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 […]
The college application process can be, well—let’s be honest here—downright maddening (#IYKYK). But for dancers, there’s an added layer of stress: College dance applicants not only have to get into a school academically, they must also be accepted into its dance program. There’s twice as much to prepare for and, on top of that, 2020 […]
In the face of today’s racial crisis, many Americans are now reckoning with their own complicity in the oppression of marginalized groups, and asking, “What can I do?” For college dance programs, which help mold the minds of the next generation of dance artists, this is an especially important question. For decades, most departments have […]
Dining hall cheese burgers, dorm room snacking, and late-night pizza: Finding food that’s good for you can be even harder than finding your classes on the first day of freshman year. And for college dancers, the importance of nutrition is even greater. Food is our fuel for dancing, and we need lots of it. To […]