Mirrors and windows line the walls of VCU’s large dance studio. Students use the ballet bars and as props.
About 70 dance major students fill the large studio every Friday morning to dance and talk. There it does not matter what year they are or which talents they possess. Instead, they find a community of students who all have experienced the nervous pressures of auditions.
Rachel Warren, a first-year modern dance and choreography major, said, “The faculty form personal relationships with their students in a way that gives the entire department a community feel.”
The students’ common bond is a passion for dance. Years of hard work, dedication and determination are prerequisites to becoming a part of the VCU Department of Dance and Choreography.
Rachel Warren shared her personal experiences and what it takes to succeed as a first-year student.
Warren, 19, raised in Ocala, Fla., has been dancing for 16 years. She studied many varieties of dance, including classical ballet, tap, hip-hop and modern dance. She even performed in competitive ballroom and Latin dancing.
Warren said she wanted to attend college outside of Florida to be around more culture and because she felt limited. Florida’s lack of dance studios gave her limited room to work on her choreography, she said.
She auditioned at universities in Florida and North Carolina around the time she learned about the VCU dance department from her Florida dance instructor. In November 2003 she auditioned for the dance department.
Warren saw the university’s campus and fell in love with it.
“I loved the facility,” she said, referring to the atmosphere and the buildings, which offered 4 to5 large dance studios.
At the audition, Warren watched a workshop class composed of current university students. She received a number from the judges and then waited for her time to perform. Warren recalled feeling slightly nervous before her audition.
“Every audition is somewhat intimidating,” she said.
She remembered approximately 10 smiling judges, who were members of the dance faculty, watching each performer.
Warren said her audition felt more like a class than an audition.
“The faculty was so nice, and broke the tension by the way they carried the audition,” Warren said.
Martha Curtis, a professor and chair of the Department of Dance and Choreography, judged Warren’s performance.
“She did a very good audition because she demonstrated that she not only was strong technically,” Curtis said. “But she did it with a sense of real ownership of her abilities and a willingness to extend beyond them.”
The audition judges look for creative, self-motivated, hard working students who think on their feet, Curtis said. They seek dancers with diverse dancing experience, she added.
“A limited background will limit them in the ballet and modern dance part of the audition.”
During Warren’s audition, professors taught dance moves to the aspiring students, and then required them to repeat the moves.
“There were moves I didn’t know, but I did the best I could,” Warren said.
Her audition took an unexpected turn during her first performance at the ballet bar.
She fell.
Recalling the embarrassing moment, Warren laughed.
“I thought, ‘I can’t believe I fell’,” she said. “I jumped right back up and the judges hardly remembered.”
She then performed ballet in the center of the studio. The final part of the audition required her to perform improvisation in modern dance combinations. The judges instructed her to include specific moves throughout this audition piece, but to incorporate her own creativity as well.
Curtis said the dance department accepts 25 to 30 students out of the approximately 120 who audition each year.
Tension filled Warren’s voice as she remembered patiently waiting two weeks to learn whether she would be one of the few students accepted.
Two turning points in Warren’s life inspired her to dance. In fourth or fifth grade, she said she watched the Orlando Ballet perform “Swan Lake.” As she watched the graceful dying swan scene, she remembered thinking, “That’s gonna be me one day.”
The other turning point occurred in junior high school when she performed a modern dance solo based on the death of her dance teacher’s grandfather. Warren said a teacher, who watched her performance, told her, “Your presence on stage moved me. I don’t think you’ll know how much that affected me.”
She said she wants to affect other people’s lives through dance the way she was affected. When Warren tried other avenues, such as gymnastics, she realized she wasn’t happy with anything else. Dancing is her passion.
Two weeks after her VCU audition she received the news of a lifetime from Curtis. Warren was accepted into VCU’s Department of Dance and Choreography and offered a scholarship.
Warren advises aspiring dancers planning to audition at VCU to go in there with a clear mind and know that the judges are not out to cut you down.
“I fell and I still got in,” she said. “Go in and show them what you know you are capable of doing. Look like you enjoy it.”
Majoring in dance is hard work, she said. There is a huge misconception that it is easier or less demanding because it is different than other academic majors, she added.
“It’s an intense major where it’s physically and mentally demanding.”
You have to learn techniques and rules, she advised.
Warren is also a member of two dance companies in the Richmond area: 4 The Streets and Urban Eyes. Urban Eyes performs hip-hop dance. They recently performed at VCU’s Homecoming 2005 concert and have also done shows in Washington, D.C.
Warren said she dances and average of 29 hours per week at the university and 4 The Streets. She is also required to take academic courses in dance science, lighting design, dance history, music appreciation and African-American dance. When it’s your passion, she said, you don’t think about the hours you put in.
Curtis said she appreciates Warren’s hard work and dedication.
“We have a lot of ‘Rachels’ with her level of involvement.”
Warren is articulate and strong in other areas of dance as well, Curtis added.
“I can see that she has the ability to teach,” said Curtis. “She should move into a profession right after graduation.”
But for now, Warren remains an integral part of VCU’s hard working dance community. She will dance later on this month in the annual Student-Faculty Concert. During her senior year, she plans to take a course in teaching dance.
After graduation Warren plans to move to New York to further her study in dance, pursue a master’s degree in teaching or join The Limon Company.