Where Beauty Meets Truth: Ballet Dancers at Fordham University

Abstract

From its origin in 1968, one unique mission of Fordham University’s new campus in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has been to educate performing artists, including ballet dancers. What is these dancers’ experience with Fordham? This study offers: (a) a concise history of this “marriage of beauty with truth” in Lincoln Center; (b) how the unique educational needs of dancers were addressed by the university; (c) a quantitative assessment using an 80-point student satisfaction survey found 28 NYCB dancers scored significantly higher (mean = 58.5) than 1,365 other Fordham Lincoln Center students (mean = 53.2, t- test, p . 001); (d) a qualitative assessment revealed different paths that 20 acclaimed NYCB dancers took to apply their Fordham education to second careers in a wide array of specialties: from dance and the arts to management, education, law, psychology, and medicine.

Keywords

• dancers
• fordham university
• new york city ballet
• urban education
• 360-degree feedback
• student attitudes