<p>Just wanted to post to let MT students know if you are considering UARTS as a school and are a strong dancer, you should probably reconsider. My child will be receiving a BFA in MT and had we known, going in, the lack of challenging dance available for MT students, we would have made another choice. As a freshman my child was placed in the top level offered to MT students and has had to stay there. This meant going nowhere in growth and development. Because of the strict scheduling requirements placed on MTs it is impossible to take classes in the dance department that would be challenging. In addition, most of those classes are only open to dance majors. Productions during the years all lacked quality choreography and dance opportunities for students. Last year’s production of “On Your Toes” was the only dance show in the time my child was there and it was done in collaboration with the dance department meaning the majority of dance roles were given to dance majors. I so wish someone had honestly pointed this out to us when we were considering which school to attend because it would have changed our decision and saved us a lot of tuition money.</p>
<p>Not sure when your D is graduating, but my D is a junior and was under no impression that she would get a lot of dance in her MT major. It was one of our main questions, as dance was not her strength. One of her fellow classmates transferred this year, after two years at uarts, as she had family problems, but also she wanted to focus on dance, so she is completing her MT close to home and taking more dance there. I’m sorry your D has not had a good experience at Uarts; that’s too bad.</p>
<p>Theatreteach- I’m sorry for your daughter’s experience and I thank you for sharing her story.</p>
<p>We will have to be very clear with our questions regarding dance at the prospective schools…thanks for that reminder.</p>
<p>The curriculum is listed online and it’s no secret that the amount of time devoted to dance is much less than that which is devoted to acting, musical theater repertoire and performance, and voice. Depending on the semester, MT students are required to take 3 or 4 1/2 hours of dance per week - ballet and jazz each semester and tap and partnering in addition in others. MT students can take additional dance classes and some dance classes in the school of dance are open to MT students, but usually not the advanced classes where space is reserved for dance majors. Uarts makes no bones about it. The MT major is for those who want to focus on voice and acting while getting a good foundation in dance. For those who want more focus on dance, Uarts offers a MT minor structured specifically for dance majors. The MT program trains strong actors/singers who can dance. The dance major with a MT minor is for those who want intensive advanced dance training with MT mixed in. Each prospective student needs to find a program that provides the balance and focus they desire. For many, the balance of the UArts MT program is ideal. Keep in mind that in a highly structured BFA program, the program can’t be all things to all students. There are only so many hours in a day and each program will reflect educational priorities that dictate the allocation of time.</p>
<p>By the way, in On Your Toes, the lead male and female roles were very dance intensive. The male lead was filled with a dance major who is also a strong actor and vocalist and the female co-lead was filled with a MT major who is an excellent dancer.</p>
<p>My kid takes three hours of dance per day…but she’s a more “gifted” if we want to use that word, with singing. She doesn’t walk into the room and scream dancer.* Kind of long and short in the wrong places. Cute figure but not a Rockette or ABT ballerina. But her turns and jumps are amazing. This is no easy task. I’ve been hoping that since she’s coming in with a lot of college credits out of the way, she’ll have more flexibility in her schedule to take more advanced dance classes. From this well timed posting I’ve learned not to ask “is she is allowed” but “is it going to work in the schedule?”
*Unless she’s wearing her La Ducas! Then she says she looks like a Rockette! 
Ok, where is that turkey? Happy Thanksgiving! I am very thankful for CC.</p>
<p>One of the most important things a prospective student can do is to map out the curricula at schools of interest to understand the balance and focus of the program and anticipated time allocations. It’s all available on departmental websites and will vary from school to school. Also, keep in mind that the credit hours listed for a course may be different than the actual time spent in class. At UArts, Freshman, sophomore and junior years, students have a total of 25-27 hours per week of actual class time, of which 3 - 4 1/2 per week are spent in mandated dance classes. About 6 hours per week are spent either in departmental literature based classes or liberal arts classes from outside of the department, leaving in the neighborhood of 17 hours per week spent in a mix of acting, performance, and voice related classes. If you do this kind of break down with any school’s program, you can get a pretty good handle on the program focus and balance.</p>
<p>This time allocation, of course, does not take into account the hours spent outside of class on homework, preparing work for performance based classes, mandatory crew assignments, show auditions, rehearsals and performances. Mix it all together and add in the very structured sequence of required courses which can included assigned sections determined by the school, and it can be a challenge to fit additional electives into the daily schedule. This can be a function of when the electives are offered versus the schedule of mandated classes sections as well as just having enough time in the day. Even a student who comes into a program with a lot of college credits may have scheduling dilemmas since any electives, whether they be liberal arts or performance classes, must still be fit in around the mandated schedule of classes. This is not unique to UArts though. We know students in several other BFA programs who face the same dilemmas. At UArts, my daughter has been able to fit in some dance classes from the school of dance and other elective movement classes. However, she knew going in that the primary focus of the program would be acting and the vocal performance aspects of MT.</p>
<p>One of the other things we did when my daughter was looking at schools was to seek out students and ask a ton of questions about how they spent their days, what their classes were like and the shows done by the school. Most schools have their past and current seasons posted. This gave us a further basis for my daughter to understand and evaluate the balance of the programs she was investigating. It’s important for any prospective student to engage in this type of process with each school. During the school audition season, it’s easy to get fixated on “will they accept me”. Equally important is determining whether the school matches your needs and desires.</p>
<p>Im just putting it out there for future students. We did everything stated above before making our decision and we were assured that dance was an integral part of the program, as it should be. There was a lot said in “recruiting” that did not turn out to be true in reality. I’m sure its that way at every school. You can only hope you are making the right decision at the time. My child will come out of UARTS with many skills that were not there when entering. Luckily, the strong dance foundation that existed before will still be there. It would have been nice to use it at some point during the college career.</p>
<p>Just to be clear though, dance is an integral part of the program - for the first 3 years students must take ballet and jazz each semester. Some of those semesters, tap, partnering and movement for actors are thrown in as a third class. Senior year, students must take movement electives which many use to continue with dance. So it’s there, in the curriculum every semester but what readers of this thread should understand is that the time committed to dance will be less than the time committed to straight acting, acting the song, voice and MT performance. In addition, if you are a good dancer with a lot of prior training, you will likely top out in the advanced ballet and jazz classes early on (my daughter did also but she has continued to learn and grow as a dancer). The program has acting as its foundation, with MT and acting majors taking the same core acting studio classes together the first 3 years. Where acting majors take specialty acting courses, MT majors take voice, vocal performance and MT performance including acting the song. The program could be characterized as a dual major in acting and vocal/MT performance with a minor in dance.</p>
<p>The shows that are selected for staging each semester reflect a similar balance. There are about 7 shows each semester about half straight dramas and half musicals, sometimes more dramas than musicals. Acting and MT students audition for all the shows and it is not unusual for MT students to get cast in the dramas. Over the 4 years my daughter has been at UArts, the musicals could be characterized as acting and vocal performance based shows with dance as opposed to dance based shows with vocal performance. On Your Toes was the first really dance intensive show during my daughter’s years at UArts and there, after looking at the program again, about half the dance roles went to dance majors and half to MT majors with the most intensive dance roles going to dance majors and 1 or 2 MT majors. That doesn’t mean dance does not play an important role in the musicals normally staged; many of the musicals have dance in them but it’s not normally at the level of intensiveness that you would see in a show like On Your Toes or A Chorus Line. The school recently finished a production of Nine. Lots of dance in that but still, not a show that I would characterize as a dance based show.</p>
<p>So it really boils down to what are your priorities and goals in choosing a program. As I said in an earlier post, a program can’t be all things to everyone and there are only so many hours in a day. To fit more dance in, time has to be taken from something else. UArts is an acting based MT program, not a dance-centric program. Its educational focus is to produce actors/singers who can dance not dancers who can sing. Other schools are different. Choose what meets your needs and desires.</p>
<p>I was speaking to some parents and students at the senior cabaret this weekend about dance for MT’s. One of the students and the student’s parents were telling me that the student was taking 5 dance classes though the school of dance. The student had to meet with their MT faculty advisor and with the applicable dance faculty, but the arrangements were made. Other MT students, who have also taken dance classes through the school of dance, told me that there are dance faculty members who are very open to having MT students take their classes, including advanced classes, and will make room for MT’s. So apparently, it is not as rigid or as “closed” in practice as may otherwise be suggested or believed. It just takes effort to “work it” a bit to get approval to take the classes and there are students who do that successfully. However, all of the students confirmed that within the MT program, the primary emphasis is on acting and vocal performance and that the dance component is designed to achieve a working competence for actors/singers.</p>