In step with the "Dancing With The Stars" craze, Dominican's nationally reputed LINES Ballet/BFA in Dance program is offering the best of both worlds for dedicated students coming from all across the country to San Rafael, California to follow their passion for dance and pursuit of a degree in higher education at the same time. It's a leap of faith.
Dominican's LINES Ballet/BFA in Dance program, the only joint BFA dance program in the nation led by a master choreographer (Alonzo King) and one of only two in the United States affiliated with a major ballet company, will hold its annual fall performances November 15-16 in Angelico Hall on campus. That's just before ABC will crown its winner of "DWTS."
There are now 60 students strong enrolled in Dominican's four-year program, which enables students to gain both an artistic and academic education. They are bussed almost every day from the campus on Dominican, across the Golden Gate Bridge, to the LINES studios in San Francisco then are bussed back to campus to attend their college classes. Here is the program's website:
http://bfa.linesballet.org/about/.
The program has students currently from Alaska, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Oregon, Colorado, North Carolina, Illinois, DC, Maryland and California -- all coming to small but mighty Dominican to chase big dreams.
Last year, every BFA in Dance student at Dominican graduated with honors. This fall, the program welcomed 14 new students (13 freshmen and one transfer student) from California, Illinois, Florida, New York, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.
There is also a male student from New Zealand, Joel Walsham, who already has earned some media attention in NZ for turning to crowd-funding to help finance his education! Here's Joel on New Zealand Ch. 3 news:
http://bit.ly/16VoWyN. He is someone who cam speak to the worldwide appeal and reputation of the LINES/BFA in Dance program at Dominican. Joel also was offered admission to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and The Ailey School/Fordham University. His "Think Big - Dance Bigger" video is just wonderful: http://bit.ly/165c5Wh
Current students in the program include juniors Yoshie Fujimoto Kateada of Madison, Wis. and Brittany Hernandez of San Carlos, Calif. This summer they traveled to Mexico with "Juntos", a dance outreach project created by a graduate of the Ailey/Fordham program. They traveled with BFA students from the Ailey School, Juilliard and others around Mexico, offering free performances and dance classes in communities that traditionally do not have access to such things.
Students Mary Kate O'Sullivan of San Diego and Will Couture of St. Paul, Minn. performed at the Dizzy Feet Foundation gala at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Mary Kate went down to LA a week early and was put together with two students from Juilliard and one from CSU Long Beach (also Dizzy Feet Foundation scholarship winners) in an new dance by Travis Wall, one of the choreographers for the "So You Think You Can Dance" TV show.
Michael Montgomery is a young rising star in LINES. He entered Dominican in 2008 and, by his junior year, Alonzo King personally recruited Michael to join LINES even though he was still 18 months from completing his degree at the University.
Said King: "He had the impossible task of learning all the repertory and heightened technical demands of entering the professional world, as well as a battery of academic courses, deadlines finals, and the pressures of still performing and learning choreography during his remaining time at Dominican. And he was miraculous."
Earlier this year Michael, who graduated from Dominican in 2011, was named to your Dance Magazine's "25 To Watch" (
http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/January-2013/2013-25-to-watch). And this month, Michael will be on the cover of a LINES publication and listed among "One of the Top 20 dancers in San Francisco Under 40" in 7 x 7 Magazine.
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