The Winger » Ballet and Bachelor’s Degrees

Ballet and Bachelor’s Degrees

November 4, 2007 at 4:45 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, wingers, education, new york times, school, college, LEAP, gia kourlas

KRISTIN SLOAN
New York City Ballet
New York, NY USA
BIO | POSTS

Dont be scared… you’re in good company! (Photo from JP)

I just wanted to write a quick post to direct your attention to a great article that the lovely Ms. Kourlas just wrote for the NY Times about dancers seeking college education while working full time, and even touring!

Much of the article describes the new-to-New-York LEAP program (Liberal Education for Arts Professionals) which was started in San Francisco in 1999 by Claire Sheridan, a former dancer. Two hundred and nine dancers are enrolled this year, including our very own Mr. Matthew Murphy and Ms. Sophie Flack. Also Mr. Justin Peck, Ms. Gwyneth Muller and Ms. Taylor Gordon, are three other Wingers (and maybe I’m missing a few) who are juggling scholastic ambitions and dance careers. Way to go guys!

Permalink

sandi degeorge said,

November 4, 2007 @ 6:09 pm

Thanks to you and to Matt for informing me through the Winger about this program. I didn’t know it existed. I am very interested in enrolling!

Miriam Madry said,

November 4, 2007 @ 6:25 pm

I actually, randomly enough, proctored Gwyneth’s bio test on Wed night!

gwyneth muller said,

November 4, 2007 @ 6:45 pm

Hi Miriam!!
Thanks again for letting me come late to the exam, you have no idea how much I appreciated it.

(I was rehearsing until 7pm on Wednesday night and had to arrive about an hour late to my biology exam. Miriam was nice enough to stay a bit later with me so that I could complete the test!)

SanderO said,

November 4, 2007 @ 9:20 pm

That’s a well deserved notice. Incredible dedication. Good show guys.

Evan N said,

November 5, 2007 @ 3:22 am

It was so exciting to see this article in the Times, but I wish Kourlas had written more about some of the other options that dancers have for higher education besides LEAP. Even though Justin looks really scared in the Butler Library “stacks” (and understandably, considering the stacks are windowless, dark and depressing), Columbia and Barnard are two awesome and not-so-scary uptown options for professional dancers.

sam said,

November 5, 2007 @ 3:12 pm

Pursuing college at one of the best, most competitive university in the land, namely Columbia, and performing at a comparably high level in dance is especially daunting, challenging, and allegedly unsustainable. Yet, with a lot of focus, enthusiasm, and perseverance, it is possible to get this job done at a world-class level, although on a day-to-day, week-by-week basis, when both of these activities are in session, there sometimes doesn’t seem that there are enough hours in the day to do all of this and stay healthy. At the end of the day or when all of this is said and done, intrisically it is all than more than worth the effort.

jolene said,

November 5, 2007 @ 4:44 pm

In my bias, college MUST be so much easier than taking a company ballet class at NYCB or ABT. I guess it means that we really take what we have for granted sometimes. It’s a really interesting article, and it sounds like a cool program.

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI