It’s spring break here, and I’m taking both my kids down to Los Angeles. My daughter needs to tour a few colleges down there, and while she is checking out the costume design programs, Julian is going to check out their dance programs. We’ll visit the University of Southern California and then UCLA and California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts). The latter two have dance programs. Julian is a bit young to be college shopping, but the universities don’t seem to mind.
Actually, interestingly enough, while we can’t seem to get anyone specifically from the costume design programs to talk to Ariel, both schools have been happy to get someone from the dance department (in fact, the head of the department) not only to talk with Julian (despite his young age — he’ll be a sophomore next year) but to show him around and let him look in on some dance classes. I’m sure this is because dancers really need to see the level of dance to make up their minds about what school they want to attend. In other words, I doubt it has anything to do with him being a boy.)
While we are in LA, we’ll have one day when Julian has nothing to do: the day we are at USC. So, I’m going to drop him off at Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy for a morning ballet class and then take him back there again in the evening for a boys’ ballet class, a modern class and a tap class. I’m very excited to have him take class there; in particular, I was told the boys’ class is very good and, of course, very small.
Other than that, all quiet here. If anyone else’s son is having a quiet week because of Easter and Passover, you might want to encourage him to write an essay for http://boysballet.wordpress.com. They now have a post on their home page with the following guidelines:
1. Please do not submit an essay without your parent’s knowledge.
2. We would like to know how old you are.
3. Do not use your full name. Something like “Chris, Boston, Ma.” is all we need.
4. Your email address is private and we don’t want to know what it is. Instead use an address such as “Chris@nomail.com“
5. The subject of your essay should have something to do with dance.6. The essay can be a page long or just a paragraph.
7. Pictures are welcome and a great addition to your essay. Just include the URL(s) in your post. The URL(s) will remain private (we will upload the picture to wordpress).
8. Please check your essay for spelling and grammar before you submit it.
To submit your essay just “copy” and “paste” it in the comment box below. Comments are “moderated,” so we will see them before they are published.
We will review all contributed essays and may edit them for content, grammar and spelling. Once a essay is approved, it will be posted on the front page.
I’m going to encourage Julian to write one, but with starting to get ready for finals and still trying to get his grades up…all while rehearsing for Copellia and his concert performances, I’m not sure it will happen any time soon.
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