http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1335445-big-list-of-mt-colleges-by-program-type.html#latest
Always a good place to start @DVCmember. If she would consider Chicago, my D is at Roosevelt/CCPA and loves it. Definitely conservatory style, only one gen ed requirement per semester.
It sounds like your D has already decided to focus on MT. I was going to suggest trying to decide between Dance or MT. Having just gone through auditions with a dance major myself. She may very likely be asked what her goals are in the interview portion of an audition and if dance performance is not her main goal it may hurt her chances of getting in as a dance major. My only other suggestions would be to visit and observe if at all possible, as soon as possible. We lived too far away to visit schools before applying. Also have your D keep an open mind about locations, etc. My child had some quite rigid thoughts that turned out a little different in the end. You truly have to weigh what each program has to offer and what type of training/academics you want. My D thought she only wanted to be in NYC, which is where she is headed; but her dream school changed in the end after seeing each program and as it turns out her dream school is not in NYC. So when she got accepted there she really had no idea how big of a deal it was until we visited in April! (She was still stuck on the original dream school, which is not the best place for her anyway). I would be hesitant to rule out top programs. We had no idea where our D would land. She ended up getting into one Top school, and wait-listed at 2 others. And rejected from many that we thought may be second tier schools. As I was told, cast your net broad and wide. The competition is tough and the whole process makes no sense. You just have to put yourself out there and see what feels like the right place for you.
Best wishes!
@DVCmember - Boston Conservatory and Point Park are two conservatory programs with very strong dance component. Not too far from NYC.
Now that my son has verbally committed (he’s an athlete) to go to school in NC, my daughter now says well maybe the south wouldn’t be too bad…it’s so weird, he went to a camp, the coach liked him, asked for his transcripts and sat/act, then called and said " you’re accepted and here’s our offer…" It’s going to be such a different experience for her…
@DVCmember - Wright State is not near NYC or the SOUTH, BUT they do allow you to apply and audition for multiple majors with one app fee. Although their 2016-17 Theater/Dance admissions schedule has not been updated yet, traditionally they have one mutual audition date in the Fall (late October/early November) when you can do masterclasses and audition for MT/Acting and Dance. If your D is interested, you would want to directly contact Victoria Oleen, Managing Director of the department way ahead of schedule to see if there are special considerations to do both in the same weekend. At WSU, Dance majors take Voice and Acting classes and are eligible to audition for all shows. This past year, a Fosse representative came to do master classes at WSU. The upper level MTs had a class, but the Dance majors got the more “intensive” Fosse workshop.
@theimmortalfish is correct, I went through this process just this past year and applied to both Dance and MT programs in the states as well as close to my home in Canada, and have committed to a MT program for the fall. I also focused on schools with strong academics where I would be able to minor or double major in another academic area, but I did apply to a few conservatory style programs. I would also consider myself a dancer first, which is why I applied for dance programs as a safety even though my goal was a “triple-threat” MT program, although many BFA Dance program graduates get jobs working in MT as well. One school I didn’t apply to but wish I had is Oklahoma City University. They have both a dance program (BFA) and MT program (BM), in addition to acting and vocal performance programs, and in each program, all students are trained in the other disciplines as well to a certain degree. Therefore BFA dance students still get acting and vocal training.
If you want MT with a very strong dance component, I would look at Roosevelt/CCPA MT w/ dance emphasis, Elon, Michigan, FSU (the most challenging dance call in my opinion, they definitely tailored it so the dancers could show their stuff), CCM (the simplest dance call in my opinion, however the current students who were demonstrating the audition combination had the best technique out of the current students at all the other schools), Rider, Syracuse and Texas State.
For strictly dance programs, I only auditioned for SUNY Purchase, UofArizona, and Ryerson (in Canada) and got into all three. SUNY Purchase is strongly ballet and modern-based, however students can take private voice lessons and it is possible to minor in another area (Theatre might be an option?). UofArizona is different because the core dance curriculum is ballet, modern AND jazz, and students can also take tap, so that’s more of a balance between the concert dance and commercial dance/MT sides. There is also a heavy academic component to their program even though it is a BFA, but that does mean it is possible to either minor or double major. Some other great dance options would be OCU as I mentioned earlier, Pace commercial dance, Point Park dance (similar to Arizona’s well-rounded curriculum, and has an incredible reputation; I have a friend going into her junior year and speaks extremely highly of it), Marymount Manhattan (they have a MT minor, I don’t think BFA dance students are able to take it, but BA dance students are for sure).
Also just a word of caution: some MT schools do not hold a dance call as part of their audition process, therefore it would be difficult for dancers to show off their strength when auditioning for these schools. I know Carnegie Mellon and Ithaca are two examples, not too sure if there are others.
I hope this information helps you in some way, if you want to know anything else or have questions about one of the schools I mentioned feel free to pm me!
Also I made a list of all the MT schools I applied to and ranked them based on how challenging their dance call was (in my opinion of course), and I guess this would be an appropriate place to share it. The most challenging is at the top of the list, the least is at the bottom:
FSU MT
Roosevelt/CCPA MT Dance emphasis
Michigan MT
Sheridan (Canada) MT
Elon MT
Rider MT
Point Park MT
CCM MT
Keep in mind this does not indicate the quality/strength of the school’s dance training, but simply which schools I found really let the dancers show their strength.
In the “for-what-it’s-worth” department - When S (serious dancer) auditioned two years ago, he felt that BW had the toughest dance call of the places he auditioned. He ranked it above Michigan.
My D thought BW was toughest too (though in fairness- she did not audition for any of the schools on roro101’s list) she also felt it was the most crowded and hardest to be “seen” (felt very cattle call to her). I imagine it was different last year with prescreens making audition attendees a smaller group- don’t know what it will be like this year
That’s so interesting–I auditioned at BW two years ago as well, and I didn’t think the dance call was hard at all. I’m certainly not a dancer, but I thought the choreo was very mover-friendly. I do agree that it felt a lot like a cattle call and that it was hard to be seen. I thought Elon was one of the toughest dance calls I attended as a mover, but did not audition for any other school on Roro’s list.
Maybe it was because S attended the last BW audition date last cycle, but it was pretty crowded. I heard people complain that it still felt cattle call-ish, so I’m not sure if pre-screen decreased amount of people at each day drastically. I also overheard many say it was a challenging as they were walking out (I was sitting by the door). My S didn’t comment on crowd size, but he did enjoy the dance call. He auditioned for Ball State at Chicago Unifieds and due to scheduling issues with the weather, his dance call ran very late and was extremely crowded. He said with both calls, he felt personality was most important to stand out.
@IfYouOnlyKnew - I think personality is the key to standing out in ANY aspect of the audition!
@toowonderful I agree, but I should have said he found it even more important in those very large auditions. For example, he said with Ball State they learned the dance and they had a chance to do it in groups of 5 for the video camera (I believe that is school who taped dance in Chicago). He said he was in back of room the entire time and couldn’t even see the adjudicators face well. It wasn’t until his group, the last group of that dance call, stepped up that he could see them for the first time.