I want to start by saying that I disagree with jpbdance. While I can certainly understand that point of view, there are many professional dancers who took it very seriously and have accomplished great things. From the sounds of it, you are on the right track. Getting a minor in dance instruction is a great way to pursue dance, but major in something that may be more useful to you in the interim. (By day, I am a legal assistant, by night, a ballroom dancer.) Also, where are you looking to go to school? Out west? In the South? Northeast?

P.S. Here is an interesting link that I found. http://www.teachballroomdancing.com/index.html

Hi! I'm a senior in high school, and I'm so in love with ballroom dancing; I plan to dance for the rest of my life. For my college, I'm planning on going to Columbia College in Chicago and majoring in dance. Their dance program is majorly focused on ballet and modern, but there is also ballroom dance classes available. On top of that there are courses in jazz, hip hop, asain dance, and african dance! I'm so excited and can't wait to broaden my horizons in the world of dance. Ballroom will always be my forte, but i cant wait to learn more!

You sound like a " dancer " of the future !!-- lot of bumps, in the road ahead-- hang in there-- you will make it .

You might be interested in e-mailing Andy Wong and asking him some questions. Andy was a successful pharmacist who learned to dance through the University of British Columbia's Ballroom Dance Club.

He gave up being a pharmacist to pursue his passion and owns the "Grand Ballroom" a full sized studio:

http://www.grandballroom.com/

I think the other university in UTAH is the BYU Campus at Provo.

You could also Google "Dian(n)e Jarmalow" who runs a teacher training school in San Francisco affiliated with DanceVision.

Hope this helps.

OB

I know the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana is big on ballroom. We're going to a collegiate comp there next month.

I used to coach the urbanas teacher , from time to time--excellent studio and a very fine teacher, also coached several of the grad. students.

BYU, is probably the one with most recognition .--- it has had huge success with its Formation team . Scholarships I think, are available in dance .

Actually, BYU is in Provo, Utah. The other college someone referenced is Utah Valley State College (UVSC), in the neighboring town of Orem.
Their program, while not quite as good as BYU's, is still stellar. In years that BYU does not go to Blackpool, UVSC does, and they clean up as regularly as BYU does. When they do go to the same competitions, BYU generally comes out on top, but UVSC is never far behind!

(Both have scholarships, but if you are female, and haven't been dancing since you were 10, I wouldn't count on a ballroom scholarship.)

Also, majoring in ballroom dance is no more useless than majoring in, say, English, History, or practically anything other than Engineering. Take it from someone else well-versed in higher-ed: most students don't work in anything related to their major, and most people change careers many times over the course of their lives.

So, you might as well study something you love. You'll be required to take other courses as well, and you'd do well to take some business courses.

I'd also recommend checking into placements for their graduates. What would your goal be in majoring in ballroom? Do you want to teach? Perform? Open your own studio? Whatever it is, is that a result that their graduates obtain?

jpbdance may have a point here... I teach ballroom at a local studio in the evenings about 4 nights a week. I have not made more than $35.00 per hour for my teaching time yet. I am a certified instructor so that helps in getting me a higher rate of pay. It also helps that I am teaching the correct material at the correcr level for my student. Over the years I have used my dancing as a fall back between jobs. To meet new people when I was in a new area. It has always provided me wiht ample travel oppertunities. So yes your tuition dollars are bound to give you a better return if you take european history of the dark ages or some equally important course.

Thanks Bruce,

I was under the mistaken impression there were 2 BYU campuses.

OB

BYU does have a really good college for dance. There is a caveat there, and it is that it can be very hard to get in if you aren't a mormon. You can be the best student in the world, but if you aren't LDS that can hurt you. I would venture a guess that it is the same with USVC, the town has a HUGE polygamist presence there.

As an individual with a Ph.D. I would say...take the classes that make you happy...whether to major minor or as liberal arts or electives...most colleges require 120 credits so find a way to get the classes you will actually enjoy.