The University of Utah is known as a killer school for dance. The Department of Ballet is one of the top five schools in the nation and Department of Modern Dance is in the top ten. While dance students typically have more fun than they would be having if they were sitting in a lecture hall, majoring in dance is hard and sweaty work.
1. We do more than mess around on the campus story.
I’ve gotten this one more than a few times. “All you dancers do is mess around on the Campus Story, you guys don’t do anything except have fun!” Truth is, we do have a lot of fun, we love what we’re studying! Yeah, we enjoy showing off cool tricks we learn in class, but who wouldn’t? We have many academic classes related to dance, and partake in serious physical activity on the daily. When I’m told that all we do is mess around, I just laugh and think about how incredibly, honestly wrong they are.
2. We do not want to show you a dance move.
Far too often, you’ll meet someone and then tell them your major, and upon discovering that you are a dancer, this person will ask you to dance for them. If you ever feel yourself about to ask for a few moves, check yourself. Do you really want me to bust out an across the floor combination in the middle of campus? Because I don’t. If you were a mathematics major, I wouldn’t ask you to solve a math problem for me. So please, do not ask my already exhausted body to show you a dance move.
3. We are serious athletes.
It is becoming common knowledge that dance should be considered a sport due to the high amount of physical activity it takes to dance. However, most people don’t understand the extent of how athletic dance is. Our classes include cardio, conditioning, and moving around builds strength like you wouldn’t believe. It’s like having leg day every day and more. On top of that we go to the gym, practice strengthening exercises, and have extra rehearsals to keep our bodies cross-trained so we stay in shape and prevent injuries. So basically we sweat. A lot.
4) We don’t have the same freedoms as other students.
Choosing dance as your major means that you’ll make sacrifices, and not have a typical college experiences. A big part of college is the freedom to choose your own classes, getting to sleep in due to having later classes, etc. We don’t have that luxury. All four years have a strict schedule that you have to follow. I envy the students who get to wake up at 9 instead of 6:30. We also don’t get to leisurely skip class when we feel like it, because all of our classes take attendance, and we are allowed few absences for the whole semester. Although it may sound like a lot, these sacrifices are all worth it and more for the ability to follow our passion.
5) We basically live at the Marriot Center for Dance.
When you’re somewhere from eight in the morning to eight at night, it begins to feel like you live there. We often stay in the building in between classes, because why not? It’s full of our friends, mentors, and people who understand our weird dancer habits. There’s almost always at least one person asleep in a corner or on the floor. It’s a home away from home, and no one will think you’re strange for sitting on the floor, cause everyone’s doing it.
Being a dance major isn’t for the faint-of-heart and it’s not for the feet that can’t take endless beatings, but it’s for the passionate ones and the ones who have dreams that are outside the box. While our bodies and our minds crave sleep, we know we can’t go a day without dancing; we’d miss it too much.