Cap & gown: South-Central College Festival - college dance instruction - includes related article on issues facing dance students - Panel Discussion

Dance Magazine, Jan, 1997 by Sandi Combest

Student Issues

"We have five or six men in the dance program from an enrollment of over 500 students and about 50 majors. Society places value for boys and men on material wealth - driving a hot-colored car and living in a `real' apartment.

"Then, too, parents see dance as a mecca for homosexuality and prefer to take their sons to a football or basketball event though homosexual players are now more evident.

"The health issue facing our students is exhaustion which results in muscular and joint injuries, especially in students who began to dance at a later age. But I don't believe injuries are due to poor training, but to a desire to dance, dance, dance. They are immature about knowing how and when to rest. Many have jobs beyond school which impact on their energy level for classes and rehearsals.

"I don't see drugs as a problem. Dance majors are relatively drug-free because they are conscious of the dangers and want to excel, and to excel right now. They are impatient with themselves and that produces stress.

"We live in an instant-gratification world of fast food, fast computers, and high-speed automobiles - that is what they expect from dance. They are unwilling to yield to the process, and not acknowledging that the body can only process so fast, their bodies shut down. They are not ready for this reality."