<p>Well, oldviola, congratulations to your daughter, and I hope you (and/or she) will share some stories about her experiences there with us on CC.</p>
<p>I shall! It will be a grand adventure, and we are already planning a house exchange next spring in Scotland so we can visit!</p>
<p>Hi, I am the junior NJTheaterMOM was talking, as well as glassharmonica’s daughter. While I do study at a circus school, I don’t really do any traditional “circus”, I focus more on aerial acrobatics (specifically the lyra or aerial hoop). It’s basically a form of dance, just in the air with the aid of an apparatus. As far as movement goes, I think it is just as, if not more, beneficial to an actor as dance is. Not to mention it really toughens out your body! I am concerned that the college I chose to go to will not have a good aerial school nearby and I will have to put this hobby on hold until the summer, but there are quite a few schools in New York, probably some in Boston, and I’m sure there are many on the west coast. If any other high schooler does aerial acrobatics and is also worried about finding schools nearby when they are in college, I know of a few great ones.
As far as more traditional circus goes, I have personally never been to motivated in the past to become more involved, but I’m sure that, as an actor, it could be beneficial. Has anyone who has studied it in or outside of college felt it was particularly helpful?</p>
<p>drama94 - If you look at any colleges in Austin (UT, St. Edward’s, Southwestern) then Sky Candy offers great aerial classes!</p>
<p>We had University of New Hampshire as an academic non-auditioned BA for my D, partly because it has aerial dance! She has taken a few classes at NY Trapeze School and loves it!! UNH actually has quite an interesting list of classes for a theater student.</p>
<p>Hi, drama94! 
Your commitment to your great-sounding hobby might be something to think about when you consider whether you want to attend a BA or a BFA program. </p>
<p>With a BFA at a school like Boston University, where there is guaranteed casting and you would be in rehearsals almost all the time starting second semester of sophomore year, it would probably be quite difficult to keep up with your aerial work. This would be the case even in the Theatre Arts track at BU, because TA students are in the casting pool.</p>
<p>Your mom mentioned in a post that you are thinking about the playwriting major at Fordham. That’s an option that might give you a little more time for outside pursuits, though I imagine that Fordham and its theatre department keeps the students pretty darn busy!</p>
<p>I would second the thought that it is not easy for a busy college student to get to these off-site programs. Some students do, but be prepared for the reality of college life – particularly if it’s a BFA program – and don’t base a college decision on really getting to these things.</p>
<p>My D loves the Trapeze School and the Broadway Dance Center (BDC), but she hasn’t once taken herself there yet. She has done alot around the city – shows, other sites (many required by her classes at Tisch), but taking these additional outside classes is not something she’s done. I’m sure some others have gotten there, but I’ll also bet there’s alot of kids like her who thought they’d be going to BDC alot while living in NYC…</p>
<p>drama94’s sister, who also does aerials, is a freshman in a BM music program not far from Fordham in NYC. She researched all of the trapeze and aerials schools in anticipation of being able to take classes… didn’t happen! She has barely had a minute to breathe, let alone take a subway to an aerials class. :(</p>
<p>So the idea of having aerials somewhere in the potential curriculum is quite interesting. Hampshire college and UT Austin go into the giant bucket of potential schools.</p>
<p>if you’re saying Hampshire College because of my post – that’s the wrong school! It’s University of New Hampshire!! Very different places!!</p>
<p>Whoops, okay, thanks SDonCC! I don’t think until this moment I realized they were not the same place. (Even though I was looking on the website for UNH at their aerials classes.)</p>