<p>I have just returned from visiting Elon University in Elon,NC. I spoke to the chair of the musical theater dept. who was increadibly nice. He told me they have added a dance component to their auditons for the musical theater class of 2007. He said they will start with a very basic combination from a show and they will get harder and harder. When you feel they have gone beyond your skill level, you can simply walk it, if you do walk out it will not be counted against you. He said their main evaluation is in acting and voice and they will score you on both, for a combined score. He said this year they had about 200 auditioning for 16 sports. Interstingly enough, they do not cut by gender(ie. 8 girls and 8 boys) they just take the 16 best who auditioned. Overall the campus was gorgeous and it seemed like a great place, now only to get in lol.</p>
<p>DefyingGravity
I'm a little confused by your post. The head of MT at Elon is Cathy McNeela, unless something has changed since we were there in February. So I was wondering who you spoke to since you refer to "he".
Also, my D is a dancer, and we were told there would be a dance audition, as you described, but also, if you are an advanced dancer, you could come prepared with a two minute dance (as in past years) rather than take the dance "class" audition. Do you know if this is still true? Did the person you spoke to mention this as an option?
Thanks for any info.</p>
<p>FYI....I was told back in February that Cathy Mcneela was stepping down as head of the musical theater department so I guess her replacement has already taken over. The only information that I was given about the dance audition was the same as what defying gravity was told. They would get more and more advanced so not really sure why you would need to prepare your own. But you may want to check on that one!</p>
<p>Yes, Kaysmom that it what I heard. Im not a dancer by any means, so im a bit scared, but it seemed reassuring. He was very nice by the way. I am blanking on his name right now, but he says he has been working at Elon for 18 years but is new to the dept. Cathy is still involved. I was given her card to talk about scheduling dates for auditions, but she was not there the day I went.</p>
<p>DefyingGravity,</p>
<p>I am absolutely sure he was nice....that is what is so great about Elon...everyone is so incredibly nice! Truly great people!</p>
<p>On the head person issue - I hope Elon Secretary will give the information, but when we were there on the last visit, I believe we were told that Cathy McNeela is still the head of music theatre but is stepping down from being head of the Performing Arts Department (which covers several areas, including acting, dance, and MT, probably others). A long time drama professor with whom we had a very nice visit is taking over as head of Performing Arts. Cathy wanted to teach more and give up some of her administrative duties. She is still there and will be more involved than ever with the students! (At least that was our understanding in late March). </p>
<p>Also, we heard last year that they would probably add a dance audition for 2007, so this is not surprising. We are blown away impressed with all the faculty at Elon, and the dance professors seem really excellent.</p>
<p>Fred Rubeck is his name - The web site hasn't been changed, but Fred has been in the the theatre dept. at Elon for years. He is the very nicest person and was so nice to talk to us and answer questions on our last visit. Cathy McNeela is absolutely still heading up the MT area, under Fred as her administrator, but the title is probably coordinator of music theatre, as Fred's previous work, per the web site, included coordinator of theatre arts. Cathy told us that she truly missed being able to teach the students and wants to have more time to do so. She wanted to give up the paperwork required of the Chair of Performing Arts (listed on the web site still as her title), which she has been doing for 10 years, I think. She has been head of Performing Arts, and now Fred will be - including the following majors: Music Theatre, Acting, Theatre Design, Theatre Studies, and Dance. I think Cathy will just be involved in Music Theatre now.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the information. I was a bit confused because we had quite a long meeting with Cathy in February and she didn't mention anything about not being head of MT anymore. But sounds like she still is head of MT, just not the whole department. So since we were only discussing MT, probably makes sense that she wouldn't even mention the change. Someone did tell us about the new dance audition. We also met with the head of the dance program, so I don't remember which one told us about the new dance auditions, but I am sure we were told the plan was to let advanced dancers really show their stuff using their old audition method which is to substitute a two minute dance for one of the required MT audition songs. Of course they may have changed their minds on that since February. I guess I'll call Elon and ask when I call about audition dates. I called a couple of weeks ago about audition dates and was told they'd be available later in June. My D has been cast in a community theater production of Hello Dolly which runs five weekends until the end of October, so we want to make sure to schedule Elon as soon after that as we can! Others schools in November and December too, so the scheduling begins early! Yikes! Can this really be happening??</p>
<p>nydancemom,</p>
<p>Yes...this is really happening! It will be an exciting journey for our girls this year...for everyone who will be auditioning! My d is sooo excited! We want to try to schedule Elon for the end of October along with 2 others before the holidays. Hopefully all will fit into place nicely. D aleady filled out her Elon application (got the new one in the mail) and then will copy everything over when it's available online. At least that's one essay out of the way...but many more for her to start along with summer reading and projects and being away at CMU for 6 weeks! It's going to be a crazy summer leading into a whirlwind of a school year for sure!</p>