Congrats @MommaCat @dramamama3 and @rickle1 ! Thanks for sharing your stories. Every story gives us something to hang onto while waiting for our situation to come into focus.
Congrats, @MommaCat and thanks for sharing your unique story! What a lovely adventure she’s begun!
Programs Applied to:
Baldwin Wallace, CCM, Marymount Manhattan, Nazareth, U of North Carolina Greensboro, Ohio Northern, Ohio University, Otterbein, Pace, Shenandoah, Webster, Western Connecticut State, Wright State
Prescreens:
CCM (live prescreen at Cleveland Unifieds), Otterbein, Pace, Shenandoah, Western Connecticut State (live prescreen in NYC)
Passed:
Otterbein, Pace, Shenandoah, Western Connecticut State
Did not pass:
CCM
Accepted:
Marymount Manhattan, Ohio Northern, Ohio University, Otterbein
Rejected
Baldwin Wallace, CCM, U of North Carolina Greensboro, Pace, Shenandoah, Webster
Waitlisted
Western Connecticut State
Never heard from
Wright (auditioned at Cleveland Unifieds and think things fell through the cracks)
Coach:
Broadway Artist Alliance College Audition Workshop (did not use on ongoing coach)
Started private dance lessons & vocal lessons in September (had not had either before)
Summer Program:
1 week at Broadway Artist Alliance Summer Workshop
Background:
My son has been involved in musical theatre since he was 9 years old and unexpectedly was offered a spot in Peter and Wendy (which his sister was in) when another boy dropped out and my daughter offered up her little brother. It was funny at the time, because it my daughter’s first show too and my son ended up with a much bigger part without every trying out.
After a couple years of trying to do “all the things”, it became clear that my son couldn’t be in both musical theatre and baseball and football and martial arts. He chose musical theatre. So for the past 6 years, he has been in a production at all times.
Even though he is 2 years younger than my daughter, she ended up having a gap year because of an unsuccessful audition season, so the idea of doing auditions for the 3rd year in a row was definitely not on my list of things I wanted to do. After my son finally decided that a BFA in MT was what he wanted to pursue, I strongly suggested he not audition his senior year because he had not really spent the time preparing that my daughter had and I definitely wasn’t up for him having to do 2 audition seasons. He agreed and signed up to do a college audition workshop. WCSU was there as part of the mock audition panel and they reached out to him to invite him to audition this season. After considering it, we decided he would go ahead and scramble together his audition material and do the best he could. This decision wasn’t made until September 9th. Cue mass panic about prescreens, etc.
Otterbein and Ohio U were always his top 2 schools. My daughter had been accepted at both last year and really like the programs, so while he was only able to visit Ohio U and not Otterbein due to COVID, he was able to form a pretty good understanding of the programs.
Final Decision: Otterbein
(I’m so thrilled with this!!!)
Congrats @BrennaK ! Glad he went for it and ended up at one of his top schools!!!
Congrats @BrennaK ! What a great outcome! Best of luck to your S!
@BrennaK CONGRATS!! I have thoroughly benefitted from your past 3 years of MT auditions, thank you for all your contributions!
@BrennaK - three years in a row? You get the Survivor Prize for sure! Congrats!
@BrennaK Congrats to your son (and you)! What a great outcome. Glad he was able to use the knowledge gained from his sister’s experience.
Hooray @BrennaK !! Welcome to the Otterbein family!! If he has any questions have him hit Dean up
@BrennaK congrats to your son!!! I am sure he will be thrilled to be there – glad he could learn something great from his sister’s experience!
Programs applied (all BFA MT except Muhlenberg’s BA):
Baldwin Wallace, BoCo, Coastal Carolina, Elon, Emerson, Florida Southern College, Florida State, SUNY Fredonia, Hartt (U of Hartford), Ithaca College, Indiana University, CCM, University of Miami, Muhlenberg, Pace, Penn State, Point Park, Rider, Michigan, Syracuse, USC, Utah
Also: NYC Combines (Rider, TX State, AZ State, TX Tech, Shenandoah, Wagner) and did walk-ins at Chicago Unifieds for Ohio Northern and Western Michigan
Prescreens passed: BoCo, Emerson, SUNY Fredonia, Ithaca, Indiana, Miami (prescreen optional), Point Park, Michigan
Did not pass: Coastal Carolina, Elon, Florida State, CCM, Pace, Penn State, Rider, Syracuse, USC.
Accepted academically/withdrew after pre-screen non-pass almost everywhere, including too many “deferral to BA program” to count.
Accepted artistically to:
SUNY Fredonia (BFA Acting), Florida Southern College (+ accepted to by-audition dance minor), University of Utah, Muhlenberg
Rejected (artistically) from:
Almost everywhere! No callbacks from Combines.
Wait-listed at: Miami! Loved it but didn’t want to wait.
Coach:
Fantastic voice teacher since 5th grade. Dance (ballet, jazz, tap, modern – not competition dancing) since age 10. Worked with a song coach, choreography coach, and monologue coach at MTCA, as well as an additional vocal technique coach (not MTCA). Started with coaches in early 2019.
Summer Programs:
Local theatre intensives grades 5-9
Home dance studio’s summer ballet intensive grades 6-8
Summer after 9th grade at two ballet intensives: Ballet Austin and Maryland Youth Ballet
Summer after 10th & 11th grade at Joffrey Ballet School in NYC
Stagedoor Manor after 10th and 11th grades
She also did Joffrey Ballet School’s Winter Spectrum intensive
Background:
Musical family. In 5th grade, she advanced to the final 25 or so for the original 4 Matildas. She was bitten by the bug and decided to devote her life to this. Started serious ballet study in 6th grade, kept up tap, added jazz, modern. Saw it as a necessary evil until her first summer at Joffrey Ballet School, which was the first year she was dancing with others her age and not feeling like she was playing catch-up.
She was not cast in any lead roles after middle school, but enjoyed playing featured ensemble roles. She might have gotten leads in high school shows, but those would have meant missing too much ballet, so she didn’t do musicals at school. She did 1-2 mainstage musicals a year at a local-ish, high-quality kids’ theatre company. Continued studying voice weekly. Added Stagedoor Manor after 10th & 11th grades and really found her niche and strengths. She played a hotel girl in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Jenny Hill in Big Fish – and was appointed dance captain/assistant choreographer in Big Fish in addition to hours each day in challenging dance classes – after weeks at Joffrey Ballet School’s ballet intensive. So, she went into audition/application season with swings, dance captains, and associate choreographers as her role models. Career goal: understudy for multiple leads/swing/dance captain/associate choreographer.
November: Muhlenberg. She was blown away by the depth and breadth of the offerings, especially the study abroad opportunities. She was assured that with her academic record (1340 SAT and 4.0 GPA, leadership, etc.), she would be admitted with enough financial aid. Felt like she had a great option.
First audition in January was for Baldwin Wallace, in NYC. Knew immediately it wasn’t for her.
Next was Combines. Why did we do this? I guess there was a feeling of panic that there needed to be more schools, it felt like “everyone was doing it,” and this was “free” though I will say getting up before dawn and freezing my butt off certainly didn’t feel “free!”
NYC Unifieds started with U of Utah (vocal/acting, no dance call), Miami’s dance call, audition for Point Park, Point Park’s dance call, and the Miami audition, all on that Saturday. She loved everything about that day. Auditors for Utah were engaging and asked her questions about her resume; the dance calls at Point Park and Miami were fun and skills-oriented. So much positive energy! She would have been thrilled to be accepted to any of those. The next day was Emerson, a 4-hour slot. She left that audition feeling like that audition experience wasn’t very warm. No walk-ins in NYC.
We drove to SUNY Fredonia the next weekend. She didn’t feel the dance call was challenging, but enjoyed the vocal/acting audition. She was accepted to the BFA Acting program but felt Muhlenberg’s BA was a better fit than Fredonia.
Chicago Unifieds: Michigan was first and she had stars in her eyes. Wow, they were a class act from A to Z. She felt fine about her vocal/acting audition, and loved the dance call as it heavily favored ballet technique. Next was Ithaca. She didn’t leave that one with a feeling like she belonged there. BoCo, on the other hand, felt like home and she was flying high after that one. Walk-ins at WMU and ONU didn’t leave her hopeful but she liked both programs.
We drove from Chicago to Indiana for her audition in Bloomington. Another program that felt like home to her, and one that really, really hurt to be rejected from.
We drove to Hartford for Hartt the next weekend. That rejection letter came what felt like minutes after we drove home!
The last trip was to Lakeland, Florida. My youngest child had worked with an alum of Florida Southern College who loved his experience there. What interested my daughter was their strong relationship with the Orlando theme parks – performance internship opportunities. We’d never heard of it and it’s not talked about here or anywhere. She did her research and scheduled the audition. She’d been accepted to the college with a generous academic merit scholarship, honors program, lots of fabulous things about it. They reimbursed her flight to Florida and we had a lovely weekend there. We were impressed by a student production of “Cabaret." Audition day started with a long (2+ hours) audition for the dance minor. The BFA MT dance curriculum didn’t wow her, and she knew she would only go there if she was also accepted as a dance minor and could study dance with BFA dance majors. The afternoon was spent in her vocal/acting audition and in a dance call with the MTs. She liked the faculty and students, and would have loved to go there. Accepted to the dance minor and the BFA MT program. They do not accommodate students with food allergies (she has multiple, one life-threatening) and it is not a smoke-free campus. Frankly, I was shocked to see smoking. It felt anachronistic.
Final Decision:
Beyond thrilled to commit to U of Utah! They cast swings in their musicals, and she’s hoping she’ll get some great ensemble and swing experience there. The dance training is amazing and there are also great community options (Ballet West, Millennium) for supplemental training if she can’t get all she wants at school (she’s been training 10-12 hours a week and wants to keep that up if she can). Ability to become a Utah resident for tuition is another plus. Local professional opportunities are plentiful, and she favors EMC status or Equity membership over a senior showcase. She already feels like the faculty and older students care for her, they’ve been so welcoming.
I’ve been a strong believer in “trust the process” and “she’ll end up where she belongs.” A few schools looked great on paper but didn’t feel right in auditions, and others were less impressive on paper but she LOVED them after auditions, so we are glad she auditioned for so many. I do think having auditions that felt terrific but led to rejection was a major growth experience for her – and made her really appreciate the great choices she had in the end. Utah is the perfect fit for her!
Congratulations @Dance3Looks3 ! I hope your d has a wonderful 4 years at Utah!!!
1 Like
Congrats @Dance3Looks3 have enjoyed the process with you and happy you found your perfect fit.
So wonderful to hear your stories, @BrennaK and @Dance3Looks3 !! What great schools they’ve chosen!
( @Dance3Looks3 , my S has a good friend going to Utah next year and she’s so stoked - it was her top choice! )
Congrats @Dance3Looks3 !! Utah looks like an awesome place to be. One of my students is leaning towards this one as well!! The faculty, dance training, curriculum – all looks great!!
I love how different these stories all are! @BrennaK - you get an endurance award! Congratulations to your son on Otterbein - I’m sure he will love his years there. @Dance3Looks3 - what a journey! Congratulations to your D and I’m so glad your faith in “the process” was rewarded with a perfect fit school for her!
Congratulations, @BrennaK and @Dance3Looks3! Two wonderful stories!
It is really fun to read everyone’s stories. And a big sigh of relief to see the kiddos land in places they will grow. It is hard to trust the process but it seems to work in some weird way… either by madness or luck! @Dance3Looks3 your D stuck with her dance passion and will continue to blossom. My S was once dedicated to dance but changed course. I questioned his path but he followed his heart and it appears to be working out for him. There are so many college programs and varied career paths. Someday hopefully we’ll all look back and this process will make sense!
Congratulations @Dance3Looks3 ! Utah looks like a great program! I am sure she will have amazing opportunties there. The dance program is top notch! Best of luck to your D!
Congrats @BrennaK ! If we had awards, you’d get a big crown with three giant jewels on top!
@Dance3Looks3 congrats to your D! Sounds like a wonderful program and great fit for her! I always love hearing how the dancers navigate this process and where they land.