<p>My D is a senior in high school and is planning to go to college for MT. She can act and sing and has had training in both. However, due to a lack of time and money she never had any training in dance. She can usually "keep up" with others in a basic (lower level) dance audition. But from what I understand she needs to be a Triple Threat to be successful. How on earth can she catch up to all those kids who have been dancing since the age of 5? Her play rehearsal schedule is so heavy and unpredictable from week to week that she cannot enroll in regular weekly dance classes. The summer intensive dance programs all seem to be for young children or teens with advanced skills.
Is it worth getting a second job to get her private dance lessons during her senior year? Do MT programs offer enough dance classes/electives to make a "dancer" out of a student after the 4 years? Thanks!</p>
<p>My D who will also be applying to colleges next year and has not had as much formal dance training as many others have. She tries to stay in a jazz class when she is not in rehearsals for a performance and is also adding ballet this spring. She will be at a summer intensive for the month of July and will have dance every day.</p>
<p>She will also be taking dance 2-3 time per week in the fall as she is not going to audition for a show while preparing for college auditions. My D has friends who are in many of the MT programs around the country and some have much more dance training than others before entering college. One of her very good friends is in the same boat as her with dance, but did not find it hard to pick up the combinations at the college auditions (she has been admitted to a BFA program).</p>
<p>My D knows that once in college she will be playing catch up on dance, but this does not discourage her.</p>
<p>showmom858-just curious, what summer program? i am the same age as your daughter, and i’m going to ocu in july…maybe we will meet each other! anyways…i’m in the same boat dance wise. it’s hard to find time between rehearsals and voice to fit in dance classes, plus i live in a really small town, where there are not many dance options.</p>
<p>Has your D already been accepted to a MT program? If so, don’t worry about it – she will be placed in the appropriate level for dance. If she will be attending a school with a strong dance program, her skills will surely improve during the four year program. She will probably never be able to compete with kids who have been dancing since the age of 5 – but no one will expect her to. Many roles don’t require that kind of ability.</p>
<p>If I misunderstood your post, and your daughter hasn’t begun her auditions yet, it would probably be worthwhile to sign her up for some dance lessons.</p>
<p>littlemermaid13 - my D will be at UARTS for the month of July. She is very excited as she loved the school when we visited last year.</p>
<p>Right now she is sitting on pins and needles to see if she was cast in Rent. It will be the first time Rent has been done here in San Diego at a local theatre.</p>
<p>showmom, best of luck to your D with the RENT casting. We have a few friends in the current national tour which happens to be in San Diego right now. 
Is she going to see the show?</p>
<p>Showmom - is that the one with Leigh Scarrett directing at ACT? or the other one? I know two are doing it in San Diego this summer…</p>
<p>Ann we had the same impression of MTers - that they all started taking ballet and tap at age 5 and how would she ever catch up. You’d be surprised how many have had very little dance. It seems like a lot of those kids with a life long passion for dance dream of going to dance schools or to ballet companies not to BFA MT programs. I also understand your dilemma as it was difficult in high school finding beginning dance classes for my D where the age wasn’t 6 yr olds. But eventually we did find classes.</p>
<p>alwaysamom - We are seeing Rent this weekend in San Diego. My D saw it before it closed in New York.</p>
<p>chrissyblu - The production of Rent she auditioned for is with the other theatre company, not ACT. She just finished in Les Miz with this company.</p>
<p>Onstage, I said “my daughter is a senior in high school”. I meant to say JUNIOR. Sorry about that. I had typed the post and somehow lost it before I could hit save. So I had to re-type it and in my frustration made a typo. So she will be auditioning for college in the fall '09/winter '10.</p>
<p>AnnfromMA- If your daughter is attending the UArts summer program, she will definitely gain some great dance experience! I went last summer, and I came out a better and more poised dancer! They split the kids up in groups based on dance ability. There is a group for those who had none/little dance training, a group for the intermediates, and a group for the people who have been dancing their entire life. The ballet and jazz instructors are fabulous and though you are in a dance class with 16 others, you get a LOT of personal attention. Technique is really focused on in class. Plus, she will be learning/practicing dance numbers during rehearsal times as well. There will be plenty of dance, and she will definitely benefit from it! And if it makes you feel any better, I wouldn’t consider myself a dancer (i was an intermediate during the summer), and things have turned out just fine for me this audition season! </p>
<p>I know it’s kind of off topic, but if you have any more questions feel free to PM me! Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>AnnfromMA – I sort of thought that’s what you meant! And that’s good, because it gives her about 6 months to brush up her dance skills. It’s not a lot of time, but it will definitely give her a little more of an advantage at the college dance auditions. The summer MT programs could be very helpful if you can swing it.</p>
<p>Ann, my D hadn’t had a dance class since 5th grade, and even then it was jazz and not ballet…and still she did well in her audition year and is in her second semester at BoCo. The real skill, she said, was in being able to quickly pick up the combinations in the auditions. (She learned how to do that while doing summer theatre over the years.) She started out as a double threat, and with what we’re spending on tuition and as hard as my D is working at it, she WILL be a triple threat when BoCo is finished with her!</p>