<p>Indiana University-Bloomington</p>
<p>I don't believe anyone mentioned Dickinson College-CPYB is right down the street. Also Eugene Lang College at the New School for Liberal Arts in NYC has a nice dance program. You can't beat being in NYC for ballet!</p>
<p>for astrophysicsmom -- Mt. Holyoke and Smith both have good dance programs. My impression is that Mt. Holyoke is modern forms; Smith more ballet, but please check.
Mt. Holyoke also has 5-year degree programs in education that end up with a Masters of Arts in Teaching and state licensure in Massachusetts, but whether or not the education masters is relevant to dance or academics, I don't know. But certainly at "MoHo" there'd be both dance and education courses a-plenty!
A "Five College Consortium" includes both of those colleges, plus the other 3: Amherst College, Hampshire College, UMass at Amherst. WIth 5 college catalogues to choose from, many courses are possible. The challenge is the scheduling, of course, but everyone goes in all directions. I recall reading: one course at a different campus each semester is average. For evening performance rehearsals, the 5-college shuttle busses run well, all evening.
Amherst College also has a small, heady/progressive Theater/Dance major with modern forms and ethnic forms. When I attended student-produced contemporary theater at Amherst's Kirby Theater, the dance leads were from MoHo but support dancers came from all the other 5 colleges.<br>
Ranking them on academic competitiveness alone, from most to least: Amherst College, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, UMass at Amherst.
Among those 5 might be a safety, match and reach for you...IF you like the Western Massachusetts area, of course, which combines old New England towns/rural areas; a suburban feel along Route 9 connecting 4 of these schools; and a cool dynamic small city (Northampton) where Smith is located.
Smith and MoHo are still all-female. Amherst went coed in the l970's. Hampshire was founded in the 1960's to use the resources of the other 4 schools and conduct one master project; has recently reintroduced distribution requirements. UMass at Amherst is a flagship large state uni.</p>
<p>Smith also has an Exercise and Sports Studies minor, much of it built around the dance program, which is heavy in the ballet department, and a graduate program built around same.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.science.smith.edu/exer_sci/ESS/%5B/url%5D">http://www.science.smith.edu/exer_sci/ESS/</a></p>
<p>If you find you're packing in too many hopes (dance, academics, education, dance therapy...) for undergrad work, perhaps let the dance therapy training wait for grad school.
Instead, enjoy taking education and perhaps some developmental psych or educational psych courses as an undergrad, which will help position you (he-he) for a grad school app.
Then try to find a dance therapy one-year masters program. I know this exists in the Art Therapy and Music Therapy world, so I'm assuming same for dance but don't know. I have 2 left feet.</p>
<p>Cautionary: As a graduating B.A. with an art minor and many ed and psych courses, my D was disappointed after researching job prospects for Art Therapists. Although the concept is excellent, and programs will take your money to give you a masters degree in it, the numbers of actual jobs nationwide are so few, with very few art therapy grad degree programs scattered around the country). She had thought of working with disturbed children, yet most art therapy jobs were part-time in mental hospitals and nursing homes. She backed away from it, but didn't make any investment in it either.</p>
<p>Anyone looking for practical applications of her dance skill to the world of work will hopefully get better advice than I'm giving here, from the dance professors and career counselors at the college she attends. For example, if she has a bent towards organizing projects, maybe the ancillary skills to get are either education or theater production (business-y) skills so she can always work in the world of dance.</p>
<p>I understand exactly why someone would want to be an art, dance or music therapist. What could be more meaningful and helpful. But, much research is needed!! (not to mention regrouping our nation's priorities...) If she has a heart for the elderly, that's where the demographic is headed with all the baby boomers heading for nursing homes. So, for example, take a look-see at Ithaca College's new interdisciplinary major in "Geriatric Studies" and then see if they also have a dance offering that pleases.</p>
<p>yeah . haha payiny3tuitions.that's just what i'm saying to my parents now .</p>
<p>because i've always been top of the class with many academic achievements and awards and they're mad that i "only want to dance" for a career .</p>
<p>so as long as there is a physiology/anatomy course they're good .</p>
<p>UMass would not be a safety in terms of dance, I do not believe (yes in terms of academics). The applicant needs to decide if she wants to pursue a BA or a BFA in dance. I know someone who is a very trained dancer who is attending UMass for dance and it is a BFA program requiring an audition to get in. </p>
<p>Janemac, perhaps a BA path will be better for you and also your parents might be more accepting of a BA program. You got some good suggestions of some liberal arts schools and some larger universities with strong ballet programs. Some of those are also academically challenging schools such as Vassar, Conn College, Smith, Barnard, and slightly below that Skidmore.</p>
<p>My daughter has been in a ballet school centered on training professionals to be, has attended the School of American Ballet, danced in youth roles with Joffrey, etc. Indiana University has a strong ballet program.
However, the reality is that talented ballet dancers at 18 and 19 are in a company, not in college.
My daughter is talented academically and couldn't see going to Indiana either as a dancer or an academic.
If you love dance and just want to have a role in that world and make a living at the same time, it may make sense to study dance in college.</p>
<p>hahahaha NO WAY am i going to umass uhhhggg . i live in mass and that's where everyone goes .</p>
<p>astrophysicsmom, Barnard has a good range of offering in modern as well as ballet (6 levels of each) - and also some good opportunities for modern performance, with a program that gives students the opportunity to audition for fall and spring performances working with established professional choreographers. As the parent of a dancer who is majoring in something else, I don't think that the number of course offerings would be enough to keep a serious dancer happy -- most of the serious dancers probably take additional courses at Steps or another studio. I've noticed a scheduling issue -- Barnard's dance classes are all scheduled during week day, daytime hours -- hard to fit around course work sometime. The advanced level classes at Barnard are fine -- that's not the problem, the problem is just that there aren't enough for someone who wants to spend 2 or more hours practicing every day. Fortunately, my daughter is quite happy taking only a single class that meets twice weekly. </p>
<p>I concur with danas' view that for janemac's goal #3 ("be in a ballet company") - the appropriate route would be to apprentice with a company immediately after high school; if janemac is a strong enough dancer, she might want to consider applying to colleges that would give good support for goals #1 and #2, but take a gap year and spend it with a ballet company.</p>
<p>oh dear janemac, let me jump on top of you and protect you before everybody eats you alive for that last remark...</p>
<p>I feel like Miss Manners, and we're here to help ya, but...
the ethic and culture of speaking of colleges in Parents Forum is to phrase things positively about colleges.</p>
<p>What you gag over might be somebody else's dream school.</p>
<p>I mentioned UMass-Amherst but it came up on this thread because it's part of the 5-college consortium of another school that might interest you (Smith) or possibly even Mount Holyoke depending on if MoHo does ballet. </p>
<p>Then, as often happens 'round her, SoozieVt (note she has 6,000+ posts) dropped in as resident expert on the arts programs offered by colleges/unis.</p>
<p>She added to everyone's info base by mentioning UMass has a BFA program in ballet, by audition. AWESOME. That means it's competitive, hard to get into, AND inexpensive.
She's taking on faith that you're a great student b/c she even said it is an academic safety for you but NOT a dance safety school.</p>
<p>Anyways, keep in mind that state universities launch amazing careers for gifted, bright people who haven't tons of money, or are saving money for grad school instead.
I hope you've asked your folks how much they can fund here...but if they will only be able to help you to the tune of $12K per year (tuition, room, board) and not $40-50K/year, better find that out NOW. If they're limited financially, then count your blessings that SUNY has a dance BFA by audition, and consider putting it on your list, along with other schools, IF you want a BFA, not a BA. That's a whole discussion by itself between those 2 degrees. </p>
<p>Secondly, for an arts student, an audition program at a state u should be on the list b/c you NEVER KNOW how your results will be after you apply to all your dream, match and safety schools.</p>
<p>For example our youngest S applied 8 places for a specialized arts program (Play or Screenwriting). He's VERY good, as are you I'm sure, but film programs have 8% admit rates. Not surprisingly with those odds, he got turned down at the first 5 places he heard from. Then one place admitted him to the college but not to the cinema major, only to a different major (waitlisted on the cinema major). It was rough sledding...but then he got into the SUNY-Purchase BFA program in Dramatic Writing, which only takes 20 kids. Out of the hundreds of thousands in all the SUNY's statewide, just 20 kids.
FInally, at the very end of March, he got word he was accepted to a program in a private film school in southern California, and that's where he'll go. WIthout that, well...the SUNY-Purchase acceptance would have saved his entire dream. </p>
<p>And remember...if you stay in Massachusetts to open a dance school, some of your best future dance students' parents will have gone to UMass.</p>
<p>Now, just thought of another private school with strong dance: Bennington. But, are they ballet? Idk</p>
<p>I would never discourage UMass for Jane but when it came up as a possible safety, I wanted to point out the important issue of thinking through if she wants a BFA program or a BA program. Given that UMass is a BFA program, it isn't a true safety, though worth looking into for other reasons! First, she needs to examine the options of BA vs. BFA. There were several very good BA schools offering ballet mentioned on this thread too. While getting into Smith is harder than UMass academically speaking, Smith has no audition to get in and UMass does.</p>
<p>I have the Skidmore course catalogue in front of me. There are many levels of ballet classes, including Pointe. There are many levels of modern, as well. In the Excercise science department, there are courses in Human Anatomy and Physiology, Physiology of Excercise Science, Nutrition and Bioenergetics, Cardiorespiratory Aspects of Human Performance, Neuromuscular Aspects of Human Performance, and so on.</p>
<p>my parents are both alumnis to umass amherst .</p>
<p>& sorry if i offended anyone or was rude .</p>
<p>posters are admonishing janemac to not bash UMass, but parent posters are bashing Indiana left and right..where are their manners?</p>
<p>JameMac..it sounds like a combo of dance and kinesiology would be fitting for you.Good luck in your search.</p>
<p>thanks !</p>
<p>& i'll say this one more time . . .</p>
<p>I, in my own opinion, do not find umass amherst a FIT for me .</p>
<p>never would i dream of going there .</p>
<p>that does NOT mean it is a bad school !</p>
<p>i would also NEVER go to mit because it is not a FIT fore me .</p>
<p>that does not mean that mit SUCKS !</p>
<p>so please, don't get offended if i say i don't want to go to umassamherst .</p>
<p>but thanks for the suggestions !</p>
<p>Look into Randolph College, formerly Randolph Macon Women's College, in Lynchburg, VA. We toured the school and met with the Dean of the Dance program last week. You will have your anatomy, physiology, and another term of which my mind is brain dead at the moment. Small, liberal arts campus, in the gorgeous Blue Ridge mountains. Wasn't the proper fit for Daughter#1 but D#2 has placed it top on her list of prospects.</p>
<p>Today, we are all HOKIES!</p>
<p>A couple grace notes:</p>
<p>In general: I agree with other posters. If you have a future as a professional ballet dancer, you are either in a company or you are in a conservatory program with a good track record of placing people in companies. There's nothing wrong with having other goals, and other goals are a necessity if you love ballet and don't have exactly the right body shape and athletic ability, but the goal of being in a company is not something you can/should defer until you're 22 and a college graduate.</p>
<p>You should also realize that lots of kids who love ballet have goals like yours: teaching or physical therapy as a backup/supplement to performing. My guess is that any university with a decent dance major will have several students pursuing those avenues. Not so sure about LACs.</p>
<p>It may make sense to take actual courses in education, or even to get certified as a dance teacher (if any public schools still have them). But you might have to choose between that route and the PT route.</p>
<p>Skidmore: A generation ago, Skidmore had the premier ballet program among LACs, established by Maria Tallchief when she retired from NYCB. It is unusual for kids to go from a LAC into a ballet company (less unusual for other forms of dance), but Skidmore always had a trickle. I have no idea about the current quality of the program, however.</p>
<p>Indiana: As far as I know this is pretty clearly the top university conservatory program for ballet in the country. I know a few very talented kids who have gone there, one of whom chose it over Harvard. (His parents were not so happy about that.) He never graduated; he was in a national company by the end of his second year there.</p>
<p>McGill: I know zip about ballet at McGill, but I know it has a good physical therapy program, and I assume that Montreal has a lot of dance going in in general, so it might be worth checking out. I have a niece who is a professional circus acrobat (really!), who started college there. She didn't love it, and wound up transferring, in part for a more general academic program, in part to be closer to Toronto where a company she was in was based, and in a little bitty part (I'm sure) to be closer to her then-boyfriend of several years. The PT program is separate from other programs, though, so I doubt you could be a dance major and pursue it. (Not an issue for my niece, since no one has acrobatics majors. She has always taken dance classes and studied dance a lot, though, because what she does is essentially dance-on-a-rope up in the air.)</p>
<p>McGill currently has no dance department.</p>
<p>I agree with what some of the others have stated. If performance is your goal, your time is best spent either at a post-graduate program or at a conservatory program known for placing it's dancers in companies - with the intention of using it a stop-gap to polish your skills until you can land a company position. There are very few programs that place their students in <em>ballet</em> companies. (Modern/contemporary is a whole other story.)</p>
<p>My DD attends a very tiny pre-pro ballet program, and students from there usually need a polishing year somewhere after high school. Students from her program, whom have gone on to dance for ballet comanies, have attended: Fordham/Ailey, Mercyhurst, Juilliard, and Ohio University. Others have gone through post-grad programs with Joffrey & Pittsburgh Ballet. Purchase and Indiana also have students that go on to dance with ballet companies. You really need to research which colleges have alumni that are dancing in companies. Spend lots of time reading the forums at ballet alert. Look at Dance Magazine's web site & consider ordering the college guide for dancers.</p>