not a lot of northeast LAC representation so geographic diversity will work in my favor. I love the LAC vibe, although I liked bigger schools as well. Legacy at Dartmouth/Princeton and family income such that I will be full pay and won’t get any financial aid.

My current list of schools is Dartmouth (ED), Georgetown, Tulane, Colby, Bucknell, Hamilton, Wake, Bowdoin, Davidson, and USC. The only problem is that my top two choices, Dartmouth and Gtown, don’t have the best access to dance programs… So this list is definitely subject to change.

Thanks so much for your help, I would really appreciate any and every suggestion. :slight_smile:

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Dickinson has a relationship with Central PA Youth Ballet; Bryn Mawr has historically strong modern program. Other possibles include Skidmore, Conn Coll.

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@politicsdancegal

Muhlenberg and Dickinson (both in PA) have decent dance offerings. Dickinson’s program is in collaboration with CPYB and has a classical emphasis. Case Western has a solid dance program, a quality student-run company (Mather Dance Collective) but majors and minors are given casting preference for shows organized by faculty in the dance department. St Olaf (MN) has a quite good dance program as well.

I know an accomplished ballet dancer who is currently at Georgetown who dances and teaches in broader DC. So you might want to check out other DC based schools as well (assuming by your CC name that you are interested in politics). Be aware that pursuing ballet independently is likely to be more cost effective than paying for courses at a high-priced private U.

Macalester (St. Paul) is located within a couple of miles of St Paul Ballet and offers company classes to qualified students at a reasonable rate.

Neos Dance (an interesting regional contemporary ballet company) will be taking over the dance academy in the town of Oberlin. Oberlin itself favors contemporary dance in its curriculum. It might appeal more broadly to your feminism/activism.

https://www.neosdancetheatre.org

With the exception of Georgetown (I think) all of these mentioned above offer merit scholarships and St. Olaf offers dance scholarships as well (do not need to major or minor)

My daughter danced in a regional ballet company throughout high school and she researched all of these schools when she applied to college last year. She also looked at Kenyon, Denison, and College of Wooster (all in OH, all offering merit scholarships) but for a variety of reasons they didn’t have quite what she was looking for. Your mileage may vary.

Good luck!

4

Have you looked into Middlebury? They have a fantastic dance program for both majors and non majors.

5

Barnard, Wake and Princeton each has solid dance with ballet and contemporary.

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My niece is an accomplished classical ballerina who wanted to continue dancing in college as a non major. Her top picks were Duke and Columbia and she ended up at Columbia. She was able to continue with both ballet and some contemporary dance.

Princeton also has an excellent ballet studio in town close to campus.

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deleted-somehow double posted.

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I recommend checking out URichmond. It’s an LAC that allows all students access to their academic dance classes (including technique classes). Our company on campus, University Dancers, allows non-majors to audition, and most of the company is non-majors. They take class in the evening 3 days a week together and perform at least once a year (with student choreography opportunities), and earn academic credit for their work in the company. We also have connections with Richmond Ballet, so some dancers at UR take additional classes there. It’s also possible to get a full-tuition merit/academic scholarship for dance at UR (Richmond Artist Scholars, the same scholarship I have for music), which only requires being a dance minor (6 classes) and participating in the company.

Full Disclosure: I’m a dance minor at UR, although I am not part of University Dancers (I’m also a music minor, which I’m on scholarship for, and my commitments there preclude me from participating).

9

Maybe this is still useful:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/dance-major/291713-academics-dance-ballet.html?

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Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!

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A school you might consider a strong match or even a safety (depending on the budget) might be Miami University in Ohio. They only have a dance minor, however, they also have their own dance company. It’s actually fairly selective.

http://www.units.miamioh.edu/dancetheatre/the_company/dancers/index.html

The dance minor will accept most people but the company is made up of some very experienced dancers.

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My D15 also wanted to stay involved in dance so we explored many of the programs listed above. She loved Tulane’s dance program - they have a BFA, a major and a minor. A minor could take classes with the majors (but not with the BFAs). Great facility and super friendly and energetic director. Case Western focuses on ballet and modern. At URochester (dance minor only, I think) facilities weren’t great but they have very active student dance companies, including one for ballet. We also looked at Ohio State Univ, which had an amazing facility and a very conservatory-based environment. Vassar has a terrific dance program, but I’m not sure how much they focus on ballet. She liked Skidmore a lot, but we were told it can be difficult to coordinate class times (I didn’t verify this, someone with a daughter there said it was always a struggle). D ended up at USC with a dance minor. She also participates in their student-run contemporary dance company and has been able to perform and choreograph. My D likes all kinds of dance, so she has taken jazz & hip hop. As a minor, taking a lot of ballet classes may be difficult. Chapman has a dance program, but I’ve heard that even the dance majors are not offered Pointe so I don’t know how much of a ballet focus it has.

13

Connecticut College. Excellent dance program and similar vibe to some of the schools on your list

14

Tufts offers a Dance minor, and it’s an easy commute to Boston for weekend classes at a higher level.

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My daughter will be continuing dance ( Ballet ), but not as a major at Mount Holyoke next year, and we looked at a few you mentioned. Colby not so much a dance place, small old dance studio, not to pick on them but you could scrub them off your list. Hamilton was pretty nice but didn’t learn much about it. We didn’t have time to look at Middlebury’s dance studios but the school is very nice, and got the impression the Dance options were pretty good. We ran into a Dance major at Bates who was super friendly and their facilities were decent. At Skidmore we talked to a Dance professor who was very nice and their studio was reasonable, but your stats would suggest you would want a more challenging, less partying school. At Bowdoin we asked to look at the dance studio and got the run around so never saw it. But one school that jumps out at me for you is Vassar. Your stats put you in contention and they are big into dance. BTW Mount Holyoke’s dance studio is the nicest we’ve seen, my daughter will be taking repertoire with Woman from Smith, but I suspect Vassar’s program is stronger. We also saw the new Dance complex at Hobart & William Smith colleges but that would probably be a safety for you.

16

Have you looked at Williams College? They offer dance classes (including ballet) and have several student run dance companies with performance opportunities. Also, a beautiful dance studio.

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I know people have already said this, but with feminism and dance as two of your major interests, you’d be remiss not to apply to and seriously consider Barnard. My friends with similar interests are there.

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@politicsdancegal, where did you end up applying?

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@longvt I applied to Richmond, Wake Forest, and Tulane before I got into Dartmouth ED. So my apps have been withdrawn and I’m headed to Hanover! Not the best dance there but I fell in love with the school.

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@politicsdancegal, congrats! We have a friend who just got into Dartmouth ED as well. Beautiful school! And for politics, where better than NH in 2018-20120! I think you’ll find dance in the area. Good luck!