When you think of summer dance intensives, you probably don’t immediately picture a college campus. But many higher education dance departments do hold summer programs, which can provide opportunities for overall growth and often serve as a preview of undergraduate life. A summer on campus may help high school students plan for their futures—whether at the same school or elsewhere in the dance world.
Taste undergraduate life
The college dance student experience includes more than just studio time. It also includes residential and social life, interactions with non-dance students, relationships with faculty, and an academic perspective on dance. Like many college intensive programs, “our summer program is based on and related to the BFA curriculum,” said Kurt Douglas, associate professor of dance at Berklee’s Boston Conservatory of Music. “It simulates the experience of a first-year student.”
For example, students at Berkeley’s Summer Dance Intensive take a series of technique classes and have the opportunity to work with visiting choreographers. “Students have the opportunity to really immerse themselves in the choreographic process, which is an important part of the Conservatory’s program,” Douglas said. At the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, in addition to movement-based classes and improvisation, Summer Institute students can participate in “seminars focused on critical dance studies, speaking and writing, developing feedback, and observing contemporary artists,” according to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia Dance Associate Dean Jen McGinn. “People have a greater understanding of dance as an academic subject, but many of them are not as familiar with it from their previous dance training.”
Just like in college, balance hard work with socializing. During summer sessions at Berkeley and the School of the Arts, dancers live in dormitories with students in other arts programs and participate in planned trips and activities together in the evenings and weekends. McGinn said residential life at the Art Institute encourages high school students to gain an important sense of independence and responsibility that will help prepare them for leaving home. “We’re in the heart of Philadelphia, and they’re treated like adults, even though they have RA and a curfew, and they’re walking down city streets from building to building and making sure they get to mealtime,” she said.
Prepare for the future
When considering a college summer intensive program, the question on many students’ minds is whether it will increase their chances of getting into the school. “It definitely helps us get to know them in a different way and better because we get to spend more time with them,” McGinn said. For high school students participating in UArts Summer Institute, participation in the program itself is equivalent to an audition for the BFA program. Berkeley handles things a little differently, holding auditions for the BFA program during the third week of summer intensive classes. “The first two weeks, they can use the studio space to rehearse so they don’t have to come back and re-audition during the year,” Douglas said.
While some students attend a college summer intensive program with the intention of attending the school, other students may wish to earn a bachelor’s degree outside of dance or company auditions. Summer students in the Art Institute program are required to attend a mandatory two-hour seminar called “Dance After High School,” which helps them understand their options after graduation. “We try to get involved as much as we can,” McGinn said. “Do you still need to go to college? What’s the difference between a BFA and a BA, what’s the difference between being on the dance team and majoring or minoring? Rather than guiding them in a certain direction, be a resource.
Douglas agrees that no matter what your future dance goals are, a college intensive program can help. “In this university space, our goal is to educate students so that they are not just focused on this particular technique or style of choreography,” he said. “You’ll get a 360-degree experience of what it means to be a dancer in today’s world.”
