<p>Can anyone elaborate on the dance curriculum/training at the university? We know the voice component is strong and know they are working on the acting. We were not able to see a dance class while visiting there. My daughter would love to strengthen her skills in this area.</p>
<p>I talked about this a little last month in a thread in the MT forum titled “thoughts on OCU.” Sorry, I don’t know how to post a link to it, but you can search for it.</p>
<p>My daughter took ballet classes for years, but stopped during high school because she just couldn’t find the time. She did do a couple of short summer dance workshops over those years, and danced in a lot of school and community shows. So, when she showed up at OCU, her dance was rusty.</p>
<p>My daughter has been taking ballet, jazz, and tap this year. She is very happy with what she is learning and feels great about the progress she has made. There are two non-major levels of dance classes, and then many higher levels for majors. MT kids go through the leveling process every semester, along with the majors. A teacher commented to my daughter recently that she can tell she had good early instruction and has a foundation of good technique; my daughter feels that the teachers are great at fostering growth in students at all different levels. Well, that’s my summary of how she’s described it. She’s been told she’ll probably be in the first major-level class next semester, so she’s clearly making progress.</p>
<p>Last weekend, OCU paired up with the city’s orchestra and choral society to do a gigantic production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS. My daughter was on the costume crew and had a fabulous experience. Bernstein’s daughter came to the campus a few days before and gave a talk to the students; she also attended the performance and was moved to tears! OCU also had Jonathan Tunick visit campus and meet with students this week. </p>
<p>We were hesitant about sending our East Coast girl to the middle of Oklahoma. It certainly isn’t NYC, but she has found a lot of fun in OKC and has taken us to some great restaurants when we’ve visited. And she’s very busy all the time and enjoying being immersed in her art.</p>
<p>Great to hear your daughter is enjoying OCU! And the dance program sounds terrific. Our daughter recently accepted her offer in the MT program there and can’t wait to get to Oklahoma. 
If you have any tips, suggestions of things to do, not do, what to bring, not bring, where to stay, where to eat, etc… we would love to hear your thoughts FrancescaBennett!</p>
<p>Thank u so much! My D is definitely leaning heavily towards OCU. So great to hear great things about the dance program because we definitely see the vocals are out of this world amazing!! I am with vvnstar, if you have any tips for us, such as what to bring, etc. that would be great! We were fortunate to be there last week when MASS was in tech and we were able to watch Into the Woods rehearsal. It was fabulous.</p>
<p>My daughter is a dance performance major at OCU. She speaks very highly of the dance faculty and classes. </p>
<p>As far as what to bring (as funny as it sounds) she said her rain boots were the best thing that she brought to Oklahoma. The weather can go from 80 one day to rain the next and then snow the next. Campus security does an excellent job informing the students of weather warnings. </p>
<p>There are quite a few great places to eat in many of the different districts of Oklahoma City. Bricktown has nice restaurants, Penn Square Mall area has some as well and there are also some great places in the Art District.</p>
<p>Thank you kroano. We were there and it was 80 degrees the day before and ice was on the ground within 24 hours!! One of the students said bring rain boots!</p>