As they watched the Buckeyes get clobbered between tears, many students might have noticed a commercial boasting Ohio State’s finest. Phrases including “OSU team confirms global climate change,” “Buckeye bullet sets land speed record” and “Smith claims Heisman” are just a few mentioned in the commercial.

“We write, we create, we dance… OSU Dance ranked No. 1,” was also part of this 30-second segment.

In the commercial, OSU dancers were able to show the world what they do. Departmental interim Chair Susan Van Pelt Petry said the university wanted to show the humanities, medicine, science and the arts in the commercial.

A 1996 survey by Dance Teacher magazine ranked the Department of Dance’s graduate program No. 1 and undergraduate No. 2. The small department has 82 undergraduate students and 27 graduate students, said Misty Kerns, undergraduate program liaison.

Petry said the survey was based on “curriculum, quality and visibility of faculty, you know, ‘big names,” and that the department’s graduate students get teaching jobs in higher education almost 100 percent of the time.

Petry said no survey has been conducted since 1996, but OSU’s dance program is still one of the best in the country.

“We are certainly still among the top five and considered very highly within our peers,” Petry said.

Melissa Nagel, 22, transferred from Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas to the OSU department of dance this year.

“I auditioned many places, but once I got in, I wanted to go here,” she said.

Nagel said she knew that OSU could challenge her mentally, physically and choreographically.

“I knew it was one of the top-ranked programs and it was my first choice,” she said.

The commercial, although short, showed Nagel’s beliefs to viewers. It was filmed during Christmas break and took four hours to create, Petry said.

“It was super fun and it was shown on national TV,” said Erin Hulfitz, a junior in dance who participated in the commercial. Although Hulfitz did not have a speaking part, she was among the group of dancers in the background creating a cascading image of modern dance movement.

Petry said department rankings are important.

“Rankings are a quick, easy way to say how good you are,” Petry said.

This is something art departments struggle to prove, Petry said. Professional colleges, such as law and business, get ranked all the time, however, not all the time in the arts.

“In the arts, job placement is problematic,” Petry said. Dancers have what Petry calls “portfolio careers,” or many jobs that dancers themselves make up. Therefore, the department tries to give them “the best education possible,” said Karen Bell, dean of the College of the Arts.

Bell said students in the Department of Dance receive a broad and deep education in dance.

“Students who graduate from our program are well-grounded in technical, creative and scholarly work meaning they can dance, create and think,” Bell said.

A ranking such as this helps recruit and advertise and Petrey said, “they do mean something.” “Dance has always been a leading program for Ohio State,” said OSU president Karen A. Holbrook.

Along with the ranking from Dance Teacher, Petry said the department was one of the founding members accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance. According to its Web site, NASD is an association of approximately 60 schools of dance, mostly at the collegiate level but also including pre-collegiate and community schools of dance.

To stay on top, the department remains selective, accepting only 20 percent of its applicants, Petry said.

“The department is always in the forefront of education and research in dance. Most recently they created a Ph.D. in Dance that will accept its first students this fall,” said dean of the College of the Arts, Karen Bell.

“It’s an exciting time right now for us,” Petry said. “There’s more writing about dance and we’ve grown up a lot. Modern dance in higher education. is opening up and is seen more and more in pop culture. I see it in commercials… It’s a new era… It’s in the air.”

Erika Gee can be reached at [email protected].