Classical/Modern

[LabGranny]

DD is a junior in high school and is looking into colleges. Her experience is in classical ballet with some contemporary. Her hopes are to dance professionally. I am finding that the focus of the colleges are different. With her limited experience with contemporary, she is unsure whether she would rather dance with a company that is more classical or whether she wants to find a contemporary company. What are some colleges that truly focus on both equally? We appreciate any input.

[lovemydancers]

UNCSA

[LabGranny]

Also, is it super important that a school have a lot of contemporary or modern? Is a school that is strong in classical enough if she decides to move on to a modern or contemporary company?

[dancincorgi]

SUNY Purchase seems to us to have a great program in both Modern and Classical-- strong basis in classical ballet

[calamitous]

I was a little confused by your question, in trying to figure out exactly what you meant by contemporary. Are you thinking specifically contemporary ballet - or contemporary as somewhere between jazz and modern?

[LabGranny]

I'm sorry. I meant contemporary ballet.

[ConstanzaElisabeth]

I know several dancers from Point Park that are dancing with contemporary companies, they seem to get a good range of opportunities there.

[calamitous]

I don't know much about different places, but I know CCM does a range of ballet rep from classical to contemporary. They also have to take midern. My DD is at PPU in modern, but all dancers have to take modern, jazz and ballet. For my DD she has found the lines between the modern and jazz a little blurry, although that may just be based on her experience and knowledge bas and not so much a reflection on the program.

[tutu2you]

If you check out the individual college threads on the "Colleges with Ballet Programs" under the "Higher Education" Forum, you will find information on a great variety of colleges and their particular programs and the type of dance they emphasize. When we were going through this process, I read almost all of them, and found the information highly useful. Just takes a long time of late night reading! Good luck.

[Robin G]

DD is a junior in high school and is looking into colleges. Her experience is in classical ballet with some contemporary. Her hopes are to dance professionally. I am finding that the focus of the colleges are different. With her limited experience with contemporary, she is unsure whether she would rather dance with a company that is more classical or whether she wants to find a contemporary company. What are some colleges that truly focus on both equally? We appreciate any input.

 

 

LabGranny, It's best to find a school with a strong ballet program and faculty-because colleges always have plenty of modern. Modern Companies often come to the dance programs and set their works on students, it's the ballet training that's the basis for the rest.

[Garyecht]

Just some facts related to dance in higher education.

 

1. The vast majority of professional ballet dancers do not go to college before becoming employed.

2. The vast majority of professional modern dancers do go to college before becoming employed.

3. The majority of those professional modern dancers who do go to college do not major in dance.

4. The vast majority of college students who are interested in dance (whether a major or not) never have professional careers as dancers.

5. The majority of college students change their majors at some time in their undergraduate years.

6. Unless one majors in engineering, nursing, or accounting, what one majors in does not lead directly to a job in the area of the major.

 

Looking at the bios of professional dancers is really good. A parent can learn a lot just by doing that.

 

How one interprets all of this is open. One can ignore everything. There are always exceptions to any statement one can make. But the odds hold over all people.

[tutu2you]

I was wondering, are these facts, or just your opinions? Could you point me in the right direction to find the empirical information behind your listing of facts? Thanks so much. If you are a dedicated student, I'm not sure that the odds matter. It is based more on the effort and time you are willing to put into your chosen career. That is true in any career.

 

I believe there are many areas of study where your degree can lead to a career in your chosen field - medicine, law, most business degrees, interior design, education, organic chemistry, sociology, veterinarian school, nature management and many, many more. At least this has been my experience and that of my friends. I am not as pessimistic about the use of a college degree. I do think that many people change their job path at some point during their career, and that is the same option available to dancers.

 

By attending college, dancers have already learned to study, expand their boundaries, realize the interrelationships between all aspects of academic studies, and expose themselves to possible areas of future study. Luckily, I see more dancers going to college before settling in to a company or some other artistic avenue of work. They are setting themselves up for whatever they might want to achieve in the future.

[Garyecht]

I think they are facts. What I said about the dance world comes from a survey I did several years ago. I described the results in a post on BT. That survey came from reading bios from a random sample (a true random sample) of professional dancers from American companies. Number 4 comes from comparing the number of dance majors with the number of openings in professional companies. Number 5 comes from what I’ve read (can’t remember the source, but most likely the Chronicle of Higher Education). Number 5 is just my own observation and experience.

 

As I said, these “facts” are not hard and fast rules for individuals, but they do indicate trends for people overall.

 

I would encourage parents having offspring with professional dance aspirations to read the bios of professional dancers as well as the biographies of famous dancers. That alone will give you a good picture of the dance world. Also visit schools and speak with faculty about their programs. Of course there are no bios for the many who aspire to a professional life but don’t wind up with one.

 

Though what I listed as 1-4 suggest something of a negative picture, I think 5 and 6 are the opposite, quite frankly. In my way of thinking college is about education, and by that I don’t mean ONLY taking classes. It’s about growing up, expanding your mind, learning how to learn, finding what you really are and things like that. A 22-23 year old graduate isn’t like an 18 year old freshman. That’s really good. And since only a few majors lead directly to jobs (point 5), it really doesn’t matter much what one majors in from a jobs point of view. Best in my opinion to go with whatever stimulates the mind of the student and not feel bad about whatever it is.

[sparky]

I hope this is the right place to post this---if not please feel free to move it. My question is, who are the companies (if any) that do mainly contemporary ballet? It seems a lot of the big name companies are starting to put that into the mix along with their classical rep, but what if a dancer is not super strong in classical lines but still loves ballet and pointe so doesnt really want do pursue a modern company? Also it seems many of the modern companies do not do any pointe or very little. Any suggestions?

[Georgia]

Gary, I think your information is outdated. I agree that a dancer can't major at any college that happens to offer a BFA and expect to dance, but the top programs certainly do turn out dancers. Alvin Ailey takes quite a few of their dancers from the Fordham BFA program. University of Arizona, Pointe Park, Univ of Arts, and many others turn out working dancers. You might not have counted commercial dancers, dancers on cruise ships, etc, but there are some very happy dancers doing all kinds of work. There are also many dancers who begin a college program and leave early to dance.

 

I do agree with my daughter's teacher who told her to either go to a top program or don't bother.