<p>Anyone else out there auditioning for college dance programs this fall? S has auditions set up at U Michigan and Elon. Also planning to audition at JMU and Tulane. Would love to hear from other CCers going on this journey!</p>
<p>Hi! I have been waiting for another CCer to mention the Class of 2015! My D is getting ready to start audition season. She is auditioning at:</p>
<p>Point Park
Shenandoah
George Mason
UArts
Pace</p>
<p>She also has Marymount and Towson on her list. Possibly adding Montclair State. Good Luck to everyone getting ready for audition season!</p>
<p>S has a good friend who is a freshman at UArts and she absolutely loves it! It is a great fit for her. The program at Pace also looks fantastic but S really wants the full college experience with the nice campus, etc. so didn’t want to be in NYC. We also visited Point Park and Shenandoah, and both of those programs look excellent too.</p>
<p>Hopefully Marymount has improved its audition process - previous posts made it sound fairly unpleasant - 70-80 in the room trying to dance all at once.</p>
<p>Does your D have to do any pre-screens @nowmomto3? </p>
<p>@zebrarunner </p>
<p>My D is torn between wanting to be in a city, like NYC/Phila/Pitt or wanting the typical college experience. She added George Mason for that option! She did visit JMU and absolutely loved it there. She likes the area of NYC where Marymount is located but has been hearing things about the school that has now made her unsure she wants to apply there.</p>
<p>The only one on her list so far that has pre-screening has been Pace. She did that part already and is scheduled for the December audition. She was originally going to the audition on October 17th with the fall intensive but tore a ligament in her ankle and is in a boot. The boot comes off a few days before the audition, so she didn’t want to chance it, so we rescheduled that audition until December.</p>
<p>Oh wow, sorry to hear about the torn ligament! I hope she can start dancing again after the boot comes off. That is one advantage to choosing an early audition date - if something happens you can push to a later date. S pulled his hamstring about a week ago, so he is resting up too. Right now he has 3 auditions scheduled between Nov 7 and Dec 5, so I am making him take time to heal now. It is a bit stressful though I must say.</p>
<p>Congrats on your D getting past the Pace pre-screen! Everything I have heard about the program there is wonderful, and I really liked it when we toured. I was sad when S said he didn’t want to apply. Glad you got the prescreen in before your D’s injury.</p>
<p>S loved JMU too when he toured (hence the audition).</p>
<p>Is anyone applying to/auditioning for the dance programs at SUNY Purchase or University of Arizona?</p>
<p>No @Roro101 My daughter looked at University of Arizona but decided she wasn’t ready to move to the west coast yet!</p>
<p>She does have a friend that auditioned for SUNY Purchase last year if you have questions, I can find out answers for you!!</p>
<p>@Roro101 my daughter has SUNY on her list. I think UA sounds amazing but she wants to stay on the east coast.</p>
<p>Elon Dance Audition Report:</p>
<p>Don’t know if anyone else will be auditioning at Elon, but S just did the audition this past weekend and so I thought I would pass on how the day went in case anyone wanted to know what to expect.</p>
<p>Things got started at 9 AM with check in at the Arts Center. Elon is using a pre-screen for the first time this year. I don’t know how many submitted for the fall audition date, but there were 14 kids there who had been passed through and invited to campus. At 9:30 the kids were ushered in to observe the Ballet V class (the second-highest ballet level), followed by an African dance class. S said the classes were very good, and he really liked the faculty. Parents were not allowed to observe (probably because there was no room!).</p>
<p>The kids came out at noon, and then there was an information session for auditioners and their parents with Lauren Kearns and about 6 senior dance majors. This was very good as they talked about many aspects of the program. Ms. Kearns said that they typically get 80-100 auditioning for the year, and they are looking for a class of about 16. She explained how the auditions would work (more on that later) and then the dance majors talked about their experiences. They talked about double-majoring - possible for most majors, especially for Dance Science and Arts Administration, but generally fine for most humanities doubles. There are two study abroad opportunities that focus on dance - one to Florence, Italy and one to Jerusalem. Either will let you get credits for dance as well as for general education requirements. A couple of the students had done the Florence trip and loved it. Another student had gone to LA and taken Dance for Film and done an internship at a talent agency. They outlined the performance opportunities (there seemed to be a lot) and talked about how much dance to expect to be doing - Ballet and Modern three days a week plus a couple of other dance classes on Tues/Thurs. Then rehearsals in the evening starting at 6 if you are cast in any performances. Auditions for the entire year take place in the first few days of school - these are for student, faculty and guest-choreographed performances. That way you will know what you will be doing the entire school year. Dance majors are allowed to audition for Musical Theatre shows, as long as you don’t ahve any dance performances that will conflict. For that reason, many Dance majors who want to do an MT show will do it in the Winter term which has a condensed rehearsal schedule. That is about all I remember from the info session!</p>
<p>After the info session, the kids had 20 minutes to change and get ready for the 1:00 auditions. They had some free snacks - bananas and granola bars, but if your child wants more than that, be sure to bring it with you! There isn’t time to take them out to get anything more substantial and if I hadn’t brought snacks S would have been starving by the time it was all over!</p>
<p>Auditions started with ballet at the barre. S said that one of the faculty taught the class, and the others circulated and took notes (he thought there were about 7 faculty observing). They did Ballet for 40-45 minutes, then did Modern for about 40-45 minutes, and finished with about 40 minutes of improv. S said the auditions were fun and not stressful once they got going - the faculty was very nice and not threatening.</p>
<p>After the auditions, the kids went in one-by-one to be interviewed. The 7 faculty were all in the room for the interviews, which S said was a bit intimidating, but he thought it went fine. The questions were not hard - the point seemed to be to get to know you and your goals, not to put you on the spot.</p>
<p>Once your individual interview was over, you were free to go. Everything wrapped up a little after 4:00 for S - he was #8 to be interviewed of the 14.</p>
<p>So one down!</p>
<p>@zebrarunner - Fantastic synopsis! I think it’s great to hear about the audition process at different schools. I didn’t even think of that!</p>
<p>For Point Park, the morning started off with a brief informational session, around 9 am. Then we were broken off into 4 groups and we were taken on a tour of the campus. Since the campus is really only a few buildings, it was more of a tour of the facilities. The dance studios are fairly new and very nice. My D liked the facilities a lot. After the tour, we were taken back to the studio where the audition would be held. There were about 55 dancers there, mostly girls, but there were about 5-7 boys. The first audition section was ballet- barre and then center work. They also did about 10 minutes for those on pointe. I also think they did a brief section with just the boys. Then they had about 40 minutes or so of jazz and another 40 minutes of modern. My D liked all of the instructors that were there. She felt pretty good about the audition there, they made her feel comfortable, which was nice. </p>
<p>For the parents there was an information session during the audition. This was also a Q & A opportunity. I thought everyone asked a lot of good questions. Here are a few points that I took note of: Point Park has about 1000 dancers audition for about 75 spots. Approx 25 in each discipline, Ballet, Jazz and Modern. Jazz being the most difficult. They said they felt that is because the lack of true jazz programs in the country. You can be accepted as either a BFA or a BA, which they determine based on your audition and how the dancer is scored. They offer scholarships based on the audition as well. They said there were auditions where they do not accept anyone. You could have a double major, easier to accomplish if you are a BA major. You can also take a double concentration, ie ballet & jazz. There are many performance opportunities beginning as a freshman. </p>
<p>My D liked the school and could see herself dancing there. We didn’t get to see enough of Pittsburgh to get a true determination of the city, although so many people just love it and everyone says it’s a great arts community, so that is nice. </p>
<p>Waiting on audition results, although she did get her academic acceptance. Fingers crossed. Next auditions are this weekend, Shenandoah and George Mason.</p>
<p>Stay tuned…</p>
<p>@nowmomto3 - great to hear about the Point Park audition day! Looking forward to hearing about Shenandoah and George Mason - that sounds like a very busy weekend! S loved the facilities and liked the feel of Point Park, and it sounds like an excellent program.</p>
<p>S had JMU this weekend - here is a brief synopsis of the audition day:</p>
<p>Check-in at 8:30 a.m., and there was fruit, coffee and some excellent pumpkin bread and banana bread for auditioners and their families. At 9 there was an info session with 4 faculty and 1 student. It was emphasized that JMU has a BA program, not a BFA, and that there is emphasis on the student’s education outside of dance. Many of the dance majors double major, and most programs work to double major with a couple of exceptions - nursing and IDSL (which seems to be their education degree for teachers). We did later meet one dance major later who is doubling in Dance and IDSL, though, and she said it isn’t impossible you just have to be very careful in picking your classes. They also said that study abroad doesn’t really work with the dance major because you get out of sequence, but that you can go in the summer. They just started a 3-1/2 week summer program to London that is dance oriented that a number of dance majors went on last summer and really liked, but you can also do non-dance study abroad programs during the summer.</p>
<p>They said basically as a freshman you would be taking one dance class every day (alternating ballet and modern), with some extra classes thrown in. There is a freshman class every Tuesday evening (I forgot what they call it, but it is all freshman majors) plus a bunch of master classes. There are a number of performance opportunities, even for freshmen.</p>
<p>At the end of the info session there was a brief performance by the Virginia Repertory Dance Company, which is JMU’s pre-professional performing company, and after that each of the company members told what they liked best about JMU.</p>
<p>The auditions consisted of a class with ballet, modern and improv. There were 17 kids auditioning (16 girls, 1 boy) The class was about 75 minutes. S said he was a bit nervous at the start, but then he said that everything was so low-key that he forgot about being nervous. S felt that the ballet was more challenging than the modern.</p>
<p>After the audition class, the interviews were scheduled to start a 11:45 (they started about 15 minutes late). There were 4 professors doing interviews, and each dancer auditioning was assigned one professor to interview with. S said that his interview was more information session than interview, which he was happy about.</p>
<p>Once your dancer’s interview was over, you were free to go. It all went by pretty quick!</p>
<p>Zebrarunner, sorry I missed you in your visit to JMU. Glad that you and your son had good day!</p>
<p>@zebrarunner Glad to hear it went well at JMU. My D loves that campus and school! </p>
<p>We had a really long couple of days. The Shenandoah audition was a really long day. The campus is nice. It’s small. Coming from a large high school, the campus is about as big as our high school, but my D does like small though. The day started with an info session about the program. We were introduced to some of the faculty. Then we had a tour of the campus. Around 11:30, they took the dancers back for the audition. There were about 22 dancers there. The audition classes were ballet, modern and jazz. They ran from 12:00 to around 3:45. Then the solos began. My D really enjoyed the classes, especially the jazz class with Tiffanie Carson. My D said she would be a reason alone to go to the school. After the audition, they had a brief Q & A session and they gave out comp tickets to their show for that evening. They also provided tickets for the dining hall. My D decided after her shower that she would rather go out, so we did that and went back for the show. The show was good. It was all modern pieces. We enjoyed the show. There are some great things about their program. They have a lot of opportunities to experience the global world in dance. The Dance Chair is international as is some of their faculty, so they bring a lot of different aspects and experiences to their curriculum. I like that.</p>
<p>We headed to George Mason on Saturday morning. When we got to the campus, I thought my D would go in shock, it was much bigger than we have been to, up to this point it’s been all city schools, then Shenandoah which is small.</p>
<p>We went into the Student Center, bc we were a little early. I think my D started to get more into the school after being in there. She liked the gym and different parts of the school. They took the dancers back around 12:45ish. The auditions were ballet barre, some center modern work, some across the floor and a combo. The school is only ballet/modern. The dancers will take class Mon-Fri or Mon-Thurs, I can’t recall, from 9-12. They will have ballet and modern every day. My D liked that. My D really liked the classes a lot. Their modern seems contemporary which is what my D loves so that was a great fit. The program is small, they only take about 20 dancers. There were 40+ in the audition. After the audition, they gave a very brief tour. During the audition, current dance majors were in the Q & A and were available to answer any questions. They all seemed like bright, articulate, and friendly. A nice group of dancers, for sure. They gave a comp ticket for the dancers for their senior choreo show that evening. Because my D liked the auditions and school, we decided to stay and watch the show. My D definitely liked the style that they dance so that was a good thing and I am glad we stayed, even though the drive home was exhausting! </p>
<p>We should know about either program in a few weeks. Mason sends you dance decisions in about 2 weeks, but academic wont come until mid December, which I guess isn’t really much longer now that it’s mid November!</p>
<p>Still waiting to hear from Point Park. She is very anxious! She knew several dancers in the PP audition and no one has heard yet though!</p>
<p>Next up is Montclair State for a dance day and then UArts audition on Saturday.</p>
<p>I am finding that she is enjoying the programs on college campuses, although having access to a city is key in any program she decides to attend. Her list of top three changes almost daily. She says that she can see herself in a lot of different programs. Although she does have a number 1, but we will see if that changes once we are all done!</p>
<p>@nowmomto3 sounds like your D’s audition season is going well! I have heard good things about both Shenandoah’s and George Mason’s programs, but S didn’t want to apply to either - he found Shenandoah way too small when we visited last year (said it felt like high school), and George Mason he thought would be too big! Hard to please that kid! He is insistent that he only apply to schools that meet all his many, many criteria. Sometimes I think he is limiting himself too much, but at least he feels he could be happy at any of the schools he is applying to.</p>
<p>Hope things go well for your daughter this weekend - we get a weekend off (well sort of - he is going to a Dance Convention in DC)! Be sure to post about your D’s auditions, and I hope PPU releases its decisions soon!! S won’t hear from Elon until mid-December and JMU wpn’t be until January or February or something. He did a video audition for Tulane and should hear about that in mid-December. This waiting is so hard!!</p>
<p>@zebrarunner</p>
<p>My D thought Shenandoah was too small as well and not enough to do outside of the campus. So not sure that one is really in the running anymore despite her loving the jazz teacher! She had her UArts audition on Saturday and she felt it went really well! The Uarts audition was pretty short based on what she has been doing at her other auditions. They did a ballet barre, then some improv and then a jazz combo. After that were solos and then they were done. </p>
<p>We also visited Montclair State on Friday and that was an interesting day. There were so many people there and the day consisted of being able to take some classes and then get a tour and see their show. The classes were really crowded and filled with so many different levels and my D found it hard to gauge what the school is really like. She said the teachers were nice but she was a little turned off by the craziness of the day. We stayed for the show however, and that was fantastic. So she is still going to audition for that school bc she liked what they put out and she likes the location and it’s proximity to NYC. Interesting note, they said that day that they will be changing the tuition for BFA dance majors. Starting next year, they will get in-state tuition rates. That is a nice savings! On top of that, they give academic scholarships as well.</p>
<p>So my D has two more auditions left. Pace and Montclair State. She could potentially be done all of her auditions before Christmas!</p>
<p>We came home on Saturday to find an envelope from Point Park. It was just a regular envelope so to say she was a nervous wreck opening it would be an understatement. She got accepted!! She is in as a jazz major with a nice scholarship! So that was a happy ending to her day at UArts.</p>
<p>@nowmomto3 Wow congrats to your D on her PPU acceptance! That is so so exciting! And I have heard their jazz major is particularly competitive, so she should feel really good about it. And great that she felt her UArts audition went well too - sounds like a very successful weekend. We are enjoying the lull here before S’s last audition on Dec. 5 at U Michigan. He’s more nervous about that one because he has to do a solo - he would rather just take class.But he has something pulled together so he should be OK. It definitely helps that he is a boy! Just out of curiousity, were there many boys at Shenandoah, UArts and Montclairs dance day? I am guessing that Michigan will have a few.</p>
<p>When are Pace and Montclair State for you guys? It will be nice to have all the auditions done before Christmas - the Musical Theatre kids are going to be going well into February!</p>
<p>@zebrarunner Thanks! She was happy 
</p>
<p>Is this the first audition he has had to do a solo? My D has had to do solos at about half and that definitely makes it a little more nervewracking. Especially when you add into the fact that each school’s requirements are different, one is two min, one is min and a half and one was a min…crazy! She has Montclair on Dec 2nd and Pace on Dec 13th! Then hopefully she will be done. She just got her acceptance yesterday for George Mason’s BFA Program. So that was nice. She should be hearing shortly about Shenandoah and uArts. I think Montclair is rolling admission as well, so then it will be just waiting for Pace, which I heard isn’t until late March or so and also the financial aspects of some of the programs. Then FINALLY she can make the best decision possible. I am glad she will have some options and each program has some great positives with them.</p>
<p>I know she is really lucky to be able to be done auditioning this early. She wanted to hit the earliest auditions possible and was fortunate that all of the programs she was looking at had fall options.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your S on his U Mich audition!!! I think my D has a friend who will be auditioning there too!! I hear it’s a great program and that’s a fun, spirited college too!! NICE!</p>
<p>Oh- just realized that I didn’t answer the boy question. There were a few boys at each school based on the shows we were able to see. The school with the most males was Montclair State though, they had quite a bunch of boys. There were a bunch of males at uArts auditioning and in the program. Those probably were the two most heavily populated with men, that we visited, although I am pretty sure Point Park has a lot too </p>
<p>Yep, first audition with the solo - hence the concern. He had to submit a solo in the pre-screen, but he is going to do something different because it didn’t exactly fit the parameters. Good enough to squeak into the live audition though thankfully!</p>
<p>Sounds like your D is going to have a lot of great schools to choose from - that is great! It must be such a relief to have those acceptances start rolling in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the boy info. I figured that Pace and UArts and Point Park would have lots of male dancers. Didn’t know about Montclair.</p>
<p>Have a Happy Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>I totally can relate to the solo angst. The solo my D did for her uArts audition is a brand new solo that just got put together, so I was a nervous wreck for her. But they always seem to manage I am sure your S is going to kill it!</p>
<p>Yea, Montclair was a pleasant surprise. </p>
<p>My D got her Shenandoah acceptance yesterday! </p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving!!!</p>
<p>S had his U Michigan audition on Friday, Dec. 5. Things weren’t looking good when he came home from school that Wednesday complaining of a head cold - he was stuffy and achy and had a headache and sore throat. I immediately began pumping him full of cold medicines and he made it onto the plane on Thursday. We were supposed to see a play at the Michigan theater on Thursday evening, but S didn’t feel good (started having stomach issues on top of the cold), so we had to bag the play, which was too bad, but he was in bed by 9! He still didn’t feel great in the morning, but he hadn’t gotten any worse, so he was able to fight his way through the audition OK, other than a couple of times where he said he felt a bit faint.</p>
<p>Michigan has a pre-screen and invited 14 to audition on campus on this date (13 girls and S). Things started with a welcome in one of the lounge rooms, where three students started off the discussion with telling some things about the program and their experiences with it. Then everyone was split into two groups to tour the building, which has four dance studios, one of which can be used as a performance space. Studios were very nice and large. </p>
<p>This was followed by a session where students told us more about the program, and one of the modern professors told the kids what to expect in the audition room and some more about dance education at Michigan. The students were generally very interesting and well-spoken, and a number of them had done quite a bit to enhance their professional careers over the summers. A lot of the kids auditioning were like S in that Michigan appealed to them because it allowed for a double major. There were a lot of questions about that, and for the most part we were told that students could generally accomplish a double major in 4 years if they were smart about it. They also said that Study Abroad is very possible, but generally works best in the Spring or Summer semesters.</p>
<p>After this session, the kids were taken in for the actual auditions, which consisted of a 1 hour modern class, a 15 minute improv session, and a 30 minute ballet class, followed by solos and then an individual interview. S said the modern class was fast-paced so a bit challenging for him, but he loved the way the professor taught the class. S thought the improv session was too short for anyone to really show much, but he really liked the ballet session that followed, and really enjoyed that professor as well. He was happy with his solo, and he said the interview was very pleasant and unintimidating.</p>
<p>While the kids were auditioning, parents had a brief session with Angela Kane, head of the department, then a break, and then a session with the School of Music Theatre and Dance dean of admissions. She told us how many were auditioning (about 130), how many they were looking for (20) and when the auditioning kids could expect to hear (right after the holidays if the answer is Yes or No; sometime in March if they are deferred). She also talked about money (there is some merit aid for dance but no one gets a full ride) and financial aid info. She also said roommate assignments are random, but you can request two neighborhoods for dorms, and the housing office will try to honor those but there is no guarantee.</p>
<p>After interviews, the kids came back to their parents. They apparently accepted two kids on the spot - one girl who S says was really amazing, and another girl.</p>
<p>S really really liked this school and the program, even though he was somewhat sick the whole time he was here!. At first he was intimidated by the sheer size of the campus and the buildings, but he met a friend for brunch the day after the audition (she danced at his studio and is now a U-M freshman, but not a dance major), and she took him on a tour of the campus and told him lots of fun things about Michigan, and made him feel that the campus wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as he had thought. </p>
<p>All in all it was a great visit. Weather was in the 30’s and mostly grey, which I guess is typical for Ann Arbor in December!</p>
<p>This was S’s last in-person audition, so now we just wait for the results. He found out on Sunday that he got into Tulane, so he was very excited about that, as that is also a top choice. They offer Musical Theatre and Dance (he submitted an Arts Supplement video of 3 MT songs and a Dance solo to those departments), plus good academics, so it is very appealing. </p>