With the successful launch of the Ohio State Dance Summer Intensive as initiated by Ohio State Dance Professor Dr. Nyama-McCarthy Brown at the request of local Columbus City School dance teachers who voiced a need for their students to connect to the department, we are excited to be expanding our plans to offer even more summer activities. The department again hosted the one-week non-residential Summer Dance Intensive June 3-7, 2024 for high school students. The intensive included classes in movement practice, repertory and choreography, with additional sessions about dance in college. Intensive students took one contemporary and one African movement practice class, one choreography class and one repertory class each day. They discovered many ways to continue dancing in college, connected with current college dance students, toured the campus and learned about its many resources and prepared a sharing and showing about the intensive on Friday. All classes were taught by current Department of Dance faculty and graduate associates, with several Ohio State Dance majors serving as student leaders. The Summer Dance Intensive is an essential and important part of our ongoing recruitment process in the interest of building a robust incoming class that reflects of our ideals of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. “With a focus on diversifying the Department of Dance in a way that resembles the demographics of Columbus, Ohio; we seek to offer dance to young people in the Columbus area, who are already engaged in dance programming, but may not see it as a viable path for post-secondary education,” says Dr. McCarthy-Brown. “In addition, we want to position Ohio State as a post-secondary opportunity that is accessible to members of the local community.” Past intensives have been a great success. In 2021, we had 33 applicants, 28 students attended; in 2022, we had 25 applicants, 22 attended; in 2023, we had 30 applicants and 26 attended and in 2024, we had 30 applicants and 22 attended. All students who demonstrated a need for financial aid received financial support, thanks to the support of our generous sponsors, including: The Ohio State University Department of Dance, Stand Up for Shakespeare, Provost Arts Project, and the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme.
Ohio State navigation bar
