It's Thursday night...need to make a HUGE decision by Sunday and need advice!!?

My advice is to go with Option #4. I work in college and career counseling in a college and I've been advising college-bound dancers for over four years after successfully helping my daughter pursue a professional dance career.

(Did you notice that you said that both #3 and #4 were sounding like the best option?)

You did not actually say what style of dance has become your passion, but since you mentioned a) ballet classes and b) starting your own company, you've got people rightfully telling you that you're too late to start a ballet career. However, since you are a vocal performance major, I'm going to hope that you're feeling drawn to dance through musical theatre and thus tell you why you should go with your fourth option.

In musical theatre productions, it's the Singers-Who-Can-Dance who are paid higher than the Dancers-Who-Can-Sing. And the kind of dancing that vocal leads do is pretty basic; it does NOT require years of intense training. Many, many musical theatre majors at the top MT college programs only start dance classes in college, as their auditions to get in were only based on their singing and acting abilities. Therefore, if you could someday get hired by shows based in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco or Los Angeles, you would have access to professional dance studios where you could take open classes to improve your dancing while also working. Most other musical theatre work is with cruise ships, theme parks and touring productions, so you wouldn't be in the major dance cities. But if you get those jobs (and chances are much higher that you would), you should try to work your way up in the production company in hopes of getting a "home office" job that's involved in putting the shows together.

In terms of your college decisions, there are many reasons for staying at your current school. For one, you've already invested two years in your college education and, as a vocal performance major, many of your credits wouldn't transfer. As for having to retake two classes, you also have to consider that the benefits of college are more than what you get in the college classroom. Keep in mind that you also have college friends and the knowledge of how to find your way around your school to get extra help. So think of the money you spent as "buying" support for staying in school. It would be a mistake to yank that support away and start all over again someplace else.

Secondly, you need to get your bachelors degree to survive in today's economy. I don't agree with the idea that you should not "spend time and money on a degree if it's not really what I wanna do." That's 20th century thinking and you're living in the 21st century. Please see my answer to "Useless to Major in Dance," as the answer also applies to a vocal performance major:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aj1eZ...

You and your parents also need to read the recent Newsweek article on "The Creativity Crisis" (July 10, 2010

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-...

Businesses need creative people.

Finally, you need to stay in college because colleges are super-valuable resources. As you admitted with Option #3, you don't even know how to set off on your own. When you return to school, you'll need to work on getting tutoring or other academic support (such as study groups), personal counseling (to work on deciding what you want to do and how to stick with things you started - a valuable life skill), and career counseling (how to promote yourself, network, write resumes, etc). You can't get those things as easily outside of college, so take full advantage of your school's student services while you're there.

So, yes, leaving school is a completely bad idea. Go with Option #4, seek out lots of advice, and work with what you've got (your voice) to take you to new places and opportunities within the world of musical theatre.

I read somewhere that it takes more hours to become a dancer than it does to become a brain surgeon. It is just that professionals make it all look so easy. I do think realistically that you are too late. It is one of those professions that needs you to start very young and then is over when you are also pretty young. That is true with most professional sports. Not that I think dance is a sport, but you wouldn't think you could be a professional tennis player or baseball player if you started to do it seriously at your age. Anything like that requires massive amounts of physical training and offers so few positions. Other arts like painting and singing, you can start later because you can do those professionally when you are old. Dance just isn't like that.

If you enjoy dance, then take a few dance classes. If you have a beautiful voice and are thinking musical theater, it may be enough to get you by. Although I have read that many shows have ex-ballet dancers from professional ballet companies in them on Broadway. Maybe your singing would be enough to make up for it. I really wouldn't know.

I know dancing is your passion, but honestly you are too late to be thinking of a profession in dance let alone having your own company. Even the great choreographer of NYCB and other major ballet companies Christopher Wheeldon, couldn't maintain a company of his own and failed miserably.

I know that you are not probably referring to ballet, but becoming a professional dancer of any sort without at least 15 hours of dance class a week and doing this for years not starting in college is what it takes. Only 10% of the best trained dancers get work and only 10% of them can make a living at it. Having your own dance company is a stratosphere away from that as well.

If you are brilliantly talented, then you should be able to get a scholarship to take class anywhere. If not, you do not have what it takes at your age to make it as a dancer.

My daughter is a professional dancer trained at the best ballet academies in NYC and attended a performing arts high school there as well. She went on to get her BFA at NYU Tisch and is currently touring the world in a company as a dancer. She has had her choreography performed at NYU and has dreams of having her own company ten years down the line. To be able to get grants to have your own company, you need a track record of dance and must have worked as a professional dancer, unless you are independently wealthy. You do not have the training to be hired as a dancer and starting this late you really can't do it. There is no "catching up" in dance except in recreational dance. People on a professional track dance (no matter what the style) a minimum of 750 hours of class a year based on the minimum of 15 hours a week. Most do closer to 1250 hours a year or more. They have done this since they were quit young. How could you match those hours of dance while you are attending college? You can't. Going to a college that doesn't have an audition for dance and expecting a dance career is pretty much disillusion. Without training you will never make the cut in an audition for a serious college dance program.

You said you wanted an honest opinion from someone who knows and that is what I gave you. Mostly on here the only professionals you will find are retired ones. This site has lots of young kids who are 11-13 who like to give advice on how to become a professional dancer based on their own personal hopes and dreams. Dancers who are on a professional track rarely have time to waste on this site unless they are recovering from an injury.

I am sorry for seeming harsh or blunt, but you are talking about costing your parents a lot of money for something that is not going to result in a dance career for you.

Honestly, if you quit school and took 40 hours of dance class a week at the best schools, at your age you couldn't catch up. There isn't nearly enough time to catch up to be competitive. Your competition has been dancing for years and as mintchips said only 10% of the best trained dancers work.

I study in a top ballet academy and take 28 hours of dance classes a week. I started late at 11. Even though I am a guy and it is much easier for men, I realize how slim my chances are to make a living as a dancer. It matters little whether I stick with ballet or branch off into concert contemporary dance, the odds are about the same. With your lack of dance training, it really is impossible.