Articles: Columbia Ballet Collaborative

[Guest pink tights]

Thought this might be of interest:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/arts/dan...1&ref=dance

[Victoria Leigh]

Thank you, pink tights! That is very interesting as well as impressive. Watch the video, everyone. It's good.

[Treefrog]

Thanks for posting this. I saw the article in the print edition yesterday, and was very impressed at the whole concept. It's such a terrific model in many ways: how to keep dancing, how to create a new endeavor, how to develop a new framework when the old one doesn't work for you.

[Reebs511]

Agreed! I was really impressed by the determination and drive of these dancers. But, I shouldn't be, right? Don't most of us have this drive? I'd love to see them perform!

[ChasseChaine]

I thought it was impressive that they all went to college at the age of 25 or 27, when they would be nearly 10 years older than most undergrads.

[dancemaven]

That is not unusual for the student body of Columbia University.

[Renata]

I do not believe that the average undergraduate at Columbia College is much older than at other colleges. However, most of the dancers are students at the Columbia School of General Studies. While they may share classes with Columbia College and Barnard College, General Studies looks for older students and has different entry requirements than Columbia College. To quote the web-page, General Studies was "created specifically for returning and nontraditional students." Thus, the student's age will be older and this year's entering class had students ranging in age from 19 to 57 years old.

[dancemaven]

I was thinking of the General Studies students, Renata, but didn't get it said right. A friend of ours was just home from Columbia and talked about how much she enjoyed having classes with the GS (i.e., older) students.

[Renata]

Dancemaven: Thank you for clarifying your point. It sounded as if you were saying that all of Columbia College had these older students. General Studies is, in fact, only a small part of the university with a class of roughly 300 students, while Columbia College has roughly 1000 in a class. But, as your friend noted, even a few older students can change the feeling of a course.

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[gogators]

They also have a Facebook group:

 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5100800255

 

Dd just sent in her app to Barnard and is hoping to be among the lucky few who get accepted (tho' it is very competitive, like many schools out there this year). I've been told that Barnard's dance dept is popular among Barnard and Columbia students with some nice performance opportunities, Columbia ballet collaborative among them.