Hi! I’ve been scouring this forum forEVER so i decided to ask a question of my own and see if you all had any suggestions.
I’m a petite brunette ingenue soprano with some belt. I’ve been taking classical voice in choral and private settings for 8 years (I’m 16) and have been getting nothing but leads in both high school and community theatre since i was around 10. I was originally going for vocal performance but realized that i would be absolutely miserable and i NEED to do musical theatre in college. I have a 4.0 GPA, am an honors student, have a lot of experience doing roles and such but am primarily a legit singer/ actress with little dance training (danced from K-8th grade, stopped once entering HS).
Two questions:
How much emphasis is placed on dance calls? Is it possible to get into schools like NYU, CMU, and UMich without much dance training?
Also, are there any specific ways I can get dance training in the NYC area? Are private lessons best? Group settings? What style? Are any specific summer programs good to get me really trained?
Thank you SO SO MUCH!
As far and dance in NYC ~ Broadway Dance and Steps on Broadway have leveled drop-in classes. You can buy a 10-class card at a discount.
Agree with above. If you are a strong singer/actor, you may not have to be a strong dancer. It sometimes depends on the cast-able type they see for you. But, the better dancer you are, the more competitive you will be and more versatile.
Even with dance training, it’s still very difficult to get into those popular schools.
CMU doesn’t have a dance call at their audition, so no worries there! I don’t know about the others.
NYU levels dance for incoming freshman - some people are admitted to MT on acting and singing alone for sure, no worries there. I think Michigan is the only one in that small list that would screen for dancing. But make sure to open your mind to many programs - there are many more MT schools than Michigan, CMU and NYU - in fact, those three programs are totally different! Start working on your dance but more importantly, start thinking about what kind of schools you want to apply to and how you would afford each - it’s really important to not just apply scattershot but know that each school is a good fit for you and a match in terms of location and finances.
As others have said and I’m sure you have seen on this forum - getting into schools such as CMU and UMich is extremely difficult. Not to burst your bubble (it’s great to have Dream schools!) but the odds not in anyone’s favor. There are so many great schools that either don’t hold dance calls or don’t weigh them heavily. Molloy College, Ithaca, Ohio Northern, LIU Post and University of the Arts are all schools without mandatory dance calls. Roosevelt MT voice concentration has a dance call that is geared toward movers. If singing is your strength (it sounds like it is) you might want to consider NYU Steinhardt, Oklahoma City or Manhattan school of Music. Any program that is a bachelors of music will weigh voice pretty heavily.
As someone who also danced from elementary through middle school and stepped back in high school, I am sure you are a better dancer than you think you are. I thought I was terrible because I hadn’t danced in three years, but it’s sort of like ridin a bike in that way. If you can get yourself to a drop in class every week or so I’m sure it will start to come back.