Point Park

[chicaballet]

DD took the downtown bus to Aspinwall (right by Waterworks) all summer for the Point Park SI. It's a short, safe ride and takes you right to the cinemas and shopping. Also, the Strip district is on the same route and your DD will find some of the best espresso/italian markets in the city. Finally, Shady Side is great place for shopping/dining/etc. And finally, finally, DD found exploring the Pitt campus (Cathedral of Learning, etc.) alot of fun and the Carnegie Library is a terrific resource. Happy exploring.

[msd]

Any recommendations for affordable hotels for upcoming audition? We've stayed at the Hampton Inn in Oakland before when dropping dd off for PBT's summer program, and also at the Quality Inn University Center when we picked her up. Both were fine...but prices in Pittsburgh seem to have jumped in the past few years! We will have a car, so don't necessarily need to stay right near Point Park...but convenience is nice, too. Ideas?

[Balletbuddy]

msd; I really like the Hampton Inn in Oakland. We stay there whenever we are at Point Park to visit DD. I know you said you have stayed there before. They have redone many of the rooms and they are usually very clean. I use our AAA membership to get a pretty good discount. You can also join the Hampton Inn "club". We have not done that but this offers additional discounts. If you say you are visiting Point Park, there is usually a discount as well. I have gotten rates there anywhere from $89 - $129 per night, depending on the day and discounts they will take.

[tutu2you]

Here's a link to their "preferred hotel." Most of the universities have a list of hotels that will give you a discount if you say you are visiting the University. Here's the Point Park link. Point Park Hotels

[calamitous]

Not sure what time you have to be there or what day of the week. DD's boyfriend has stayed south of the city, between is it Washington and Pitt, since you are driving up that way. The rooms were closer to 89 out of the city, but driving in on a weekday was very slow. DO make sure you ask for the PPU discount because when we went for orientation we missed the deadline for the "special price" but with the PPU discount ended up paying less. Go figure.

[dancer027]

Daughter recieved her letter today!!! Accepted as ballet major with talent award from Oct 2 audition. Jumping up and down, first letter, nice to know we are going to college!!

Edited October 25, 2010 by dancer027

[calamitous]

Yeah!! dancer027,

my DD is at PPU as a modern major and is soooo happy there. ANd she loves her ballet classes/class. She was moved up about 3 weeks into the semester but loved the first class and now loves the second. She is enjoying her academic classes and is finding the honors program challenging but enjoyable.

Congratulations and if you want any parenthand information, please feel free to PM,

[Arizona Native]

Congratulations, dancer027 ! Could you share something of your daughter's dance background/experience -- to help those of us who may be interested in this program for our children get an idea?

[learningdance]

Yeah!! dancer027,

my DD is at PPU as a modern major and is soooo happy there. ANd she loves her ballet classes/class. She was moved up about 3 weeks into the semester but loved the first class and now loves the second. She is enjoying her academic classes and is finding the honors program challenging but enjoyable.

Congratulations and if you want any parenthand information, please feel free to PM,

 

I have a very young dd but I noticed you said that your dancer was a modern major. . .I thought they had a contemporary program. . . Is modern and contemporary one in the same?

[Georgia]

calamitous, I read on their website that they have 1,000 students audition? That's a lot. So is it better to audition early? My daughter's dance teacher is telling her to wait until the later dates but I wonder about that. Contrats dancer027, that's great news!

[Balletbuddy]

Congrats dancer027! I can't say enough about this school. Our DD loves it. Also, congrats on her talent award! You should be very proud.

[calamitous]

Trying to cover to couple of questions. -

DD is a modern major. I am pretty sire they describe their dance tracks as ballet, modern, and jazz, so I am not sure where contemporary would fit. I will say that DD struggled initially in the jazz and modern classes because she felt the jazz classes were more like the modern she was used to, and the modern was very Graham based, which she was not used to. So she had some struggles in her own dance categories and comfort zones.

 

As for number of auditioners, I think when we did this last year they said then numbers were about 800 for all the dance programs. Si it is sort of close to the 1000 number and maybe more auditioned this past year. DD's modern class of freshman is 8, so it is not a big group- but she loves them. From what she has said (and I will say she is NOT interested in quantifying her experiences) jazz has lots of auditioners, then ballet and then modern as a distant third. But I do think tey require a level of proficiency in all thee areas before they admit.

 

As for when to audition - DD did auditioned the last weekend in Jan and was admitted with a merit scholarship and talent apprenticeship. At her audition there were A LOT of people, probably 80 plus. I honestly don't know if it matters when kids audition.

 

I will say that my husband talked quite a bit to the finicial aid folks at PPU about what was offered, and if needed I think DD could have received more,

[DivaB]

Hi! My DS auditioned last weekend (Nov 13th) and there were about 60 kids. 5 boys, which they said was a very good day. They said they usually see 2 or 3 per audition. Not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that there were more. He had been academically accepted last month, so they said we should know if he is artistically accepted within 2 weeks. He attended their SI this past summer and just knew it was where he wanted to be. I was told that out of the previous audition, they only offered 7 spots. Not great odds. Fingers crossed!

[calamitous]

DivaB - did you and DS stay for the performance? DD was running lights for the show, which she had a good time with- particularly as the tap piece has 62 light cues in the 1- minutes piece. Since I know little to nothing about tech, I had to ask if this meant anything. Apparently is does. H and I enjoyed the performance and it was nice to see some of what DD talks about in action.

[DivaB]

DivaB - did you and DS stay for the performance? DD was running lights for the show, which she had a good time with- particularly as the tap piece has 62 light cues in the 1- minutes piece. Since I know little to nothing about tech, I had to ask if this meant anything. Apparently is does. H and I enjoyed the performance and it was nice to see some of what DD talks about in action.

 

 

We did not, unfortunately. Had to fly out right after the audition, as he had a full Sunday of Nutcracker Cavalier rehearsals. 62 cues?? My goodness that's a lot. Glad you got to see it!