It’s Faculty Friday: Dance Edition! 

You already know that Byron Easley from NYU Tisch is joining us (from a previous Faculty Friday blog post) but we’re happy to announce that we have added two ballet teachers:

Donna Cerio will be teaching in our Starter Edition Musical Theater program in San Francisco. Donna has her own studio in Mill Valley, where she designed her trademarked Broadway Dance class. The class “is a unique program designed to develop the dance and movement skills required for the high demands of a professional career in Musical Theater.”

Check out Donna’s Broadway Dance Class website here.

Lise Houlton will be teaching in Minnesota’s Musical Theater program. Lise has been the Artistic Director of Minnesota Dance Theater for almost twenty years. She was a professional ballerina for the American Ballet Theater and Stuttgart Ballet, and studied under Mikhail Baryshnikov for five years.

Find out more about Minnesota Dance Theater here. 

Why should actors study dance? 

We have dance teachers at both our musical theater programs because we believe dance is so vital to the musical theater training process. If you’ve ever seen Oklahoma or West Side Story or Newsies, you’ll know what we mean. Click to watch the Broadway cast of Newsies featured on Dancing with the Stars.

If you want to study musical theater in college, you don’t have to take dance classes five classes a week in high school, but you should learn how to move. If you start working on your dance skills in high school, you’ll be better prepared for your college auditions and you’ll be more competitive. If you need more specific advice, ArtsBridge consulting can help you figure out how to put your best foot forward.