<p>I am going to be a senior this fall so I have a good chuck of my college searching done, now i just need to refine my list. I am worried that the dance programs I am interested in auditioning for may be too ambitious. </p>
<p>My high school is #4 in Pennsylvania so getting into any PA school academically shouldn't be too difficult. I have a 3.5 GPA and I have taken AP courses and other high level courses. </p>
<p>I dance in a pre-professional program at my studio. I take classes 6 days a week, about 17 hours a week total (including rehearsals, classes, and practices). I have studied ballet, modern, jazz, tap, lyrical, theater dance, and hip hop. I am a competition dancer but my studio is usually praised by the judges for our "exceptional technique and training" so we aren't a typical 'competition studio' that does just jazz and contemporary. </p>
<p>I hope to one day own a dance studio but for now I want to continue learning and performing. I don't wanna go to a school that is 100% technique classes; I am interested in taking classes like Teaching Dance, Laban Notation, Kinesiology, Choreography/Composition, Acting for Dancers, Dance History, etc. I want to be well-rounded in my knowledge of the dance world as a performer and an administrator, educator, and studio-owner. </p>
<p>I am currently interesting in:
Temple University (#1 choice, many of my teachers are alum. and I have been told that my skill level would get me through the audition with no problem)
George Mason University
Adelphi University
Marymount Manhattan College (I am also interested in minoring in Arts Management here)
Purchase College
Shenandoah University
Towson University
Elon University</p>
<p>Please let me know if it seems like these colleges are good choices for me and what experience you have had with these schools. Also, other suggestions of schools would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Have you considered two other colleges in PA with strong dance programs - Point Park in Pittsburgh and Mercyhurst in Erie? My information may be somewhat dated, but my d (2008 hs grad) danced with students at her home studio who chose these schools. Mercyhurst grants BAs in several areas of dance, including performance and applied theory; the applied theory major offers a pedagogy (philosophy of teaching dance) track. The school also offers a minor in arts administration.</p>
<p>Point Park offers the BA in dance (areas of concentration include ballet, jazz, and modern), a BA in dance pedagogy, and a BFA track for pre-professional dancers. I believe their business department offers classes in arts administration. The strong curriculum at these schools would make them worth a careful look. My impression is that both Mercyhurst and Point Park are quite selective regarding the quality of dancers admitted - Point Park more so. Merit scholarships for talent and academics are available at both schools.</p>
<p>SUNY Purchase (Purchase College) is HIGHLY selective talent-wise. D has a good friend there who loves the program, which is pretty much all dance all the time, with a major emphasis on technique classes. The only degree offered is the BFA.</p>
<p>Belatedly realizing that my d also knows people who dance or have danced at two other schools on your list - Marymount Manhattan and Elon. D’s studio director thought very highly of the dance program at Marymount Manhattan. Her own daughter attended, as did another talented student. Neither graduated. The daughter eventually chose another field, and the other student only attended for 3 weeks before being cast in a Broadway show (and she’s been employed as a professional dancer ever since!). I remember thinking that the program must be very strong for d’s director to be satisfied with it. Fwiw, the focus of d’s studio was ballet, with strong classes in jazz and some modern.</p>
<p>My d also knows an MT student at Elon who finds the dance program there excellent. I believe it’s a pretty tough admit, academically and talent-wise, and that the merit aid, though available, is not exactly generous.</p>
<p>D liked Shenandoah but decided to go to Point Park. They have well articulated and orgainzed dance education and dance plus arts adminsitration programs which I appreciated.</p>
<p>Hi, I would add University of the Arts and Point Park on there. Also, just to let you know my dd visited MaryMount Manhattan and you really dont take that many actual dance classes. Only one to 2 classes per semester. Your freshman year you only take ballet. My dd chopped that one off right away, she loved Shennandoah(great school),Purchase is very difficult to get in and is only ballet and modern. My dd had a teacher who went to Temple dance and she loved her. I would go on Youtube and look at Elon. Their dancers dont look that strong. My daughter wanted south so we looked at it and ruled it out because the dancers did not look strong. JMO. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Other schools in Pennsylvania with dance programs include Allegheny, Franklin & Marshall, and Muhlenberg. Does any one have any knowlege about these?</p>
<p>I have seen the Purchase dance studio and can tell you that, if you were to major in dance, that would be a great school for you. I have heard that Temple is a good school, but I know nothing about their dance program. You should definitely visit Purchase though, at least .</p>
<p>I just want to know, of ALL these dance programs, which are the ones that will prepare an already really good dancer for a commercial career. My daughter is applying to PPU, UA, AND UArts. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>As mentioned above my DD is at PPU and kids come in from a lot of different routes - classical ballet programs, competition, mixed … They do need to be adequate in ballet since they have ballet 5 days a week. DD says this year the jazz program was the niggest freshman class and almost all of then were from competition schools. DD’s friend who was interested in commercial work auditioned at Marymount Manhattan, then moved to the west coast there was more commercial work.</p>