131 replies to this topic

[Garyecht]

I don’t pretend to have any expertise on college dance programs, but you might find this relevant to a “jumping off point for a professional career”. In a survey of 100 professional ballet dancers from 44 companies, only 8 had mention of going to college in their bios. In a similar survey of 61 professional modern dancers from 40 companies, 49 had mention of going to college in their bios. I do recall one person (I think a modern person) I surveyed having gone to the U of Cincinnati.

[calamitous]

I don't know much specific about the quality of the dance program at UC. However it is a ballet focus, with some modern as extra. I do know the facilities are good and the CCM- the entire conservatory- is well funded.

[e'smom]

My daughter has heard that CCM is located in an unsafe area of Cincinnati - can anyone that is familiar with the school comment on this?

[msd]

I attended CCM many moons ago (as a music major). As to the area...like many major universities, it is in an older part of the city, pretty "urban" in feel. The campus itself serves 30,000+ students (at the whole University, NOT the CCM program .) I lived in off-campus housing (read "cheap apartment/dive") and walked to campus. It certainly isn't the 'burbs around UC, but if one is looking for a city experience and has a little street smarts, I wouldn't discount CCM just based on the University's location. Sorry, don't know a thing about the dance department. Good luck in your searches and decisions!

[calamitous]

I can speak to safety of UC. I currently work at UC and teach classes that end at 9 pm at least one quarter of the year. I don't park in the CCM garage which is right next to my building but at a further away and cheaper garage, so I walk about 7 minutes to my parking garage daily and frequently after dark. UC is an urban univeristy, as msd says. They are currently in a huge rebuilding process that has displaced of the surrounding neighborhood and its residence (I want add my feelings on how this was done). As part of this they are adding more and higher quality on-campus housing and are working hard to improve the look, feel and safety of the campus as a whole.

If you or your child are not familiar with large cities it can feel very intimidating but with some reasonable smarts it is safe. I grew up in Madison Wi and went to the UW, which is considered a safe campus, and yet this was quiet deceptive. Many students did things there, like walking alone at 2 am, that are not safe because it feels like it is. At UC, I think people are more concious of security issues and therefore are more attentive.

As a faculty member we get sent on a list serve all reported crimes on campus and in the surrounding area and it is not an unusual amount, most are thefts or vandalism, and occasionally there is a violent theft. But my 13 year old takes classes here, walks to local shops for food and waits in the parking lot to be picked up at night.

If you have specific questions you can PM me and I may be able to help you out.

[BalletNutter]

I'll try to weigh in here. We took my dd to UC in the spring and the ballet program in the College Conservatory of Music impressed us. The department head and faculty members really made us feel welcome (including welcome signs posted on the walls for my dd!!) and they spent quite a bit of time with us one-on-one to showcase their program and provide any and all information we asked of them. They even let her take a ballet class. They were really wonderful to us.

I have to say that overall, it appears to be an excellent, competitive program with some good performing opportunities at the school and in the city of Cincinnati. However -- the location really turned us off -- but more importantly, my dd won't consider the program in spite of how much she loved it -- because of the location.

While I really appreciate and respect calamitous' post -- and I am certain she is right on -- no amount of convincing can change my dd's mind. She won't consider UC because of the surrounding neighborhood. It's unfortunate.

[calamitous]

I do understand that the UC location is not for everyone, and there is a direct link between feeling safe and being safe. I am glad to hear that balletnutter's family came and made the decision for themselves. I would never suggest someone should attend a college where they did not feel safe or comfortable with the community or culture of the place. And I know the look of a school and what is available near by are important factors in choosing a college. I just hope that each family will come and look for themselves.
And I probably am a little touchy on the safety issue, since it is frequently stated about UC. The surrounding community is not suburban or even middle class urban, but a lot of that has been bulldozed since last spring and is being rebuilt.

[les_sylphides_]

Alumni have joined:

Atlanta Ballet
Austin Ballet
Bejart Ballet(Belgium)
Cincinnati Ballet
Cleveland Ballet
Dallas Ballet
Lexington Ballet
Nashville Ballet
New York City Ballet
Ohio Ballet
Vienna Opera State Balle
Harkness Ballet Company
Joffrey
City Center Ballet

More Recently . . .

Ballet Met
Ballet Theater of Annapolis
Ballet Long Island
Ballet Omaha
Ballet Quad Cities
Channel Islands Ballet(CA)
Colorado Ballet
Dayton Ballet
Georgia Ballet
Kentucky Ballet Theater
Louisville Ballet,


Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
Joyce Trisler Dans company,
Lewitzky Dance Company
Martha Graham Dance Company
Phildanco.

[Dancer06]

Does anyone have any information on the competitiveness of the program, that is, how many students are usually accepted, and how many audition? Thanks

[les_sylphides_]

Dancer06, call the school for amount of people accepted and # of people at the audition . . as for competitivness, it is one of the better programs like with

indiana university, butler, u. of oklahoma, u. utah, suny purchase, smu--there is some variation here but they're all clearly separatedin terms of traniing/selectivity from other dance programs

and then there're programs with dance programs that don't really turn out professional dancers (for ballet)

[calamitous]

There is some information in the college's section here under the University of Cincinnati. I work at UC in education, so I hvae a little info about the university, but not too much. DD danced with Michael Tevlin and Shelly Cash up at Iterlochen last summer and really enjoyed it. I do know some dancers in their program who are from DD's performing arts school.
I can try and answer some questions if you want to PM. But I should warn you my knowledge of their dance program is very limited.

[pointebabe4ever]

I auditioned for Joffrey two years ago up at UC and very much liked the school. That summer I ended up taking classes from Michael Tevlin at Interlochen. At the end of the program he talked to me about thinking of Cincinnati as an option. Since then I have kept it as one of my many options, but my dad is very against the idea of me going to live in Cincinnati because it is in a bad part of the city.

I am still very interested in the school because this April at the regional dance festival that my studio goes to I saw Mr. Tevlin once again. He was very happy to hear that Cincinnati had stuck on my mind and said that if I did choose to go to Cincinnati that I could most likely receive a scholarship. This made me, my mom, and my teacher all very excited to hear. I plan to audition in the fall still and hopefully I will get in and get a scholarship.

[calamitous]

Hi Pointebabe4ever-
I think you know my daughter from Interlochen, (she was the intermediate AA dancer there in 2005). If you are the same person and coming to see UC and audition, PM me and maybe my DD can show you what she knows of UC. (Which isn't much since all her classes are Sat. mornings in the dance hallway.) But I know marginally more since I have worked there for 6 years.
They have finished most of the building around the CCM portion of campus and it looks much better than in past years.
If you aren't the person I am thinking of- enjoy your audition and time in Cincinnati and please do feel free to PM me if you have questions about the city.