Your College Dance Dream Needs More Than One Path

Submitting your Common Recruit video is a major step. You trained, prepared your materials and gave college coaches an opportunity to see what you could bring to their team.

Now comes one of the hardest parts: waiting.

While coaches review submissions, one of the smartest things you can do is build a backup plan, especially one that includes audition-based teams.

Having a backup plan does not mean you are giving up on your first-choice program. It means you are protecting your opportunity to continue dancing in college, even if your original path does not unfold exactly as you hoped.

Recruitment is one opportunity, not your only opportunity

If you submitted a Common Recruit video, continue communicating with programs and following any additional requirements established by each school. At the same time, begin researching teams that hold auditions in the spring.

Recruitment-based and audition-based teams often operate on different timelines. Even if you are released from a recruitment process, an audition may give you another opportunity to earn a roster spot later in the year.

Start researching those programs now. Look at:

• Team style and performance expectations

• Required technical skills

• Clinic and audition dates

• Application and admission deadlines

• Whether you must be committed to or enrolled at the university before auditioning

• Training opportunities available on or near campus

Studio 2 Stadium members can use the Audition-Based Teams filter to identify programs that may offer another path to college dance.

You are not searching for a lesser option. You are making sure one decision does not determine whether you get to dance in college at all.

Many dancers do not make a team the first time

College dance is competitive. Many talented dancers do not earn a roster spot during their first recruitment or audition experience.

That result can be painful, but it is not always a final answer.

Sometimes a dancer needs another year of technical development. Sometimes the team needs a different style or role that season. Sometimes only a few roster spots are available. A decision can be influenced by many factors beyond whether someone is a talented, hardworking dancer.

A “no” can also provide valuable information. It can show you where you currently stand, what you need to strengthen and how you can prepare differently for your next opportunity.

The important question becomes: What are you going to do next?

Madi’s Road to the Roster

Madi’s path to college dance included several “no’s.” After advancing in CU’s recruitment process, submitting to Oklahoma, reaching finals at CSU and attending CU’s open audition, she still did not have a roster spot.

She chose CU because it was the right school for her and treated freshman year as an opportunity to keep training. That openness led her to Buff Gold, CU’s club dance team. Despite having no competitive hip-hop experience, she earned spots in both the jazz and hip-hop routines.

Buff Gold gave Madi a community, the opportunity to compete at NDA College Nationals and experience balancing college academics with a demanding practice schedule. Meanwhile, she continued attending CUDT clinics, requesting feedback, taking private lessons and strengthening the areas where she needed more experience.

At the end of her freshman year, Madi returned to CUDT auditions—and earned a place on the roster.

Looking back, she realized she may not have been ready one year earlier. What initially felt like a backup plan became the experience that prepared her for her original goal.

Premium members can watch Madi’s complete Road to the Roster interview in the S2S Video Library to hear how she navigated rejection, kept training and turned an unexpected freshman year into preparation for her dream team.

Your backup plan may become part of your preparation

Madi’s experience is a reminder that another team or training path does not have to be viewed as a consolation prize.

A club team may give you friendships, leadership opportunities and valuable experience. Training at a local studio may help you develop the exact skills you were previously missing. Teaching can deepen your understanding of movement, strengthen your leadership skills and keep you connected to your dance community.

Your backup plan may support another audition but it should also give you something meaningful even if your original plan changes.

College dance can take more than one form

If you enroll at a school and do not make its primary team, you may still be able to:

• Audition for a club or student-led dance team

• Join a campus performance organization

• Audition for a local professional or semi-professional team

• Train at a studio near campus

• Take dance courses through the university

• Teach or substitute at a nearby studio

• Use the campus recreation center to maintain your strength, flexibility and technique

• Attend clinics, conventions and open classes

• Continue training for another audition the following season

These options can help you keep progressing while building a life at your school. They may also introduce you to people and experiences you never would have found through your original plan.

Build your plan before you need it

A backup plan is most useful when it is built from clarity, not disappointment. Before decisions arrive, determine what matters most to you in both your college experience and your life as a dancer.

Ask yourself:

If one specific team does not work out, what would still make college feel exciting and fulfilling?

You do not need to predict exactly how your journey will unfold. You simply need to leave room for more than one path forward.

One roster decision may change your route, but it does not have to decide whether dance remains part of your college experience.