Dance auditions and decisions 2017/18

Hi everyone! We are down to choosing between our only two options Montclair State & Towson for Dance and would love any feedback. As a third option, we have even considered taking a gap year to focus purely on ballet and re-auditioning next year. This has been a long, tedious process and the thought of doing it all over again is daunting but my daughter is not thrilled with either option and I feel like she should not spend 4 years at a place she does not love and always wonder if she should have tried again. Does anyone know anyone who has done this?

@Chickies11 what are your daughter’s goals? Maybe one school will emerge as a better choice based on what she wants out of a program? Also, there are dance programs that allow transfers so she could start at one with the goal of auditioning again as a transfer if she finds herself truly unhappy. DD was considering a gap year of intense training if she did not get into any of her top choice programs.

@SCMHAALUM congrats to your son!

@mom2adancer thanks for your response! Her goal is to be a professional dancer, in a contemporary company possibly. She really desperately wanted to be in NYC. She is a good student, 3.9 GPA, strong SAT, but probably could have done better with a course or tutoring. Also I don’t think we properly prepared her for the interviews and could have had her get more help in overseeing her essay. Her dream was always NYU, obviously a tough choice, especially considering their regular acceptance rate dipped under 20% this year, which doesn’t even account for dance. (which in itself is hard). She made the prescreens (Pace & Ailey) and the NYU solo cut but it just wasn’t enough. She, of course, is very upset, but we are not sure what to do next. I’m not sure if attending either school then attempting to transfer will help her to get that much better in the few short months (sept to feb) before auditions. We are just so lost right now!

@Chickies11 I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for your DD as she had hoped. Can she attend admitted student days to see if her thoughts of either schools could be swayed in one direction or the other?

I do know a dancer that decided to take a gap when they didn’t get into their top choice. Spent the year as a trainee with a company. Re-auditioned/applied for their top choice BFA program and was accepted. However, now there is debate for that dancer. Stay with company or go to college?

I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for your DD as she had hoped. Can she attend admitted student days to see if her thoughts of either schools could be swayed in one direction or the other?

I do know a dancer that decided to take a gap when they didn’t get into their top choice. Spent the year as a trainee with a company. Re-auditioned/applied for their top choice BFA program and was accepted. However, now there is debate for that dancer. Stay with company or go to college?

@Chickies11 I empathize with you. My daughter was almost in the same position and we had many conversations about the what if’s. Towson was a possibility for her, and she had decided that if she was to go there, she was going to try and let the faculty know her career aspirations and try to get taken under their wing, so to speak, and get at least one faculty mentor who would continue to push her and train her the way she needed to be trained. That is, she had decided that she would make sure they knew what she hoped to achieve through their program and was going to advocate for herself as much as she could. I would encourage your DD to really dig deep and see what all these two schools can offer her before turning them both down. If she does take a gap year, she will at least know that she made as educated a decision as possible. And, if she takes a gap year, she needs to do something that has the potential to really push her forward in whatever areas she feels she needs the most work. More of the same might not be sufficient. I hope everything works out for her.

Are any of your children still waiting to hear their decision from Chapman?

My daughter auditioned early, but her decision was in her student portal, then snail mail came later.

@Artist709 my daughter auditioned mid Jan for Chapman and had her decision by early Feb. They send an email saying there is an update to their status in their portal. Did your son or daughter attend the last audition? I thought all schools were suppose to notify by 4/1.

@izzyb1 My daughter submitted application and prescreen supplement by January deadline, and was invited to audition in person. We live in Ohio, and it was not feasible at the time, so they were going to use her video audition to make their decision. She has not heard from them since.

My daughter is wait listed at Chapman. It is ok, as it was a financial stretch to begin with… She has her heart set on Marymount. We sent an appeal letter for more financial aid yesterday. Hoping and praying we can make her dream a reality!!

Might I ask what school? We just sent an appeal letter.

How are your dancers handling declining other program offers? Are they sending emails to the dance department with a “thank you…but” message? My daughter was down to 2 different programs that she loved. I think that she should send an email to the one she is not choosing. They were so nice and the Director met with us twice and she has received correspondence (and a nice scholarship from the department).

Thought from you all?

Does anyone know of professional level of dance training in Palo Alto/San Jose area? We’ve been asking around but haven’t heard anything great…

@SCMHAALUM I am not familiar with the West Coast for dance. Have you gone on the Ballet Talk for Dancers site? They are all things ballet.

@amom2girls Thanks I will take a look…

Silicon Valley ballet closed in 2016 (https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/03/08/silicon-valley-ballet-shutdown-the-writing-was-on-the-wall/) so really what you are left with is SF Ballet and Alonzo Lines in the city. Most of the programs in Silicon Valley are for kids (often oriented towards dance competitions and rarely towards ballet).

@Chickies11 so sorry to hear that things did not work out for your daughter. Just wanted to point out that if you choose to attend a school then transfer the availability of aid may be very different.

If your daughter takes a gap year maybe check out CPYB they have a year long program. We do know people who took gap years and still didn’t get what they wanted. Also know someone who started at the school they wanted academically and was able to transfer to bfa dance program and will get a double major. We also know someone who tried to do that at A different school however it didn’t happen and they left the school. NYC has many programs like Ailey Extension, BDC and Peridance which she could look into but once again there are no guarantees in this crazy competitive dance world.

@SCMHAALUM My daughter has a friend training at The New Ballet School, in San Jose I think. Seems like a pretty good program.

@amom2girls My daughter wrote personal notes (emails) to any schools she was declining that she felt had been kind and helpful to her throughout the process, whether it was the dance department, the admissions rep, or both. Kindness is always a good skill to practice. And for all we know, daughter might end up at one of those schools down the road in some capacity!