Over the past eleven years or so I have danced at several different studios in my general locality, and visited and watched even more. It seems to me that modern is rarely offered in the general, monthly-pay type of studio. As a matter of fact I have *yet* to find a studio that offers it. BUT every college and university we have with dance programs teaches it, either as a major or as support for a diverse dance degree. I find it curious that it seems to abund in universities and be nearly absent in studios, unless, of course, it is only in my corner of the country that this trend appears. It is almost as if people are expected to magically know the basic steps and concepts of modern dance once they graduate from high school. There appears to be a gap in the education/training process in this respect. Is this a common situation? If so, why is it like this?

Laughterdance, I haven't had a problem finding drop-in modern classes in Canada's major centres (Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, etc.), but in smaller Canadian cities and towns it can be a problem.

There are studios that teach modern for children, but you usually find them in larger urban centres as well. In Toronto, Canada, two schools that come to mind are Canadian Children's Dance Theatre and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

IMHO the number of studios teaching ballet reflects our cultural ideals of what represents a "dancer." Many parents like to call their children "ballerinas" even though we all know that's (*cough*) rarely the case but the parents are paying the tuition. This came up in the <a href="http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000379&p=">Teaching Pre-Schoolers </a> and the <a href="http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000381&p=">Introducing Modern </a> topics. Another factor in leaving off modern training until late teens specifically involves Graham technique and the contraction. Some teachers think it's not a style to teach children. I'm not a teacher so I can't tell you if this is because of the physicality of the work or if people just think it's unsuitable in terms of imagery. This was discussed in this <a href="http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000523&p=">Syllabi-Modern/Contemporary</a> topic.

<small>[ 11-02-2002, 00:25: Message edited by: Marie ]</small>