September: Juwan Alston

BLOG PROMPT: compare your high school dance experience vs. your new college dance career; what are the similarities/differences

Start of New Beginnings

Welcome! I am so excited that you have chosen to be a part of Texas Future Dance Educators. I can assure you that the people you meet and connections you make will benefit you in the future!

For starters, my name is Juwan “JayJay” Alston as you probably already know. I am studying Classical Ballet at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. I can say that choosing to come here was the best decision I have ever made in my life. The training that I am receiving here is truly world class, and the faculty is so knowledgeable and has such a rich history. As I am here I feel like I have such personal connections with not only the faculty but the people they have worked with (I.e. Mikhail Baryshnikov, Melissa Hayden, Suzanne Farrell, George Balanchine, etc.)

For my high school dance experience, well really my Jr. and Sr.  Years of high school, was one of the greatest experiences that I had. It was the building blocks to get me to where I am. I can say having ballet as my first class everyday prepared me for college. In high school you have a certain amount of performing opportunities and they were slightly limited, per say due to restrictions (Time, costuming, etc.) As a high school though, the only unfortunate thing is that the classes are spread out (if you are in more than one class). Or that you don’t get the full amount of time within the period, due to the time used to arrive, dress out, announcements, and attendance, presentations, and non-dance days. While I do feel that when you do the projects and research assignments, you are gaining a greater knowledge and learn different ways to in cooperate technology and dance.  They are truly a great benefit to you and you can take those ideas and knowledge with you as you go to college. Also the range of the various dancers that you work with, as far as technical ability and various experiences, differs so greatly when you are in high school. You have people that have little to no dance training, and then people with some, and then those that have been dancing since they were 3. It is such a wide range of dancers, so you are challenged slightly when working with others and just overall being creative.

One of the benefits to attending a performing arts conservatory, is that your main focus is you specific art. Even in your academic classes, it is integrated somehow evaluating something in each of the art schools (we have 5). However, a conservatory program is rather intense and with this they only allow us to take 2 academic classes a semester.  The classes I have are Ballet Technique, Men’s Technique, Pas De Deux, Dance Perspectives, Men’s Variations, Pilates, Contemporary Technique, Contemporary Composition, and during a show season, Repertoire. Next semester I will also be gaining a Character Class. I can only speak from the Ballet major perspective and not the contemporary major’s perspective. There are 6 levels, and 2 additional levels for men (BG1 and BG2). I love it here because we have a total of 23 male ballet majors (10 college and 13 high school.) I am a BG2 and B5. My typical day starts pretty early. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have an 8 am English Composition class. On Tuesday, I have the best class ever called Digital Media for the Artist which is a 1.5 lecture class. After my academics, I begin my dance day. I will give you an example of my schedule:

10:20 - 11:50 Ballet Technique BG2 (I usually take class with all men. We are combined with the girls for morning technique about once a week.)

11:50 – 12:50 Men’s Technique/Pas De Deux/Variations

2:30 – 3:30 Dance Perspectives (Our faculty come to us, and pretty much inform us of their life in the dance world leading up to this point.)

3:45 – 5:15 Contemporary Technique (I have this class on Monday and Wednesdays)/ Contemporary Composition (Friday’s)

5:15 – 6:15 Pas de Deux

7:15-9:15 Audition/Rehearsal

*Generally morning technique classes only last 1.5 hours, but because I have the same teacher, with the same guys, in the same studios, he teaches a 2.5 hour technique class.

**During Season there are some days when we have rehearsal from 3:45 – 6:15 and then 7:15 – 9:15. On Saturday’s rehearsals can go from 9-4

I love the program and it truly allows you to practice the principal of time management. Finding time to stretch, cross train, have a social life, get all of your homework done, etc. There is always something to do. While it is intense and can become very stressful, it is a wonderful experience, and I know with the intense, hands-on training I am getting here, I will be completely prepared to go into the world of dance. It helps with the university being so small. The population of students at Cedar Ridge is pretty close to 2.5 times greater than the UNCSA Population. This includes High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate. The Student to Faculty ratio is 7:1. So you get the attention needed to help you grow, and I can say it is absolutely wonderful!