If a full day of classes and a night filled with homework leaves you feeling tired and stressed, imagine being a professional ballet dancer at the same time.
Seattle University has partnered with Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) to offer classes to groomed ballet dancers looking to expand their options after their ballet career has ended.
“It helps professional ballet dancers transition into a second career, and they can do this over as long of a period as they like,” said Maria Chapman, a principal company dancer and a chairperson of the Seattle University/PNB educational partnership.
Chapman, who has been with the program since it was started in 2002, has taken classes when it works with her schedule.
“Seattle University really helps by bringing the professors to the dancers and meeting them 15 minutes after rehearsals end in the same building as rehearsals,” Chapman said. She also said teachers work the class schedule around rehearsals and performances. Dancers rehearse for up to six hours a day, so classes usually run two hours and usually begin at 7 p.m.
Jennifer Schulz, a core lecturer in the English and Psychology departments, is the current director of the Seattle U/PNB educational partnership. She said because the program holds classes around the dancers’ schedules, it limits classes to only one or two nights a week. There are roughly 15 dancers in each class, and they all know each other extremely well because they rehearse, perform and take classes together. The dancers come from around the country and internationally and range from 18 to 30 years old. Many of these dancers have been a part of a major company, dancing professionally in places like New York. As accomplished dancers, their first priority is dance, but they are becoming more proactive by thinking about finishing their degrees.
Chapman spent her whole life dancing, and ballet became her main focus at 12 years old. Starting her professional career and PNB job at 18, she said performance and rehearsal are parts of her job. Now, 32 years old, Chapman helps set up class schedules and is the liaison for dancers, all while continuing her ballet career.
Schulz said the program is now undergoing new formulization with the goal of cycling classes. The plan is to eventually offer a cycle of nine core classes over three years, where students take one class per quarter. Schulz also said the program strives to maintain the academic integrity of the classes, so dancers are taught at the same level as other Seattle U students and are given homework and grades.
The program is also working to matriculate the dancers after they have completed three classes with the program, so that they can take classes on campus whenever they want. Dancers have the opportunity to earn 45 credits from this program to put toward a degree. While the majority of classes are taught at the Phelps Center near the Seattle Center, where PNB is located, students occasionally have Saturday classes at Seattle U to familiarize them with college and campus life.
“Some [of the dancers] have not been in traditional classrooms before,” Schulz said. She also said that at first the dancers were relatively insecure and nervous about taking classes and being college students because they haven’t been socialized into that sort of environment. Even though the dancers’ schedules don’t permit classes with other Seattle U students, they still get to sample life at Seattle U and obtain college credits while focusing on their dance career.
“It’s been really great that Seattle U has brought so many of the teachers to teach the dancers,” Chapman said. “It has really helped the dancers to keep up their education throughout their ballet careers and to keep their options open for their second career after ballet.”
The life of a professional ballet dancer is busy all year, with only a few weeks off in the summer. While taking classes with the Seattle U/PNB program, the dancers perform in Seattle from September to the beginning of June, performing for two weeks at a time almost every month. The dancers also travel two or three times a year.
Kate may be reached at kganiron@su-spectator.com.
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