<p>I'm super paranoid!
I'm 16, a junior, and I've been dancing since I was 3. Except I did jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, modern, and started serious ballet at age 13. Pointe started at 14.
I've always been a reallllyyyy good modern dancer. Modern is by far my strongest.
Ballet has been and still is my worst. I can do the basics, except I am not that advanced for someone my age.</p>
<p>The thing is is that I want to get better at ballet but I feel like I won't be ready in time.
If I completely own my modern audition and solo, will my ballet technique be relevant?
What kind of ballet combinations will I be asked to do during the audition?</p>
<p>The schools I am interested in are:
Montclair State
Mason Gross at Rutgers
Muhlenberg
Goucher
University of South Florida
Florida State University
Towson</p>
<p>Do I need to be insanely gifted at ballet in order to be accepted? What should I do to get my technique through the roof?</p>
<p>No, you do not need to be insanely good at ballet in order to get into any of these schools but you definitely need to have a good foundation in ballet. Keep working it for the next however many months until auditions. Don’t skip ballet and take extra classes if possible. Work on your extensions and turnout as well as your placement. Ballet is usually the first class in any audition. You can do this!</p>
<p>Many of the students my DD goes to college with (although she is not at any of the schools you mentioned) have just the minimum of ballet training with a more extensive amount of training in jazz and modern. Most have never even been on pointe and have no interest in it. In fact, many colleges do not even offer pointe in their curriculum. It is the rare student that spent 20 hours a week in a pre-pro ballet studio and also got just as extensive an amount of training in jazz, tap, and modern.</p>
<p>Mason Gross
Muhlenburg
Goucher
University of South Florida
Florida State University</p>
<p>… were all schools that my daughter applied to/auditioned for in 2008. clearly things may have changed since then. However of the schools listed, FSU’s audition had the most ballet emphasis. My daughter had strong ballet training, but didn’t make it to to the 2nd round (I think because her body and body placement were not quite right).</p>
<p>She was accepted at the others:
South Florida (at that time) did not require an audition for acceptance into the program, but did require an audition for placement.</p>
<p>Goucher (for a few years) required an audition, but went back to its LAC tradition and eliminated the audition. To graduate with a performance major in dance, there is a requirement to reach a high level in both ballet and modern.</p>
<p>My daughter did audition at Muhlenburg, but I can’t recall whether it was required for admission or only for scholarship. </p>
<p>Mason Gross required both ballet and modern in the audition.</p>
<p>My daughter had other acceptances as well. She chose Goucher College because whereas she was most interested in modern, she wanted to hone her ballet skills. It was one of the few schools where she could take as many dance classes as she could fit into her schedule, (with no additional tuition to audit), had multiple class levels (1-6) in both ballet and modern, and encouraged/supported other academics as well. </p>
<p>I’ll try to tap my memory for other impressions if you have additional questions regarding these schools.</p>
<p>You might want to consider The New School in NYC. Fantastic dance program and strong modern emphasis. What about Marymount Manhattan- or did you want to avoid NYC schools for now?</p>
<p>I have considered NYC schools, Marymount was one of the original top 15 but as I went down to narrowing my list I cut it out. I figured it was out of reach although I do believe it would let me audition as a modern or jazz focus if I’m not mistaken.</p>
<p>This is old info, but my understanding re: Goucher is that the only auditions are for placement. Check the web, just in case there are auditions for scholarships.</p>
<p>In regards to the actual audition, what do the judges look at?</p>
<p>Would they rather see proper alignment in a double pirouette vs a slightly sloppier triple?
Will it matter if I suck at petit allegro and batterie?
If I nail my modern audition, will that make up for the lack of ballet abilities?
What things are turn offs?</p>
<p>Jasmom: I believe you’ve got University of South Florida confused with another school. USF has been a top ranked, audition-based, program - known for offering strong ballet training - since before my 2001-2002 edition of the Dance Magazine College Guide. Over on Ballet Talk for Dancers, University of South Florida was listed as one of the original “Fab Six,” before it rose to 10, 12, or whatever. Essentially, then, USF would definitely count as a “reach” school for 78jade.</p>
<p>78jade: I think you have a good mix of schools on your list, but I’d be interested in hearing what you’re looking to do after college with your dance major. Judging by your training/background, it doesn’t make sense to chase after a professional career in ballet, so perhaps you should focus more on schools where your strength in modern dance would be valued. Thus, you might also wish to look into Ohio State University, University of Kansas, and University of California-Irvine.</p>
<p>Hmmm… Well, I defer to a more confident presentation of information. Memory IS slipping (age plus the college search was more than a few years ago). None-the-less, USF is clearly an excellent dance program. My daughter and I visited. Enjoyed an end-of-the-year recital of sorts of all the classes. Clearly, the dancers were very talented and consistently well trained. Perhaps what I recall is that they gave my daughter permission to audition upon arrival in the Fall.
We thought that the advanced ballet students were exceptional.</p>
<p>My DD had taken ballet since she was 6 but it was never her favorite type of dance and she is by no means a top-notch ballet dancer. She knows it helps her in all types of dance. She does not want to be in a ballet company. Her best skills are tap and jazz. So with that in mind she went at the whole audition/choosing colleges in a different way. She felt that since her ballet and modern skills were not her strongest she wanted to go to a program that focused on those. She felt she was already doing well in the other two areas and wanted more training. She said it would be like someone whose native language was Spanish majoring in Spanish in college. She wanted training in her weaker areas.</p>
<p>As far as post college goes I would love to do cruise ship dancing and then later on own my own studio, so in regards to style preference I want a versatile school that will train me to be decent in many styles</p>
<p>How terrible would it be if I went to community colleges or even online schooling for my senior year rather than attending high school, so I can focus on advancing? Is that common or something I shouldn’t do?</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be a bad idea at all to go to a CC in your senior year. You will get college credits that may be transferrable to your 4 year program. If any of those schools have a large academic core requirement that would end up being beneficial in the end and a money saver. Just check with the CC and your Guidance Office about the likelihood of transferring credits to the schools on your list as well as the academic core requirements of those schools.</p>
<p>Now that you have made your career goals a little more clear it is a bit easier to give you advice. I would still advise that you spend the year working on your technique in all areas (ballet, modern, and jazz). However, since your aspirations are more in the Commercial dance realm I would suggest looking at schools that provide a focus on many varieties of dance the whole 4 years. UArts and Pace are two off the top of my head. University at Buffalo (SUNY) is another that provides and excellent curriculum that includes a lot of styles of dance. Also Temple. The University of California system has many great dance schools so definitely check them out if you are interested in the West Coast at all. </p>
<p>I am not sure what state you live in but just about all States have a school in their own system that has a decent dance program for the careers you are looking at. The CC credits you earn will be easiest to transfer to a school in your own state and the tuition would be far less as well. To dance on a cruise ship or for Disney you do not have to have a Juillard education at all. In fact, most dancers on cruise ships do not have BFA’s at all. Abby Lee Miller is forever talking about her students who went directly from HS to dancing on cruise ships and at Disney.</p>
<p>As far as owning a studio it is important to get that education in order to really understand how to teach dance but also to build a resume with credentials that would be impressive to your average dance parent. College dance teams and ensembles, working on cruise ships or in touring shows, professional cheerleading, workshops with known choreographers, are all impressive to parents looking for a studio for their child.</p>
<p>As far as CC goes, I’ve made an appointment to speak to my counselor next week. Hopefully she can provide some insight as well.</p>
<p>I guess my college board searching hasn’t done a good job because Pace and Buffalo really appealed to me, none of which showed up on my search. I do plan on purchasing Dance Magazine’s College Guide as well to find more options that are better suited towards me. I’m trying to stay on the east coast (I’m from New Jersey) and those two were instantly added to my list of schools. The reason Montclair State is on the top of my list is due to the fact that its affordable, in state, and offers a Studio Teaching track for Dance Majors which I haven’t really seen anywhere else. </p>
<p>Going back to community college, would that allow me to spend more time dancing to prepare? Or is that going to overwork me with coursework?</p>
<p>On thing you want to be aware of is that being a transfer student changes the financial aid picture a great deal. The best aid is available to freshmen. However, if you are in a situation where you can attend community college while still enrolled as a high school student, you would have credit from community college, but still be a freshman for application, enrollment and financial aid purposes. This would be something to discuss with your counselor.</p>
<p>What quilll said is true and you should definitely discuss it with your counselor. Where I live, most of the HS seniors that take CC classes get dual credit for HS and for college courses at the same time. Also, if you are an enrolled HS senior during this time the CC tuition is often free of charge (at least in my neck of the woods). </p>
<p>As to your question about whether or not it will free up more time for you to train in dance: It should, in theory. It depends on how many of the HS diploma requirements you have already fulfilled. In the case of my DD’s, they had already completed most of the requirements by senior year and just needed an English and Social Sciences (along with Phys Ed but NJ may allow for dance to be counted as such) to graduate. So again, your counselor will have the answer to this question. Definitely take a list of questions with you.</p>
<p>Some people on here may disagree with me but unless you have a keen interest in continuing education in regards to Math and Science I would not worry about taking any sciences or math in your Senior year as long as you plan to become a dance major. (although Business/Accounting) would be a good idea since you plan on becoming a studio owner at some point. It sounds like you really want and need to devote this year to training.</p>
<p>Do the best you can to get yourself to ballet class as much as possible this summer. At least, 4-5 days per week at a ballet based studio. Are you closer to NYC or Philly? If you cannot get that amount of training in your area during the summer then there are great studios in both cities that have open classes all summer and you can use public transportation to get there.</p>