Opening for Okay-pop stars at a significant venue is a bucket-list merchandise for a lot of dancers—one thing most must try in direction of for years to even get the chance, not to mention obtain it. 13 dance college students from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, nevertheless, have been in a position so as to add this career-changing efficiency to their resumés earlier than even graduating from the famend program. Through the weekend of August 19–21, the dancers traveled to Los Angeles for town’s iteration of KCON, an annual conference celebrating Okay-pop music and tradition, on the Crypto.com Area (previously the Staples Heart). In entrance of a crowd of hundreds, they danced earlier than a lineup of artists together with ATEEZ, ENHYPHEN and Kep1er took the stage.
“Opening up on the Crypto.com Area for all these wonderful bands was simply essentially the most enjoyable I’ve ever had onstage,” Pete Pierantozzi, a rising senior at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, says of the efficiency. “The gang gave us a lot vitality, I couldn’t cease smiling.”
Although the dancers who carried out on the occasion are all enrolled within the faculty’s modern dance BFA program, the expertise can also be deeply illustrative of the forms of performances dancers enrolled within the newly launched industrial dance BFA program can count on too. Welcoming its firstclass this fall, Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s industrial dance BFA is a three-year program that may present graduates with all the required abilities, expertise and business connections to thrive within the fast-paced, shape-shifting world of business dance.
A Deal with Resumé Constructing
Although the KCON expertise was undoubtedly life-changing for the dancers, it’s not the one comparable alternative Boston Conservatory at Berklee college students are afforded. In actual fact, this system takes pleasure in its give attention to bolstering pupil’s resumés with real-world dance expertise, whereas nonetheless giving them the total assets and assist of a conservatory atmosphere.
“Dancers get to audition all through the semester and particularly over the summer season when we’ve got breaks,” says Nicaya Wiley, a rising senior within the Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s modern dance BFA program. “After we get employed for these jobs, we are able to truly expertise working, in addition to persevering with to get our schooling. Now, I’m a little bit bit extra ready for my profession outdoors of the college.”
Wiley might be becoming a member of Philadanco! in the course of the upcoming 2022–23 season, whereas ending her diploma and graduating on time with the category of 2023, because of the Dance Division’s distinctive Skilled Transition Program, which permits college students to launch their careers earlier than they graduate. Incoming college students within the industrial dance BFA program will even be given comparable alternatives to audition for and settle for skilled jobs whereas not falling behind of their research.
Honoring Individuality
One other distinctive aspect of Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s curriculum is the flexibility for college students to “select their very own journey,” says Pierantozzi. The accelerated three-year industrial dance BFA program is particularly structured so college students have few core necessities, however are as an alternative capable of choose from a wide range of genre-specific modules that align with their profession objectives. The modules are imaginative and wide-ranging, so college students can select something from circus and Las Vegas arts to Broadway dance to hip hop.
“Whereas we’ve got a number of necessities, we actually need the industrial dance majors to have the ability to select their curricular focus early on,” explains Mila Thigpen, Boston Conservatory at Berklee chair of dance. “I feel the final word purpose with all of our programs is to provide college students a robust foundational expertise in a wide range of dance varieties, so then they will begin to reimagine or genre-bend for themselves.”
For Pierantozzi, the individualized aspect of the college’s strategy is what drew him to this system—and a big a part of the rationale why he’s felt so inspired and supported throughout his time on the faculty.
“All the college actually take a look at you as a person, moderately than simply one other individual in this system,” he says. “It’s very rigorous in one of the simplest ways potential, however you’ll be able to outline that rigor and select the way you need to spend your years right here in the way in which that’s most useful for you personally.”
Star-Studded Connections
Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s current efficiency alternative at KCON can also be an instance of how the college’s connections are leveraged to open doorways for the scholars. The KCON efficiency was made potential by a beneficiant sponsorship by the CJ Cultural Basis and CJ Leisure, fostered by Boston Conservatory at Berklee board member and vice chairwoman of CJ Group, Miky Lee.
KCON, the unique 10-minute piece carried out by the college’s dancers on the conference, gave the scholars one other sought-after alternative: the possibility to work with esteemed choreographer Jennifer Archibald. Archibald is well-known in each industrial and live performance dance, and has labored for Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and MAC Cosmetics, in addition to with corporations like Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West, Atlanta Ballet and Ailey II. “Jennifer Archibald taught me rather a lot about find out how to current myself in an audition room and all through a residency course of as a way to radiate confidence and suppleness. She pushed me to be fearless in displaying what I needed to supply,” says Boston Conservatory at Berklee dance pupil Ali Cederholm. “I particularly appreciated her willingness to provide me recommendation on navigating each the modern and industrial industries.”
Boston Conservatory at Berklee college students are additionally capable of develop skilled and private connections with the college’s extremely educated college, too, like former Limón Dance Firm member Ruka Hatua-Saar White, who served because the rehearsal director for KCON.
Over time, college students have chosen Boston Conservatory at Berklee for the chance to work alongside a few of the dance world’s largest names, in an atmosphere invested of their future success, with the peace of mind that they’ll be armed with real-world expertise to hit the bottom operating after they graduate. Should you assume Boston Conservatory at Berklee could be the precise subsequent step in your dance profession too, browse the college’s web site and take its useful quiz to find out whether or not the industrial or the modern BFA program can be a greater match.
