NYU Admission Offered Dancers at Santa Monica

Students in Santa Monica College’s dance program are being given the opportunity to pursue their studies in the mecca of dance--New York City.

Under an agreement recently signed by officials of the two-year college, qualified dance students will be guaranteed admission to New York University as juniors to continue their education.

The agreement represents the first time that NYU’s dance program has entered into a partnership with a community college, and the first time Santa Monica College has made such an arrangement with a four-year institution outside California.

High Quality Program

“Getting a university of the caliber of NYU to enter into a guaranteed admission agreement is the ultimate endorsement of the quality of our program,” said Rocky Young, SMC’s assistant superintendent of education. There are 40 dance students at SMC.

To qualify for the program, students must graduate with a minimum 2.5 grade point average and receive a recommendation from the two-year college to be admitted to NYU’s School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions.

“Santa Monica College has a very high quality program,” said Patricia Rowe, the chairwoman of NYU’s department of dance. “We intend to use the agreement as a model for agreements with other community colleges in the country.”

She said the university hopes that such agreements will help in the difficult task of recruiting quality dance students. “Our department is always looking for good dance students,” she said. “Basically we hope to get better students this way, not just the run of the mill students.”

Rowe said attracting dance students is difficult because most parents are not aware of the opportunities in the field, including the chance to pursue a degree in dance.

Rowe said she expects that the arrangement with Santa Monica College could bring in about two to four students a year. There are 100 students enrolled in NYU’s dance program, which includes students seeking undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Tuition alone is about $9,000 a year, but scholarships are available.

A Natural Link

“This is a very natural link for us,” Rowe said of the agreement with Santa Monica College. “Many students consider New York City a mecca of dance--most dancers, at some point in their careers, want to come to New York to train.”

Santa Monica College has similar transfer agreements with UCLA, California State University at Northridge, University of Southern California, Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount. However, this is the first time the college has designed a transfer program for a specific major.

Linda Gold, the director of SMC’s dance program, said it took nearly two years to complete the arrangement, while administrators made sure that the liberal arts and dance classes taught at the two-year college would be considered equivalent to those at NYU.

Gold, who once taught dance at NYU, maintained her contact with a professor there and suggested the initiation of the transfer program which, she said, gives students the “opportunity to continue their studies . . . adds continuity and furthers their career possibilities.”

Live Performance

Santa Monica College students rehearsing last week for an upcoming performance welcomed the announcement about the transfer agreement.

“I would love to go to New York,” said Samantha Mehre, 22, as she walked around the small dance studio doing stretching exercises. “I couldn’t afford to go to New York for four years (of college). It would be too expensive. But I’m interested in live performance. New York has live performance. In Los Angeles it is more on film.”

Douglas Cocroft, 30, another student, said he too was interested in going to New York. “I need to expand my horizons,” he said. “There are very few opportunities to do jazz and funk dancing. I’ve got to get there.”