Hi, I have been trying to look up examples of dance supplement videos and have found very few for men. My son is a fabulous dancer and can do impressive tumbling passes, as well as beautiful leaps and turns and various styles of dance, including tap. He attends a performing arts high school as a dance/musical theater major, but is also involved in many other things so he does not want to pursue a BFA Musical Theater degree. He dances about 5 hours per day and also trains in voice and acting, but doesn’t have any dance awards or other accolades. He looks to be a perfect fit for their YaleDancers group and they don’t seem to have many men on the team when looking at their website. Do you think it would benefit him to submit the dance supplement? I worry with the warnings about it, but also think his talent would be a huge asset to a school like Yale if they would be interested in having more male dancers. Thanks for any advice!
Keep Yale’s guidelines in mind:
https://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary
The supplement is meant to enhance his application; it is not a recruiting video. If he gets admitted, and wants to join YaleDancers, I’m sure the group would love to have him. But the group’s need for male dancers, if any, will not be part of the admissions process.
Thanks for helping me better understand this process. I’m new on CC and wish I could have edited or deleted this post, but it seems to be too late. It’s all so confusing and my primary decision is whether or not to send in the video and finding examples of men’s submissions. It was a secondary, internal thought that he could possibly be an asset.
That part I answered, but your son needs to make the determination as to next steps: “You should consider submitting work only if your dancing is a strong and important part of your application and demonstrates a high level of ability and artistry for a high school dancer.”
I would not focus on that; he should, if he chooses to submit, make the video that showcases him, not copy someone else.
@TACAMOM - Your son seems to be a very committed and accomplished dancer, so sending the supplementary video (if he is also academically qualified), is, in my opinion, a good idea - as long as he plans on continuing to dance at Yale, and his work as a dancer is a central part of his application/essays/short answers. Many accepted students who supplemented their applications with music and dance videos do not become dance or music majors, but continue to be heavily involved in dance, theatre, music groups on an extracurricular basis. The dance opportunities at Yale, as well as the dance studios, are really special. Best of luck to your son!
@worriestoomuch - Thank you so much for your opinion, and I love and can totally relate to your user name! It’s tough on these kids who excel both academically and artistically to make a choice on which way to go with college, but hopefully they can find a good fit with schools like Yale (and many others) who have top-notch academics as well as the ability to still participate in rewarding and possibly long-term professional artistic endeavors.
Your son sounds like a very talented and accomplished dancer. If it was my son, I’d recommend submitting the supplement. It’s unique and a big part of who he is. Even if it does not help I doubt it would hurt.
My son decided to submit a music supplement and I know it helped at some schools. I don’t know if it helped for Yale but he became a very happy musician there.
Good luck!
I have a son who graduated from a performing arts high school dance program. Definitely submit the dance portfolio. My son is at Stanford. Two girls from his high school dance program are at Yale and Columbia. Good luck to your son!
Before deciding whether to submit a video, your son should explore some of the college dance videos on YouTube to view the caliber and content of what other students (mostly women) are submitting. For example, here are some samples:
I looked at each of them for a little bit, and thought only two of them actually helped themselves much with their supplements. Then I did some research.
It turned out that both of the ones that impressed me danced professionally with regional companies before college, and one has meaningful film credits.
None of the kids in those videos is attending the university for which they prepared those supplements, or any college of similar selectivity. One of the two I found most impressive – the one with film credits – is in a very competitive BFA program, and the other is at a top OOS public flagship. The others attend a good LAC, a large urban private university, and a home state public flagship. Of course, it’s possible that one or more was accepted someplace like Stanford or Princeton but wound up choosing to go elsewhere, but on the whole I think the lesson is that you have to be even better than the best of those videos to dance your way into Harvard.
Or Yale (as this was posted on a Yale thread) :-)!
@TACAMOM - As a Yale sophomore who did submit a supplemental music video (and supplemental letters), I want to reassure you that your son and his teachers will know whether he should submit a video. Once the supplementary material is submitted, however, it is not reviewed directly by admissions staff. Supplementary materials are instead reviewed by faculty members in relevant fields. In other words, this supplementary material does not create an additional work burden for the AOs, although the AOs may decide to ask arts faculty for feedback on the supplementary materials - after the admissions folks have first evaluated the students’ academic qualifications. Best of luck to your son!