<p>If you stand by the dorms, you can look out across the valley to the Blue Ridge Mountains, now covered in crimson and gold. The blue sky goes on forever. Perhaps some of the dorm rooms have a mountain view. </p>
<p>We arrived on a glorious day for an 8 AM sign-in greeted by very cheerful students, good humored admissions staff, beverages and pastries.</p>
<p>At 9 AM the MT’s and their drivers met in the good-sized Black Box to meet faculty and discuss the details of the MT program. I appreciated the emphasis on music skills (ear training/piano, etc) and my daughter was very pleased with the new prof whose job it is to teach seniors the vocal styles relevant to all the shows now playing on Broadway. I was also glad to hear of the class about the business side of this dream.</p>
<p>The kids hiked off to the lockers to change for the dance audition, which seemed to last about 1.5 hours. Ballet began, of course, followed by jazz. My daughter who has danced a long time thought it was a very fun class, without very difficult steps. But she said the combinations were long and were quickly doled out, so one had to think fast and remember a lot.</p>
<p>The parents were given a free lunch at the dining hall while the MT kids had tables of (I’m told) healthy snacks for whenever the mood struck them to eat/drink during the process.</p>
<p>The parents got a financial aid presentation which gave me the impression that they have a good amount of merit aid available, and perhaps one doesn’t need quite the SAT scores of an MIT student to get the merit aid. </p>
<p>After the dance audition, the kids changed and trooped back for the individual song/monologue auditions. My D had a brief time just before the audition to privately run through the song with the pianist, who, she said, was terrific. There were about 16 MT prospective kids yesterday (6 male) and my D was done by 1 PM, in plenty of time to make it back to Nutcracker rehearsal. </p>
<p>We found the Shenandoah Chocolates store a few miles down the road and celebrated a lovely beginning to the audition season.</p>