Research Time!

Did you decide to go to college for a dance degree? You did!! Yay that is awesome! The next step is to do some research! Lets get started.

Like I said before when I decided I wanted to go to college for dance I received this book:

 

With this book I looked up the different schools and made sure that they offered all styles of dance. From there I went to my laptop and started to look up all of the schools and see if they meet my credentials and I also checked to see where the school is located. I ended up with four choices, Slippery Rock University, Western Michigan University, a college in South Carolina and Idaho.

 

While talking to my parents about discussing location I realized Pennsylvania and Michigan are the best choices from my home in Ohio. According to Katie Langan, chair of dance department of Marymount Manhattan College, "visit the campus, watch classes, see a performance and talk to current students" is how a dance student should "shop" for college.

 

Let's follow Ms. Langan's list and go through what to do. Like most perspective students, the first thing to do is visit the school and get the opportunity to walk around campus. But for a dancer just seeing the campus does not help because usually tour guides do not discuss the dance department thoroughly. But what I did was email the head of the department to meet with them and have the opportunity to discuss the program. When I emailed the head of Slippery Rock Dance Department, Ursula Payne, she replied back willing to meet with me but also told me to go view a performance.

 

My mom and I took a day to travel to Slippery Rock where we attended a performance, they were performing for the local school and they mentioned what each performance was about and that helped me see what SRU offered. I saw a musical theatre number, world dance style and modern/contemporary. Afterwards I met a professor of the department who took us on a little tour and walked us to Ursula's office. There I meet with Ursula to discuss the program, she then took us to see the different studios and my luck a class was in a studio. After that  I went onto the campus tour in which I ran into a dance major who recognized me from her class I watched. She talked to us and helped me get the student side of the department. I also met with the director at Western Michigan but Slippery Rock was my first choice and knew I belonged at that school.

 

Next step is to audition for the department. Keep an eye out for that post. If you have any questions about researching for the best dance program comment below and I'll help you. Remember to keep on dancing.