North Central College - Naperville, IL

Dance

Why choose dance at North Central College?

You’ll enjoy the rare opportunity to both train and perform. This unusual combination will make you a better dancer—but it will also increase your joy in your work. Whether you study ballet, tap, jazz or choreography (or all four), your faculty will take a personal interest in your growth, customize instruction to your capabilities and challenge you as you prepare for performances. You’ll top off your minor by performing or choreographing two pieces for North Central’s Senior Dance Showcase.

You may also:

  • Perform in faculty-directed and professionally choreographed mainstage productions.
  • Join the Cardinal Dance Company, a 60-member, student-managed group that produces an annual show.
  • Join the Dance Team, a high-performance cheer team that incorporates advanced dance into routines at athletic events.

News

Jessica Brewster
Jessica Brewster of Sleepy Hollow was awarded the 2012 Diane Duvigneaud Senior Art Award at North Central College.
Aaron Williams, director of the Peace Corps, will deliver the address June 9 at the 147th Commencement ceremony of North Central College.
Artwork by three North Central College students is featured in the exhibit “No Common Cense” through April 30.

News

Careers

Recent graduates in dance include:

  • Ballroom and round dance teacher, St. Charles, IL
  • Instructor of modern dance, BDA Dance, Crest Hill, IL
  • Instructor of jazz and hip hop dance, Naperville Park District, Naperville

Feature

Mychall Cornejo

Dance

As Mychall considered different colleges and universities, North Central’s liberal arts program stood out. “I realized I could pursue a medical career while still being involved in music and theatre and earn a dance minor.”

Mychall’s goal is to become a physical therapist or other medical professional who treats performers, so he’s majoring in exercise science while studying dance. He has experience with gymnastics, ballroom dance and hip hop and has choreographed children’s theatre. At North Central, he has performed in “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “The Wedding Singer.”

In preparing for a possible medical career, Mychall has shadowed doctors and nurses and worked as a pharmacy technician. “However, if a door to performing opened for me, I’d take it, whether it’s dancing or performing theatrically. North Central can open so many doors to your future as long as you take advantage of what it has to offer.”

Feature

Kristin Arredia

Psychology major, dance minor

Kristin has been dancing since she was 10. When she came to North Central, she wanted to major in psychology—but she also wanted to continue dancing. “The dance minor allowed me to do that," she says.

But Kristin did much more than simply maintain her skills here—she also achieved new technical milestones, performed for large audiences and formed lasting friendships within North Central’s tight–knit dance community.

Kristin’s honors thesis—which she presented at the Rall Symposium for Undergraduate Research and at the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research—coupled her artistic passion for dance and choreography with her desire to understand the psychology of aesthetic perceptions.