<p>My Dgt has a very strong background in dance. She has studied in ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre and lyrical. She felt she should be a dance major because while she loves to perform she would eventually like to teach. However, her strongest styles of dance are tap and musical theatre. While she is a wonderful dancer I am wondering whether a musical theatre program with a strong dance component would be better for her. She does also sing, but no formal training so I know that would be a hindrance. Whenever she has received awards or recongnition it is always for musical theatre. What programs are strong in both musical theatre and dance and allow the MT majors to take dance classes.</p>
<p>And to let you know she has been accepted into all 3 dance programs where she auditioned but the one she likes the best is modern and ballet based and not tap and musical theatre.</p>
<p>What year in high school is your daughter? The simplist thing would be to go for a dance major, if indeed that’s her strong point and she isn’t a very strong singer, as of yet. At many schools or at least in the neighborhood of the school she could take voice lessons as an elective or on the side, and there she’d be. A dancer who sings. How great is that? Off the top of my head, I know that Oklahoma City University has a very strong American/jazz/theatre orientation to its dance program which would be just right for a dancer who wants to do MT dance. There are dancers there that have managed to work in voice lessons and acting lessons into their schedules. Find a great dance school that has a great theatre and/or music program and see if students from the various majors can easily dabble in the other performing majors. You have to be very specific in your questioning - is it allowed, and is it possible with scheduling? Getting some AP credits out of the way could help with the scheduling part.
There are some MT programs that have great dance and where, best of all, if a MT major is good enough to dance with the dance majors, she can get permission to do so. However at all of these MT programs one had to be a very strong singer to get into the MT program. A fine dancer who sings a little (especially a female) won’t get in these audition MT programs. I’m rather certain of that. I doubt anyone here who has heard singers down the hall at the Unified Auditions will disagree with me on that. I will PM you with a list of such schools that I know of.
Even if your D decides to go for the dance major, it would be a great help to her to take voice lessons as soon as you can manage it so she can bravely face the 16 bar auditions that happen after dance calls, because it’s my understanding that professional MT dancers have to sing decently, because they do the job of both the dancers and the chorus in our current economic reality.</p>
<p>just a note about Oklahoma City University’s MT program - we actually took it off D’s list because the MT degree is a B of Music, not a BFA or BA, and my daughter frankly didn’t want a huge amount of music theory.</p>
<p>They might have a dance major we didn’t look at, but in the case of OCU, it is especially important to be musically very strong, even more so perhaps than some of the other programs.</p>
<p>Speaking as a mom of a girl who grew up in ballet shoes but started singing rather late - being a great dancer is certain a plus but it won’t make up for not being able to sing. Some programs are a lot stronger on dance than others, (I think Coastal Carolina is one of those) but some of them will accept someone who just “moves” as long as they are strong in singing and acting, figuring I guess that they’ll be able to train them to dance enough for MT. But if you don’t sing much - it’s not happening.</p>
<p>ClassicalBK is absolutely right that a strong dancer who is not also a strong singer is really not going to have much of a chance at the competitive auditions.</p>
<p>Nothing else to add except our experience this past year absolutely supports all her other points too.</p>
<p>My D was a MT kid who danced seriously until herthe end of junior year in HS and then decided she wanted to only dance. She was a “very good singer” in comparison to the average but she knew if she was going to pursue MT she would then and always have to work very hard on her vocals and she just wasn’t that interested in singing. She is at Point Park in dance and loves it. PPU has the option for dancers to do an MT minor and we are told dancers can take voice lessons. She has not pursued either of these as of yet - MT minor auditions are at the end of freshman year (probably now) but she is not doing it.
She loves dancing at PPU and says she will get back into singing in her junior year if she thinks she is going back to MT (this maybe a mistake on her part to think she can - but she will figure it out).
So that is one option.</p>
<p>Not OKCU, but many college dance programs are very modern focused (not a bad thing). so a student who is interested in pursuing musical theatre dance, jazz, tap, ballet focus will want to look for dance programs that offer this sort of a focus… </p>
<p>You will also find some MT programs will look at students who are super strong in dance who also have potential for growth as a singer/ actor.</p>