Wake Forest University

[balletbooster]

One of the teachers at my daughter's residency is also on faculty at Wake Forest. My daughter was given the opportunity to fill in for an injured dancer in their upcoming Fall Dance and so she is currently in rehearsals at the university. I was not aware of this program before; but since she is on campus now regularly, I've done a little research and wanted to share that here. I'm hoping others who have direct experience might chime in with some details.

 

The school offers a minor in dance, through the Theater department. It is a non-audition minor. The minor includes equal number of courses in modern, classical ballet and jazz, as well as Dance History, Dance Performance and Dance Composition and a senior dance project. Their materials state this purpose for the program:

 

The dance minor allows students to continue their artistic development as a dancer while pursuing another area of study at Wake Forest.

 

There are two classical ballet teachers on faculty. One danced at ABT and the other at SFB. They offer courses in beginning, intermediate and advanced ballet.

 

There is a performance company that is by audition and is open to all Wake Forest students, not just those who are pursuing the Dance minor. They offer two performance opportunities each year, one in the Fall and one in the Spring, each having four performances over a 4-day period, in a lovely performing venue, the Mainstage Theater. Guest choreographers are in residency throughout the year.

 

This is an academically competitive institution, with particularly well-respected graduate programs in law and medicine. Here is an excerpt from their admissions data that indicates the school's admissions stats:

 

Enrollment (2004-2005)

Applicants for first-year admission: 6,289

Freshmen accepted/enrolled: 2,945/1,121

Undergraduate: 3,857

Graduate and professional schools: 2,297

Total enrollment: 6,451

 

SAT averages: middle 50% score between 1280 and 1400

 

Here is the link to their website: http://www.wfu.edu/theatre/dance/dance.htm

[thedriver]

balletbooster, Thanks for the info. I’m pleased to hear Wake Forest offers a minor in dance. I’m adding Wake to DD’s list of schools to visit (hopefully this spring). Are you aware of any dance minor students taking additional ballet classes at near by local studios?

[balletbooster]

I'll ask my daughter to check with other dancers she meets as a result of this performance regarding outside classes. According to the course catalogue, each dance course is 1.5 credit hours each. I'm not sure if that means just one class a week or not. However, students might be taking a modern or jazz class, in addition to a ballet class each term, so they might have more than one dance class a week.

[thedriver]

Thanks balletbooster

[charlotte1755]

Anymore comments on Wake Forest's minor in dance - anyone been through the program?

[charlotte1755]

Thought I might ask again if anyone has gone thru Wake Forest and done their dance minor and what they thought about the program - thanks

[balletbooster]

Hi Charlotte! My daughter was a guest artist with the Wake Forest Ensemble last year (see my post above). She rehearsed with them for over a month. Due to its proximity to NCSA, they share several teachers, among them Ms. Danilova and Ms. Cordell. Another teacher there, Brantley Shapiro, danced with SFB. The head of the modern dept. at NCSA also teaches modern classes at Wake Forest. The faculty is very strong.

 

My daughter's impression was that there were several very strong dancers in the program (I believe two were NCSA grads). The performance I saw was very well done. The ballet pieces were all classical. There were also pieces that were modern, jazz and one tap piece. Well done and choreographed, with some dancers who obviously had been well trained.

 

It seems to me that this is a great program for a student who wants to continue with good, solid ballet training, while pursuing another course of study. I don't think that there are daily ballet classes (3 times a week, I think), so I'm not sure that it would keep one at a highly competitive level. But, the training is first rate. The facilities are very nice and the campus is quite lovely.

[charlotte1755]

Thanks for your input!! Wake Forest is Rebecca's second choice school I believe. Will have to wait until April 1 to find out if she is in. When we toured the campus we did not get to see a dance class - I am glad to hear there is some classical ballet classes as she is not too interested in modern or jazz.

[jbw]

Wake Forest offers scholarships called "Presidential Scholarship for Distinguished Achievement" in a number of categories including dance (either ballet, jazz, or modern). The scholarship is $12,500 per year and requires involvement in dance on campus, but not necessarily a minor in dance.

 

I know two different well-trained ballet dancers who are also very good students, both of whom applied for the scholarship and recently received letters saying that they had not been selected as finalists. Both were surprised and disappointed, but still hoping to be accepted to the university. Does anybody know whether any dancers were selected as finalists for the scholarship?

[l2daisygirl]

I, personally, know of two Finalists this year.

[gogators]

I know of a ballet dancer who won this scholarship -- very well trained classical ballet dancer (attended lots of big name, 3-letter SIs as well as getting accepted to 1 or 2 very highly selective college dance programs), but this dancer was also a very strong academic student who signed on for a respectable number of APs and honors classes while attending a local competitive public H.S. full-time. (This dancer ended up turning down Wake Forest's offer and chose to go to Duke.)

[beckyb]

DD was selected as a finalist for this program this year. She was one of four ballet dancers chosen. She declined because she has accepted another offer.

 

Even if she had gotten the scholarship, the half of the tuition that is not covered is about $18,000.

[Tulle4two]

I don't know any finalists for this year but I DO know a Sophmore there who is a Presidential Scholar for dance. She was very strong academically in high school and admitted to more than a few excellent university programs... she decided to attend Wake with the Presidential Scholarship because it gave her an opportunity to continue dancing (particularly ballet) without having to major in dance.

Her mother mentioned to me that she is hosting a new finalist for a weekend visit on campus, so I'm sure some selections are being made.

[jbw]

Thanks, all. Glad to hear that there are still good scholarship opportunities at Wake Forest for dancers! We saw a dance performance earlier this year and thought it was really good -- talented dancers, and they looked like they were really having a great time.

[twiga]

Very exciting to hear about this possiblity - dd is academically very strong student and - at least right now - hopes to combine academics with keeping up with her dancing for the sheer love of it.

 

We lived in nearby Raleigh for 17 years and love the area.

 

Noted above the mention of ballet 3X per week. Anyone know if this includes pointe and/or if there is opportunity for pointework regularly?

 

Thanks for any further information or updates!