Dance Audition

<p>Hey, I'm not sure if there was a thread previously about this, but I know certain schools like CCM have hard dance auditions. If I'm not a good dancer but a good singer/actor, will I have a chance?
Also, I'm trying to narrow down my list of colleges to audition for next year, can anyone give me a list of good MT colleges that do not have hard dance auditions (I know that NYU doesn't even have one). Or perhaps you could give me a list of schools that do have hard dance auditions so I could avoid them. </p>

<p>Also, I know that it's important to take ballet and jazz, but is tap important?
and will taking "musical theater" dance classes help? </p>

<p>Also, for the audition to the OCU pre-college program, I need to make a DVD audition. Can anyone here who had a son or daughter audition please give me some information on how this is done? I have know idea how creating a DVD for an audition works</p>

<p>FSU has a hard dance audition.
Any dance classes will help but for most auditions it is really important to have ballet and jazz classes. It all depends on what schools you're looking at. Most of them describe what sort of a dance audition they have as far as jazz/ballet/tap.</p>

<p>If you're applying for the pre-college program I'm going to assume you're a junior? :) Take dance classes now! A year is more than enough time to really improve. I'm a junior too and have been taking dance about three hours a week for the past year and god, I'm like a thousand times better. </p>

<p>I'm applying for OCU's pre-college for next year too...where else are you looking into applying for next summer?</p>

<p>Oh yea if you are only a junior you DEFINITELY have time!!!! I took a TON of classes the 7 months leading up to auditions and at most places I was waaaay more prepared than any of the other guys...It's a different story for girls but you still have plenty of time! And start stretching now...a lot..I know that sounds strange but you will be happy you did. It helps a ton before you start classes. There are lots of thing you can do at home to get ready even when you aren't in class.</p>

<p>I will be applying to CMU pre-college, which is my first choice. and then my 2nd choice would probably be OCU or Broadway Theater Project</p>

<p>Can you explain this? Like, what is the prep like, what will they ask for, how long is the piece, etc.
Thanks.</p>

<p>Sorry it seems like such a long time ago I can't really remember how long it was or anything....I would say the whole dance audition was around an hour though. The prep had some battements, plies, and other stuff like that not at a bar. The ballet combo had some pirouettes, developpes, and arabesques I think. They were taught really fast but weren't terribly difficult to pick up. I didn't audition at too many schools but FSU claims to have one of the hardest ones. For a dancer it shouldn't be a problem though.</p>

<p>I remember the Boco dance audition being the hardest. There was a little bit of partnering, and a lot of technicalities. I know if i had never taken dance, I would have been lost. CCM was difficult if you never had any dance training, but it wasn't as hard as i thought it was going to be going into it. Here's some advice I was given: </p>

<p>"Look at this as a free dance class"</p>

<p>You're showing them what you can do. If you don't get the move, don't get frustrated, and have fun. Although ideally all schools would love to accept triple threats, it often happens that good candidates are strong in two of the three areas. I'm an MT major at ithaca, and it is a school that you should look into if you don't consider yourself a dancer. I do, so it can get hard, but by no means is it not worth it.The teachers know how to teach people who have danced and people who haven't. I hope that helps.</p>

<p>Syracuse has a kick ass dance audition.</p>

<p>claydavis
You asked about taking a music theatre dance class. I don't know where you are looking or how the classes are structured but my D is currently an assistant in a HS music theatre dance class. She would say that it is a combination class that includes strecthing, a very short ballet barre warm up, then some specific skill work. This is the firt 45 minutes or so of class. the alst 45 minutes are spent learning a dance or combinations for a dance. She is a dancer and what she has found interesting in working in this class, is how difficult it is for students to pick up the combinations. (She is comparing this to her experiences where kids mark the dance as the instructor says them and know how to do all the steps, I don't think the kids are particularly slow.) THis is part of a skill set that is needed in MT.The actual dance style is a basic/generic jazz.
I would ask what is done in the classes to find out what the structure is. The kids where D is are all supposed to be taking a ballet class also. When time is crunched it is hard to know if a MT class would be the best choice, but I woudl say learning how to learn combinations might make it worth while.</p>

<p>As BSB told you, the dance audition at Syracuse is a difficult one -- however, they are much more lenient with boys than they are with girls. They will judge you on your POTENTIAL much more than on your training; so if you are interested in their program, don't eliminate this school from your list just because you're worried about the dance audition. Take some classes this year -- it's certainly not too late to improve, and dance is a skill you will need no matter what school you end up at.</p>

<p>Definately get going on some dance lessons! Some schools will arrange for private lessons at around $40.00 an hour around here. My D quit ballet in 7th grade after she completed the "pre-point" level. She wanted to concentrate on jazz and hip hop, but when she decided to audition for MT she regretting quitting ballet. I found her a private instructor for her junior & senior years and it was wonderful. The teacher worked at D's pace and was able to really zero in on her form etc. They scheduled their lessons on a week by week basis which made accomodating her play schedule much easier. Good luck!</p>

<p>The majority of my friends agree that BOCO was the most challenging in terms of technique. IU's was the most stylistically challenging.</p>

<p>One thing my S did was ask a local college dance student to teach he (him?)and a few friends privately. That way there were a few other boys in the class and so it was less awkward since it was his first experience with a dance class. She taught them at our church twice a week and she was able to earn a few extra dollars. Since there were 4 boys taking it together, that kept their cost down as well.</p>

<p>llong39, Great idea!</p>

<p>Here are some BFA schools that do not have dance auditions: Ithaca, NYU, Pace. The following schools have a dance audition, but for placement purposes only: Hartt & Montclair.</p>

<p>I thought that NYU did have one. Thanks for the update.</p>

<p>NMR - Way back when my son was considering auditioning for NYU, the only dance audition was if you chose to audition as an advanced dancer, and I believe that is only available at the NYC auditions. Otherwise, there was no dance for NYU auditions.</p>

<p>Add to above - OCU does not have a dance audition, unless that has changed.</p>

<p>Hi Ericsmom,
With regard to NYU/Tisch, that was true when my D auditioned as well.....the dance audition was optional and available on two Saturdays in Feb. for the RD applicants and also in the ED round and was meant for experienced/advanced dancers. However, they have since done away with that, starting last year and now there are no dance auditions for admissions but there are dance placement auditions once enrolled.</p>