<p>oh yeah…I DO remember that scene.</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve seen several different productions of WSS and that is how it has been portrayed in every one.</p>
<p>Letsing- not sure who your D’s friend is but my daughter is a dancer at the school and spent last summer at Ailey with Jasmine and is waiting to hear what they are doing about next year. As for scripted, I am not sure how people are really defining it. The kids “drama” and relationships are real, the problem is they are not filmed in the correct time reference or frames. So the producers knew Jasmine and Tyler would be a couple for the show, because they started filming the year before when Tyler was a new at the school BUT they had been dating prior to that. So most of the kid stuff in terms of relationships and conversations is real, but may have been filmed 2 months after it happened. So i is hard to know if it is scripted.</p>
<p>All the competition stuff is done for the benefit of the show, but also paid for by the show. Almost none of the actual school performances were filmed because it meant getting rights to things. They filmed a bunch of the school’s musical Cats, but then whomever owns it would not allow them to show anything that could be identified as from the show.</p>
<p>D has met with the producers about being a primary character for next year, but wants to know what “story line” they intend before she agrees.</p>
<p>keepingcalm, some of it had to be “scripted” in the sense of the filmmakers knowing when something was going to happen or encouraging it to happen, as some of the scenes (like when, in one episode, Mia is playing guitar in a music room and Tyler “just happens” to wander in to have a talk with her about his troubles with Jasmine) seemed very set up. </p>
<p>Keepingcalm, is the training at SCPA mainly ballet-based? I asked because they seemed not to show Jasmine doing much ballet training at all. </p>
<p>Is Jasmine at the Ailey School now? The series ended without the audience knowing if she would pursue Ailey against her parents’ wishes, or go to SMU, on what I assume was a dance scholarship.</p>
<p>Please no I am not trying to defend the show as it was hard to watch much of the time.
NMR- the dance program is almost exclusively (3-4 hours) modern class once a week for 90 minutes. They almost never showed a real dance classes at school. The school does not offer hiphop although I believe they are going to have a contemporary dance class for non-majors.
Jasmine is at Ailey’s summer intensive on a full scholarship, same as she was last year. She did get into Ailey but was not accepted into Fordham academically. She is going to SMU for college next year, or at least was when she left for the summer program.</p>
<p>Thanks, keepingcalm! Knowing that the training is mostly modern makes sense in light of what we were shown in the series. I was assuming (never a good idea!) that the dance training offered at SCPA would be akin to what is offered at the public creative and performing arts school that my older D (a musical theater actor now at TSOA) attended for acting and my younger D (a dancer) will attend for dance next fall, which is heavily ballet. Is Mia graduating? If so, is she going on to pursue at BM somewhere?</p>
<p>I believe SCPA would like to believe they are like NCSA ballet program, but not residential. Of course they are not, but they do put out a regaular share of kids how go on to companies or at least second companies.
My D did not know Mia well or really at all. She transfered into the school a couple of years ago and long after mine had left the vocal program. But according to my D she barely managed to graduate and was not intending to go on to college. That being said, I am not sure my D has said more than 10 words to Mia ever so pretty sure it is all hearsay.</p>
<p>keepingcalm, would you say that Jasmine really was “the star” of SCPSA’s dance program?</p>
<p>The star is a hard question. She was the best dancer in her senior class, but two kids - one boy and one girl - left at the end of junior year to “finish” at larger pre-pro schools. One to San Fran on a full scholarship and I don’t remember where the other went. The year before Jasmine’s hard very strong dancers in it, 2 of whom went to companies after graduation, several went to college in dance (and one is jazz vocals?). So in comparison to the class above she wasn’t the strongest dancer. My D’s class coming up to seniors is in general weak as none of them would be close to company ready at the end of senior year. So in the context of who else is at the school, yes she is the best dancer but certainly not the best dancer the school has produced.</p>
<p>keepingcalm, thanks for all this background info! It’s simply nosiness on my part, as (as the parent of two kids who attended/will attend an arts high school like SCPA) I was interested in the series!</p>
<p>If your D ends up featured, let us know so I can follow the storyline next year. If they do feature your D, I hope they end up showing more of the dance training! Of course, I am probably in the minority, as most of the series’ regular viewers probably care more about the relationship angle than they do the training angle. </p>
<p>One of these days, I may PM you. It would be interesting to compare notes on the dance program at SCPA and the program my younger D will enter in the fall for ballet.</p>