Sunday, August 25, Family Day at ODC Dance Commons in San Francisco. All day and free. Of particular interest to teens: 2 p.m. to 3:30: Next Steps Seminar on College dance programs.
These days, most routes to top colleges demand you have some passion: an instrument, a sport, gamification fever, a need to swim with dolphins, cryptology, whatever it is. A Yale dean some years ago suggested that prospective students need to have fallen in love, either with another person or some aspect of scholarship. And fallen hard.
Then, of course, you need to write a compelling essay about how you came to it and how it’s transformed you or how with it you have transformed others. It’s almost true to say, with acceptance rates at top colleges falling and with so many students bunched at the top, that the best story wins.
At ODC Dance's Family Day, there will be a panel of people who can help you charter a course to college based on talent as a dancer. Panel members include representatives from Barnard College, Cal Arts, Stanford, and possibly Northwestern and Julliard. In addition, two local college counselors will attend: Leslie Jenkins-Wax and Susan Weber.
The Stanford representative is Kai Kane Aoki Izu; KK, for short. He grew up in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, an African-American neighborhood. He’s Asian American (Japanese and Chinese, plus Spanish and Scottish), 19 and entering his sophomore year.
He’s also a very talented dancer who learned the craft largely at ODC, “They basically showed me that dance gives life skills and I have been able to apply those. ODC also enabled me to see the beauty and opportunities in dance.”
He adds, “Grades are not everything and some top schools are including more of an arts focus.”
KK went to Lick Wilmerding High School; had a 3.7 GPA, 1990 on his boards, and danced. “I think my record showed uniqueness. Other kids were doing Kiva or Habitat for Humanity, and while I had slightly lower scores, I could show I had performed at a semi-professional level. ”
He attended summer intensives, danced with several local companies, and his identity became fused with his talent as a dancer.
At Stanford, the Dance Deptartment didn’t mince words: “We hope you’ll dance with us,” he was told and promptly went through an audition and has since come into his own. He’s danced with artist-in-residence, Robert Moses, among others. He’s taken classes with lecturer Diane Frank and Janice Ross, Dance Division director at Stanford.
And is this all going toward a career in Dance?
Perhaps not. He’s starting a double major in psychology and human biology. He’s drawn to dance as a rehabilitation science. “I’ve become interested in dance as a therapy for people with Parkinson’s for example.”
Events and classes:
12:30-1 p.m. — African Diaspora family dance class (all ages)
1-1:30 p.m. — Hip Hop family dance class (all ages)
1:30-2 p.m. — Tap family dance class (all ages)
2-3 p.m. — Next Steps seminar on college dance programs
1-3 p.m. — Pilates consultations/private demos for parents
4-5 p.m. — ODC Theater Unplugged dress rehearsal for Family Day attendees
More information: www.odcdance.org/familyday.