<p>We are checking out colleges with MT programs. My child's strength is her voice. Can anyone suggest any programs that have little or no dance emphasis?</p>
<p>Hi Elaine and welcome to the MT Forum! </p>
<p>A couple things about your question....</p>
<p>All MT BFA programs involve voice, acting and dance because the discipline of Musical Theater involves those three areas. But some schools have less emphasis on dance. For instance, at Ithaca, that was the case (and they even said so) but you still take some dance. I think dance is less emphasized at CMU than some other programs but again, dance is still required there. </p>
<p>Another issue here is the auditions. If your child has not taken any dance, a few schools did not include dance at the auditions and just teach you dance once you enter the program and/or have dance placement once you begin. Schools that my child auditioned for that did NOT include dance at the auditions were: Ithaca, Boston Conservatory, and NYU/Tisch (but NYU does have optional dance auditions). This does not mean these three programs do not have requirements in dance in the programs, but just not at the audition to be admitted. These may be schools to look into for your D. </p>
<p>So, in your D's case, you can think of who does not include dance in the audition but they all do in the programs themselves. But you also need to think about that part of going to a BFA program is to improve in your areas of weakness so if voice is her strength, she will continue to study voice but vastly improve in acting and dance where she presumably has less training. </p>
<p>Ideally, to be admitted to a BFA program in MT, a student can do all three: sing, dance, act. However, many programs will admit students who are strong at only two of the three as long as they see potential in the third area (ie, if dance is weak, can the student at least move or feel comfortable with her body?). </p>
<p>One suggestion, just to give her more confidence in the MT college auditions, is to take at least a ballet or jazz class this fall to get used to dance terminology and basic technique. It could help and certainly not hurt. My child observed a great variation of dance experience at the auditions...some with no background and some highly trained. Kids do get into BFA in MT programs with not much dance background but then their singing and acting must be strong. I think if one area has to be weak, it is better that it is dance than voice because voice is paramount in MT auditions. But acting is also important. </p>
<p>I hope this helps you somewhat. And I hope to see you continue to post on the CC forum. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Adding to SoozieVT's list - Elon and Webster do not require dance at the audition, and OCU has dance at audition for placement purposes only. All of them have quite a bit of dance once you are there for college.</p>
<p>I had students this year who got into BoCo and Elon and Webster and they all danced at their audition. Maybe it was just an option. I am not completely sure how that happened, because I only coached them for their monologues. But I know they DID dance at the audition.</p>
<p>I do not know what was done at Unifieds because we did not attend any but I can tell you that at the BOCO auditions AT BOCO, there is NO dance audition. It says so in all the literature plus we were there. The student has individual appointment times and when their turn comes, they do both their songs and monologues in ONE room with the faculty judges. No dance, no groupings, all individual appointment times. My D is a trained dancer and got into BOCO but no dance is involved in auditions. However, they have dance placement once you enroll and dance is big there. We observed a ballet class on a prior visit as well. I don't know where your student had his/her auditions for BOCO but perhaps it was either unifieds or some event in Texas that they recruited at and perhaps that was run differently than on campus auditions which did not include dance (check the website). My child did not audition for Elon or Webster so can't comment.</p>
<p>I'm assuming you are speaking of MT auditions. However, BOCO also has a dance BFA program and for that, you naturally must dance to get in.</p>
<p>One interesting thing is that I just went to BOCO's website and downloading audition requirements for 2006-2007 and it says to be prepared to dance at auditions and this is definitely a change from last year's instructions and audition dates in Boston. So, perhaps they just changed it. Frankly, I'm ALL FOR dance auditions and think that MT programs should include all three disciplines at auditions. I just know this one did not last year on site. Plus I know kids who got in who do not dance.</p>
<p>This just piqued my interest so I went to our folder for BOCO from last year and I read the audition requirements for musical theater and it was ONLY vocal and acting. It says that dance placement and musicianship placement are done when you matriculate in the first semester. So, it seems that there is a CHANGE in this year's audition requirements for BOCO....there seems to be dance according to their audition requirement document for 2006. I am mentioning this because in various posts I have said no dance at BOCO auditions which was DEFINITELY the case AT BOCO last year and it does not seem to be the case this year and so I hope others who are reading this and auditioning this coming year that they do NOT go by what was needed last year. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Mary Anna, it is wonderful to have you posting all this great information for us about your students! </p>
<p>We're not doing BOCO (we never looked northeast of NY, had to stop somewhere!), but for our auditions, I've made out one of those master charts that soozievt mentioned - overwhelming! Without getting it out, I'll speak from memory, and our fall auditions are more on my mind right now. Webster doesn't have auditions until Feb., so I hope I'm telling you correctly.</p>
<p>Elon has an option - either 2 songs, or 1 song and 1 dance that you choreograph and bring music for and perform. This has been discussed on the Elon thread.</p>
<p>Webster - I believe there is no dance, but during monologue, discussion, interview time, you may be asked to show dance steps if you know how to dance. I know that Sue (5 pants) has previously shared this info. on the forum.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City University has dance as a part of the audition, but it is for placement only. </p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>Just curious - do you think that's really true of OCU? I only ask because Point Park says the same thing, but experience has shown me that strong dancers DO have an advantage in being admitted and receiving scholarship there...</p>
<p>Thanks - again, I'm just asking, because I don't know much about OCU specifically (mostly what I read here).</p>
<p>ElaineK,</p>
<p>I agree with Soozie...a dance class, even in the 11th hour would be most beneficial. Dance is not only an important part of Musicals in general for performance, but as an actor dance helps one to move smoothly on stage in the blocking of a script.</p>
<p>One of my Ss is playing Eugene in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" this summer and I am 100% certain that his dance training has helped him to move so swiftly on stage. If you are familiar with the play you know that Eugene is a major energy force in the show.</p>
<p>Webster does not require a dance audition as mentioned previously. That doesn't mean it isn't an important facet of the program. When my Ss first visited campus and had and interview with the MT director Byron Grant he asked them to do a soft shoe on his carpeted office floor, after they told him they had had several years of tap dance. Of course, as any of our children on MT CC would do, they were happy to oblige. Byron did suggest to them that they take some ballet and learn the vocabulary as well as possible. Ss seized the advice and immediatley signed up for ballet lessons when they arrived home. It was important to them to not only stretch their skills but to also show the school how seriously they wanted to go there.</p>
<p>In MHO, it is important not to shy away from your least developed attributes. Tackle those things that you know tend to be weak....personally speaking, I would encourage my S or D to take some lessons now, in order to get at least some basic dance steps down and show that she/he is indeed serious about being an MT performer.</p>
<p>Just my humble opinion!! :)</p>
<p>Have a good one and break a leg!!</p>
<p>SUE aka 5pants</p>
<p>I don't know about next year, but last year at unifieds BoCo did not have dance as part of their audition. They have dance placement at orientation during the first week. With that being said, my D has a friend who is also going to Boco with her who is quite nervous as she has no dance training.</p>
<p>Okay, at the risk of you all thinking I'm a total idiot, who is BoCo? Is that Boston Conservatory? Also, When you audition at these Unifieds, how do you know which colleges will be represented there? Does anyone know if there are any vocal performance majors at any colleges that are not strictly classically oriented? Gosh, I sure asked a lot of questions!</p>
<p>Elaine,
When you apply to a school and subsequent to that, make your audition appointment, the school will know if they are offering auditions during the UNIFIEDS dates in the respective cities. </p>
<p>The official UNIFIED participating schools list can be found on the Otterbein website (mentioned on another thread). </p>
<p>Many schools "piggy back" on the UNIFIEDS by conduting auditions in the same cities on the same dates. Comprente? </p>
<p>More specific info about the audition will have to be obtained from the school itself.</p>
<p>I love reading all these posts about the different audition experiences. It proves one thing I always tell my students:
BE PREPARED BUT BE FLEXABLE.
The audition process is an inexact and subjective one. No two people's audition will be the same experience. And we need to embrace that. We are artists, not numbers!!!</p>
<p>Sometimes the audition panel needs to see something else from you in order to better assist them in evaluating your audition. This may be something they didn't feel the need to see of other actors. It happens more often than you might imagine. It could be a dance combination, an improv, an adjustment, a third, forth or even 5th monologue! (that actually happened at my student's Julliard call-back) YIKES, it's a good thing he was well prepared.</p>
<p>Just remember to have fun and BE PREPARED BUT BE FLEXABLE</p>
<p>Elaine,</p>
<p>Oh please don't ever feel like an idiot here. There is no question too big or too small that hasn't already been asked or will be asked in the future. Those of us who seem "in the know" asked a lot of questions of those who came before us. We hang around to help others because we've been helped so much. So, no more idiot talk, okay?</p>
<p>Yes, BOCO is Boston Conservatory, CMU is Carnegie Mellon University, CCM is Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, FSU is Florida State University, NYU is New York University (either Tisch or Steinhardt), NCSA is North Carolina School of the Arts, OCU is Oklahoma City University, PSU is Penn State University,and UM most often refers to the University of Michigan but could also be the University of Miami so Michican is also often referred to as UMich. I'm sure others may think of abbreviations I've left out. And I hope you all notice that I listed them in alphbetical order so no one can accuse me of making value judgements ;) teehee. Oh yes - "initialed" summer programs include BTP for the Broadway Theater Project, NHSI is the program run at Northwestern, also called the "Cherubs" program (sorry I don't know what the initials stand for!) and SDM is Stage Door Manor.</p>
<p>Check the Unified threads here for which colleges participate but better yet, verify the dates with the schools that you are interested in. While a few allow walk-ins, most will require that you make appointments to be seen directly with them.</p>
<p>Sorry, other than the oft-mentioned program at Berklee School of Music in Boston, which offers training in more pop/jazz vocal performance, most VP programs I am aware of lean much more towards Classical VP. Check out Steinhardt for an MT program that offers a BM (Bachelor of Music) as opposed to a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and is much more focused on voice than on either acting or dance.</p>
<p>Does your D just not want to dance at all? at auditions or at school?</p>
<p>Anyway, glad to have you join us and I hope this helps</p>
<p>Maybe on Shauna's website there could be a document consisting of all the MT board archives in order. Then people could sit down and read them from the beginning. I'm only half kidding! Not so much that it would lighten the load for those who have been here a long time, but there is a wealth of info in there for almost every school (and audition) mentioned here! I still refer to the old board sometimes if I need to look something up.</p>
<p>I want to echo what Theatermom wrote. NO questions are dumb ones here. Most of us are parents who are not in this field but learned along the way as our kids went through the process. One group of parents helped the next crop and so on. Theatermom's daughter went through this and she so thoughtfully stayed on this forum and helped folks like me the next year and now my D just went through it and I would like to pay it back by helping the next group. </p>
<p>ChrisM, while that is a good idea that you mentioned with regard to the FAQ part of this site, another thing a person can do is do a search on any of the topics and lots will come up. </p>
<p>I can't quite tell what your D wants, Elaine, but as mentioned all MT programs have dance as a component of the training, though some it is a lesser emphasis. Not all have it as part of the audition. But as I said earlier, part of the BFA program is to enhance a student's weaker areas and not just work on their strong ones (though of course improve those too). But does your D want musical theater or voice? Might she look into BM degrees in vocal performance (though they are classically based)? The suggestion to look into NYU's Steinhardt is also a good one. </p>
<p>Mary Anna, I wholeheartedly agree with your advice to be prepared for various possibilities at auditions and to have with you additional songs or monologues because you never know. One example that happened to my D was at CMU (I'll just mention the acting example) is that she was asked to do FOUR monologues. When she told me afterward, I was relieved she even knew four. She only knew four because she had her two contrasting ones and one classical one and one post war one (the sum total of what was needed for all 8 of her schools) and she had JUST learned the post war one right before the CMU audition because she needed it for BOCO a week later and that was the only school with that requirement and so she prepared another monologue. But CMU kept going beyond the two she auditioned with and so it is good to know more (this happens with singing too). </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>I love that story! I am smiling big time.
They may have been just as impressed that she knew 4 monologues as they were at her performance.
Mom, you got a good girl!!!!</p>
<p>D had same experience with singing during her MT audition at Otterbein. She was glad she had several different pieces of music besides her audition songs in her binder. In retrospect she said she wished she had had even MORE than she had...because they went through every bit she had on hand. She certainly had many more songs in her repertoire, but didn't have all the music in her binder. So, from her experience, another 3-6 additional songs (besides your audition songs) in your binder is none too many!</p>
<p>Mary Anna, um, I do not infer that they were impressed that she knew four monologues but I'll tell ya that audition day was a bit of an experience. My D did love it and she at least can't say they did not really get to see me do much. </p>
<p>Some here might recall my asking about CMU auditions and how long they took because we were making flight arrangements home and there are not that many planes (actually it takes two planes) or options to get back to VT and so I made one at whatever time others felt it would be ok but before doing so, I called CMU to ask how long it would go and if making a plane at that time was feasible. They told me not to worry that when we got to the audition, let the people running it know that my D had a plane and to fit her in accordingly. So, I took their advice. When she signed in, there was a panel of students in charge and we mentioned exactly what CMU's office told us to say. They said, no problem, we'll put her in one of the earlier groups (this was an afternoon audition). So, first there was the info. talk by the dept. head and then they took a group in for dance and my D was in that first group. So far, so good. Then she came back to the waiting room and all afternoon, they called kids for their acting and singing auditions in little sets of students. Many sets had gone and it was late in the afternoon and my D still had not gone and I started to wonder if we would ever make it out to the airport in time. I like to take a back seat at auditions because it is about the kids. Many had already left and were done for the day and we were still waiting and when it was really as late as I could imagine we could maybe still make the plane, I asked if they remembered that she was supposed to go in an early group because of the flight and the student panel seemed as if they had never heard this before and forgot (though they OK'd it when we had arrived). So, finally she got called. She did not come back and a lot of time went by and I realized we were not gonna make that plane and I started to ask the students at the desk if they could look on their laptop for the information for this airline cause I had to make some calls about missing the plane. The student felt badly and offered to check to see how much longer my kid might be or what point she was at in the audition and I STRONGLY discouraged the student to do that because we had come all this way and spent all this money, I was not about to say "rush it, we need to go"! LOL or change what was happening and so I asked him to not saying anything but if he wanted to look and check, all right. My daughter tells me that the student came into her audition and told the auditors that this girl was gonna miss a plane and needs to hurry (yikes, just what I asked NOT to do!) and they asked my daughter if she really needed to go and she said NO! :D Unfortunately a mistake was made to have her be one of the last people to go instead of the first but now that she had her turn, no way were we gonna cut it short. It turned out that she did her two monologues for the dept. head who then asked her to do two more. She also asked her to sing her songs a capella as she wanted to hear them (she was just judging monologues). Then she had to go see another faculty member and do the FOUR monologues all over again for him. Then she did the singing audition for a different person. That person wanted another faculty person to hear her so she had to do the songs over for him. When she went into that room, the pianist was a boy who goes to UM's program who my D had met on an overnight there and that was very weird and they recognized each other. Then they wanted to hear her sing something higher (more sopranoish.....she is not a soprano, more like a mezzo though has a wide range) and none of her music with her went much higher so they just asked her to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow (by chance she had played Dorothy less than a year beforehand, lol) and she had to keep singing it over and over again in higher and higher keys. I guess all this took a while. When she got out of there, I made a run for the airport anyway. We got to the gate as the last person was boarding the plane and they would not let us on because they over booked the flight! So, we actually got there on time (in the nick of it) but our seats had been given away! Eventually we got booked on a plane for the next day and vouchers for hotel and food, plus free tickets to use on another date. So, we went to a hotel and my D got to watch the Grammy's (or something like that) that she thought she had to miss that night and the next day involved bad weather with our connections but we eventually made it home. The thing is, with all that money and time, I hear they took 3 girls for MT and while it was a great experience and my D loved the school, I almost wonder if it was crazy to do all that, but she did get waitlisted for the BFA in Acting (you are considered for both MT and Acting there) and I think the chances to get in there are some of the slimmest of all and ya gotta wonder if it is worth it for the money but I think the audition experience itself was quite worthwhile. I think you learn a lot when you audition that helps you become a better auditioner. It certainly seemed like a great program and she has a friend in it who was a freshman last year and loves it. But the whole day was quite the experience beyond what I wrote about the monologues! </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>CoachC - I believe that OCU's information that the dance at the audition is for placement only is valid and should be trusted. Their MT is under the School of Music, and my perception is that the singing and acting are more important for being admitted into MT. I hope that ocuMTinfo might read this and confirm! Separately they have the incredible dance school with 8 or 10 levels of dance in each type of dance. The MT students are leveled and able to take dance in the appropriate level. I do not believe that being a beginner level would be held against a person if he / she can sing. Once in the program, a student would be well trained in all areas. This is only my perception!</p>
<p>My son is currently at the OCU summer program, which I believes mirrors, to a great extent, the college program, and I am really impressed that they offer training in all areas for the MT kids. The summer kids were leveled in dance (2 different levels), and they are dancing for an hour of class daily plus dancing in their Footloose production.</p>
<p>Susan,
Don't get the wrong impression. I didn't think that you inferred you thought they were impressed. I just think they probably WERE! Good for her to be so well prepared. So many aren't.
I love the details about the CMU audition for your daughter. </p>
<p>I had my first student ever get in this year. A young man, and we all know the built it advantage with boys. Anyway, his experience was very different. I think they made their mind up quickly as he did only the minimum audition requirement and got it with a FULL RIDE for 4 years. That's about $178,000! Amazing.
I am so proud of him.
He was accepted at SMU (acting only ) and accepted in MT at BoCo, OCU and waitlisted at CAP 21.</p>