<p>My daughter is in the same situation in deciding between colleges that will offer strong ballet and good academics, not necessarily wanting to major in dance. She has been accepted at Pomona and UCSB along with Tulane. She has only recently visited these schools and a brief introduction to their dance departments. Could anyone offer opinions anout these dance choices? She is strong in ballet and prefers that to a modern emphasis.</p>
<p>Maybe check the dance subforum? I know when we were screening colleges Pomona/Claremont didn’t have much ballet, compared to others my D2 was considering. But that was a while ago and she wasn’t looking at Tulane or UCSB. I think we screened schools by # levels of ballet offered, FWIW.</p>
<p>Back to OP I think it is important to make sure D loves school in most ways besides dance too, since as others have mentioned commitment to dance may possibly wane once in college. That certainly happened to my D2.</p>
<p>I checked Pomona website. It appears they have a dance department with a big focus on ballet. I think they are also close to the Orange County Performance Center. </p>
<p>D1 didn’t end up dancing as much as she did in college because of her college’s dance program (or lack of). It was more focused on modern instead of traditional ballet. I think if she was at a school with stronger ballet program (like Barnard and in NYC) she may have continued.</p>
<p>UCSB has a much broader and deeper dance program than Pomona. The expertise of the faculty and the level of the dancers is mostly much higher at UCSB. There are always exceptions for individuals of course, you can probably find a few excellent dancers at Pomona but the program there is not likely to challenge your dancer daughter. The faculty at UCSB have top level dance company experience, and excellent teacher training through the universities they attended, as well as from the choreographers they worked with as professionals. If dance is to be part of the decision factor, then I see no advantage at all for Pomona.</p>
<p>I’ve been working in this field for more than 30 years, and I have never heard of anyone going to Pomona and planning to dance at any high level. Taking a few classes in order to get exercise, or to learn about dance as an art form, sure, but a “dancer” is likely to be bored or frustrated there.</p>
<p>It’s possible that the dance level at UCSB is not high enough for your D either, (is she close to professional level?) but for sure the faculty has the professional expertise and experience to challenge any dance student effectively.</p>
<p>It’s also possible that Pomona may have some sort of extra-curricular dance program like Harvard does, where excellent dancers continue to train and perform. You’ll have to check with Pomona for that.</p>
<p>Personally, I prefer not to attempt to breathe the air in Pomona most days–it’s very tough on the lungs during smoggy weather, which would be most days in Sept, Oct, April, May and June. I once taught a master class out there in May, and I really felt like I couldn’t breathe while dancing. I immediately drove to the nearest beach for a breath of fresh air, which took one hour and ten minutes. JMO.</p>
<p>You would want to check to see which dance courses at UCSB are open to non-majors – the dance major itself is an audition-entry major, and it is possible that advanced level courses may be limited to majors, or may tend to fill up with priority enrollment for majors.</p>
<p>In general (not a hard and fast rule) – university dance programs tend to have limited offering for non-majors, whereas LAC’s tend to be more fluid as to who can take their classes. I think it’s just a matter of numbers – a small LAC won’t have enough dance majors to sustain a strong department without the participation of non-majors; whereas a large university will run into the problem of demand for classes exceeding space available. </p>
<p>I do think that with a few exceptions, college ballet programs (other than BFA program) are significantly weaker than studio ballet. As I posted above, at a certain level, ballet simply require a LOT of hours of daily practice – and its hard outside of a BFA program for students to sustain that level. So somewhere along the line they make the choice-- and I think that’s why modern dance is so much more prevalent in college BA programs. Modern is simply more forgiving of the body – more of an effort to explore bodily movement and creative expression, and less of a quest for perfection in posture and technique.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight. It is so difficult to sort it out and I think overwhelms them when they don’t know what to expect and fear making the wrong decision. Somehow none of the options seem quite right to my daughter; she is not ready to set her dance interest aside in favor of academics</p>
<p>You may want to check out local private studios near each college. I know that the last thing you probably want to do is to be paying studio fees on top of college tuition, but that may be the best option for ballet. </p>
<p>If your d. is dancing at a near-professional level, an alternative might be for her to choose a colllege that will defer admission for a year, and devote the next year to continued dance training with a company school or as an apprentice. </p>
<p>Is she clear on hear academic plans? Maybe a dance major is her best option, if she’s not ready at this point to set her dance interest aside.</p>
<p>My son’s math teacher in high school had been a professional ballet dancer (male) in his younger days – so there is life & education after dance. It’s just that, especially for women in ballet, the best dancing years are in the late teens and early 20’s – it’s hard to take a significant break in training during that period and come back. On the other hand, the academic part of college is kind of wasted on 18 year olds - 
– slightly older students can do quite well academically.</p>