Comments on: College versus Conservatory: A Dancer’s Dilemma

By: power.passion.purpose

power.passion.purpose — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 02:19:08 +0000

I also agree that an education is very important for dancers to fall back on, especially if they get the opportunity to attend a conservatory or liberal arts school.

I came from a performing arts high school in Houston, Texas where I got most of my training and where it was expected that we would go on to dance in college. I couldn’t be more pleased with my decision to continue my education. Not only do I get to dance everyday and grow in my craft, as well as learn about other fields of study in the liberal arts, the networking that goes on in a college setting is immense and has booked me several gigs in the field.

Thank you for bringing this up, I think it is a very important topic that isn’t discussed as much as it should be to help growing dancers make these tough decisions!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:15:17 +0000

I LOVE KATIE!!! :-D

OK, that probably not the most eloquent reply… I don’t know, clearly I love Barnard and I think I made the right decision in going there, but I can’t help but wonder how different my life would have been had I gotten the BFA/Conservatory degree instead…

By: tonya

tonya — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:47:37 +0000

Thanks so much for taking on the task of writing about this, Evan. This is a great post — very informative and covering many angles — and I’m sure it will help many people trying to decide.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:21:14 +0000

Interesting post, Evan.

I’m of the camp that education is extremely important – but I personally think a degree in dance is not necessarily necessary. There are so many people out there dancing (ballet, modern, what have you) without degrees that it certainly isn’t a required step. However, majoring in dance I’m sure provides benefits like networking and tackling dance from other perspectives.

My BIG thing is the importance of an education outside of dance. At least for me, learning intensely about an outside field has given me so much more than a dance major would have, I think. I now approach dance from multiple viewpoints and have a much broader knowledge base to refer back to in doing and viewing dance.

I think, from my experience anyway, that an option pursued by very few (I can think of 1 other at the moment besides myself) is to continue to train professionally while pursuing a liberal arts degree separately – i.e. continuing at a ballet studio while getting a degree in something else. Yes, it is a LOT of work to live two lives simultaneously. But I think the payoff of being prepared for two careers upon graduation is wonderful. And you have a back up after the short lived dance career ends.

I have lots more to say on the subject but am pressed for time at the moment…I’ll look forward to hearing other opinions and will try to add more later.