<p>I'm an Indian rising-freshman in high school...</p>
<p>I've been playing piano for around 6 years, and I'm pretty bad. Recently my piano teacher passed away, really sad, but now I'm definitely with piano...</p>
<p>I want to replace piano with another music related EC, dancing... yea I'm a guy btw</p>
<p>IDK anything bout dancing and I'm pretty awkward, but I hear chicks dig guys who can dance.
also I'm hoping that it will help me be more outgoing.</p>
<p>I don't want to do Indian dancing or w/e cause I don't want to look like a typical Indian guy on my college app... </p>
<p>What kind of dancing would be good for me?
Is it silly to start an EC so late in to my school life?
any info about dancing would be nice...</p>
<p>well most of my friends started there instruments like 7-9 years ago, and all the girls I know have been dancing ever since i moved 4 years ago, so it seems pretty late</p>
<p>There’s dancing and then there’s dance. As the mom of a dancer, here’s my take: </p>
<p>“Dance” is an artistic discipline which involves regular work with professional teachers, over a long period, in a studio setting. Think ballet, tap, jazz, modern. Also hiphop and ballroom. This involves learning technique and choreography, and participation in stage performances. To be really good at dance, you need to have started pretty young; my D started at age 3. Advanced-level dance is a good EC for college apps.</p>
<p>“Dancing” is a social activity which you do for entertainment. You can learn on your own or with friends, aided by music videos etc, or you can take classes. This is a fun activity, but I don’t think it would qualify as an EC. Hiphop and ballroom would certainly fall into this category as well.</p>
<p>For college applications I don’t think I’d recommend you begin dance at this point. I’d like to see you put your energies into pursuing piano instead. I’m sorry about the death of your teacher, but there are other teachers out there. Find a good one and commit yourself to reallly improving.</p>
<p>For social situations, go ahead and take a hiphop class. It’s very fun and might help you loosen up. Call around to your local dance studios and ask if they offer beginning hiphop for your age group.</p>
<p>You’re only a freshman in high school. Colleges ask about ECs that one has pursued in high school. The relatively few colleges that factor ECs into admission – and those are colleges like HPYS that have so many high stat applicants that the colleges can use ECs to pick and choose among the high stat applicants – care about how good you are at an EC, whether you’ve won awards, whether you’ve initiated projects, fundraisers, etc. related to the EC. Simply having gritted your teeth and endured an EC since you were a little kid won’t impress them. For that matter, those same colleges won’t be impressed if you start an EC as a h.s. freshman, find that you don’t really like it, but grit your teeth and continue pursuing it in a vain effort to impress colleges. Whenever you start an EC, you’ll be more likely to impress colleges if you enjoy it because if you enjoy it, you’ll do better at it.</p>
<p>Frankly, the most important reason to do ECs is that doing so gives you a chance to develop skills and interests that will serve you well for a lifetime – socially as well as in your chosen career (and an EC may lead to an interest in a particular career).</p>
<p>Pursue any kind of dancing that interests you. Also, while in general, females have to start dance at a very early age to become expert in it, males have started as late as their late teens and become expert in such dance styles as ballet. For instance, Rudolph Nureyev, one of the most famous modern ballet dancers, started ballet at age 17.</p>
<p>I agree with whomever suggested that ballroom dance can be an excellent type of dance to learn and, yes, females do love men who can dance! Saying this as the mom of a guy who took up ballroom dancing as a college freshman when for fun he signed up for a class in college. </p>
<p>IMO, any guy can be a chick magnet by simply being willing to social dance especially if he takes the time to pay attention to his partner instead of worrying about whether he’s clumsy, etc.</p>
<p>If you don’t like piano, stop taking it. Use your extra free time to discover an EC that you do enjoy.</p>
<p>I agree with NSM on this one. If you do not want to continue piano, DON’T! Dance is a great combination of music and exercise, and very fun. Try it, and see if you want to continue. I bet you will. A male dancer is always welcomed into a local studio, as there are not usually enough boys interested in dance. You could be pretty good in four years, and then continue dancing in college if you want to.</p>
<p>If you want to start dancing, then start. Northstarmom’s point that a lot of top male dancers start rather late in life is definitely true, and a lot of guys at my studio (which is attached to a top dance & Musical Theater college) started at around your age.
If you’re doing it exclusively for college, maybe it’s too late, but dance is a ton of fun, and you get so close to all your classmates, and male dancers are pretty much always needed and wanted, so I think its an great activity to start at any age.</p>
<p>It’s not too late if you’re doing it for college. Frankly, most colleges don’t care about ECs anyway. However, the colleges that do care about ECs probably would be interested in male dancers because far more women dance than do men, so there’s usually a need for good male dancers. If you are interested in learning how to dance, there’s no better time to start than now. Having dance as one of your ECs also will help you stand out among the many Asian applicants whose ECs are all things like science fair, Mu Alpha Theta and brain bowl.</p>