In the 2023-24 academic year, the class known as “ballet bootcamp,” a once-a-week 7 a.m. training for any student enrolled in a dance course, will no longer be required nor offered to students.  

The class was originally started in 2012 with a requirement of two days per week to help supplement the days in which students were not in their main dance courses.   

Gregory Daniels, the dance program coordinator, said that the schedule was then changed to only require one day a week by a former musical theatre coordinator. For many students, it then often fell on days with other dance classes, lessening the intended effects for students taking dance.   

“One forty-minute session per week which often starts late, is not enough to see any significant improvement or even maintain a satisfactory level of dance technique,” Daniels said.  

While the course will no longer be offered to most students, incoming firstyear students in the Musical Theatre program will still be required to take Ballet Bootcamp.   

Katherine Dunham, a first year acting and directing major currently enrolled in the class, said they are happy to no longer have the 7 a.m. course for the next school year.  

“I was so happy when I found out. I enjoyed having time to myself in the morning, but I felt that making students get up at 6 a.m. to go to a class that lasts 50 minutes wasn’t worth it,” Dunham said. “That’s hardly enough time to complete barre. Plus, in the morning you’re not completely warmed up and a lot of people I’ve talked to haven’t enjoyed it because of how early it was in the day.”  

Jay Milliken, another first year acting and directing major, also expressed that while they understood why it was offered, said that he was glad to no longer have it required despite no longer needing to take any dance courses for their degree.  

“I get the idea for the course, but at 7 a.m. and for 50 minutes, I’m not absorbing any of the information,” Milliken said. “I’m glad it’s been set in stone, but it sucks that the change will happen after I am done with my dance classes.”   

Daniels shared that this change will not have a long-lasting impact on dance students and hopes that students are happier now that they no longer have the early morning class.  

“I don’t think it will have an impact. As I said, from a professional teaching aspect, one extra class a week is not enough,” Daniels said. “I hope that we have happier students overall and they enjoy no longer having a 7 a.m. class.”