<p>Can you pursue a dance major if you have no dance experience? Please help! I have a passion for dance but have never taken any classes. Thanks!</p>
<p>Why not just take a few dance classes when you get to college and see if you like it? You may not have the aptitude, but you won’t know if you don’t try. I understand that a lot of people in first year dance classes have never danced. My daughter has devoted her whole life to dance, but it is not at all certain that she will major in it.</p>
<p>Why haven’t you taken any classes ? How do you know you will like it ? I would take some classes first .</p>
<p>Some schools don’t have auditions for dance majors; the more highly regarded ones do. You should ask yourself why you want to be a dance MAJOR all of a sudden rather than just treat it as a pastime. In the professional world, sorry to say, you will have a tough time competing for jobs against people who have been dancing since preschool. It’s like music–it generally takes years and years of training to achieve a certain level of competency.</p>
<p>Many colleges have drop-in dance programs where you can pursue your creative interest and yet at the same time develop more marketable schools. Dance as a career is super-competitive even for the most accomplished dancers.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Argh! <em>skills</em> not <em>schools</em>. Darn autocorrect.</p>
<p>At most liberal arts colleges which offer a dance major, you can declare that major without auditioning. Barnard, For example, has a highly regarded dance program which does not require an audition. Whether you can develop enough skill in the four years you are there to graduate out of that major, and find a job in the field of dance, especially, I am sad to say, if you are female, is doubtful. For a conservatory type program, which requires an audition, or for one of the selective BA or BS programs in dance which turn out dancers who get jobs, it is unlikely in the extreme you would be accepted, however strong your passion. Training is extremely important for a dancer, and most begin very young. However, there will be ample opportunities to take dance classes at most colleges, and performance groups as well, so that you can develop some skills that will allow you to enjoy your passion. Have fun.</p>
<p>There are schools (Bennington is one) that welcome students with no experience in dance, to the first year dance classes. The focus at such a school may be less on technical training (such as ballet) and more geared to creative work such as choreography, or possibly in linking dance to other disciplines: art, music, poetry, psychology, neuroscience, math etc. It’s hard to create meaningful pieces without some knowledge of other areas of learning.</p>
<p>Dance majors can work in other fields (healing work, yoga and so on tend to be popular), and can have day jobs while pursuing dance on the side.</p>
<p>Many artists, musicians, dancers and actors today have to be entrepreneurial and make their own opportunities (creating one’s own company, for instance) so making it in a big established company is not the only way to go, at all.</p>
<p>There are all kinds of models for a dancer’s life, and some are open to a person with no experience growing up, and some aren’t.</p>