Tag: college dance

Last Friday, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia announced it would be shutting down as of June 7. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a steep drop in enrollment left the nearly 150-year-old school in such a deep financial crisis that the accrediting agency abruptly withdrew its charter.   Many students and faculty found out through the Inquirer’s coverage, and only got […]

Finding yourself at a crossroads between academia and the arts can be challenging—especially for a 16-year-old.  In my junior year of high school, I faced the same stressors as anybody else: studying for the ACT, going on college visits, and figuring out where this next leap would land. But as a dancer, I faced many […]

You’ve done the hard part: You got into a college dance program. And that, in and of itself, is a major achievement (pun intended). But what comes next? How can you best use the summer before your freshman year to get your mind and body in the right place before you head off to school? […]

Many dancers are missing their spring breaks this year, as schools across the country have canceled their mid-semester break in attempts to prevent the spread of Covid. And while wellness days are well and good, they don’t offer the same relief as a full week off from classes. It doesn’t help that many dancers have […]

If you’re a college student, there are some guarantees. The dining hall food will be bad. Your communal shower will be gross. You will sleep through class (at least) once. And at the end of it all, you will walk across a stage and move the tassel on your hat and—finally!—graduate. But not even college […]

When veteran performers talk about the moment their careers took off, their stories usually all have three things in common: They had the right skills, knew the right people, and were in the right place. For young dancers, achieving this not-so-secret trifecta of prerequisites is daunting, to say the least. And yet AMDA College of […]

Caroline Waters didn’t get into Southern Methodist University’s acclaimed dance program after her first audition —or her second. She was accepted to the university, however, so she went ahead and enrolled, making a deal with her parents that if she didn’t earn a spot in the dance program within a year, she’d return home to […]

Dance Spirit has highlighted college dance programs committed to dismantling white supremacy. But what if you arrive at your dream dance school to find that Western dance forms are at the center of every core requirement, or that your reading list doesn’t feature a single nonwhite academic? We spoke with Alex Christmas, a doctoral student […]