Dancing in College: best schools?

If you're thinking something along the lines of Dance Medicine, then it doesn't help to tell you the best college dance programs, as those would be the ones that best prepare you to dance professionally. They are also very intensive programs, where it would be very hard to fit in the prerequisites for med school.

Instead, you need a college where you can focus on science and also take dance classes on the side, perhaps through a dance minor. And what do you know?! UVM is about to start a Dance Minor for this fall. Read this:

http://www.uvm.edu/~cas/?Page=enews/Newmajorandmin...

http://www.uvm.edu/%7Ednce/

As soon as you can, I recommend that you contact Paul Besaw, the assistant professor who heads up the expanding dance program at UVM, to talk to him and tell him what you're looking for in a dance program. It's also a good idea to tell him your father also teaches there.

I've been advising college-bound dancers for four years and I could rattle off a list of great dance programs, but in these times, you would need some pretty strong reasons to turn your back on free tuition. Since you also said that you like your current studio and would be fine with continuing to dance there, I just don't see much sense in going anywhere else. I can also tell you that my daughter really could have used a good doctor (heck, ANY doctor) in dance medicine way back when she was having problems with her knees and all the specialists kept telling her that there wasn't anything she could do except stop dancing.

Here's a link to one of my other answers where I answer this question in depth, just for your reference:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=***.o...

It, in turn, has links to other information.

I would say Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, FL. But that's just because I went there and they had a great program!

You should take time to do some research on your own and find colleges that best fit you. Do you want to go very far from home? Or stay close?

If you want to pursue dance as a career I would defiantly recommend getting your BFA at a college, not just staying at your studio.

To do a dance major or minor in college you must audition for the dance department and get accepted into the school academically.

You best bet is to go on college visits and meet with the head of the dance department and watch a couple of dance classes. really the only way to know the college is right for you. If you want a Bachelors or a BFA in dance you really need to go to college and start dancing there freshman year.

check out site below and the back of Dance magazine for colleges with dance majors.