With help from Bruce McCormick and Career Services, students leave Kaufman able to get jobs and also equipped with an entrepreneurial toolbox that will help set them up for success. 

By Jana F. Brown

During a 2024 swing through Germany, USC Kaufman Associate Professor of Practice Bruce McCormick stopped to check in on Anthony Tette ’22. 

Tette’s desire to join the professional ranks was realized a year after finishing his undergraduate degree, as he joined Staatsballett Berlin, where he’s now a demi-soloist. McCormick describes the pride he felt hearing the alumnus discuss how his education at Kaufman prepared him for the future. 

“Getting to hear him talk about all he learned at Kaufman,” McCormick says, “and how it prepared him to be successful in both the ballet and contemporary rep they’re doing in Berlin, as well as navigate the busyness of that company, was really satisfying to see.”

For McCormick, the “busyness” business of student dance careers beyond Kaufman has been his actual business since joining the Career Services team when it launched in 2018. After helping to shepherd members of the Class of 2019 toward their postgraduate dance careers, McCormick has gone on to serve as team lead and co-director for “Senior Spotlights,” the annual fall industry showcase. The Spotlights offer an opportunity for graduating students to demonstrate their talent in solo and ensemble performances featuring styles of their choosing. To encourage networking and visibility for the dancers, McCormick and the Career Services team invite industry professionals, including agents, directors, choreographers, and managers, to watch the performances.

“We like to think of it as an introduction or a coming out party,” McCormick explains, “so our students have the opportunity to be seen by these industry leaders in the comfort of their own home before going out to auditions.”

The event has generated immediate results as some students have been signed by agents, offered contracts, or invited to bypass initial audition rounds. But Career Services does much more than the Spotlights, including hosting panels that introduce Kaufman dancers to additional networking and industry knowledge. For example, Assistant Professor of Practice Saleemah E. Knight, who has significant experience in the commercial dance world, moderated an agent’s panel this past fall. In the spring, McCormick hopes to host a panel about assisting choreographers as a career path.

“We’re always looking for different ways to help our students navigate the financial and business side of dance,” he says.

In the Senior Spotlights and elsewhere in his role at Kaufman, McCormick finds his greatest satisfaction in witnessing student development. He describes seeing the growth of the dancers in the Class of 2026 from the beginning of the semester through their own Spotlights as “one of my most satisfying experiences at Kaufman.”

Drawing from his own extensive run as a professional dancer on the international stage, McCormick understands what it takes to build a successful career. After completing his undergraduate degree at Juilliard, the New Jersey native performed professionally with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, and Bern Ballet in Switzerland, where he was a soloist and ballet master. McCormick also served as assistant artistic director of North Netherlands Dance and guest rehearsal director with Ballet BC.

Upon returning to the U.S., McCormick earned his MFA at the University of Washington and worked there as a professor for three years before joining the faculty at USC Kaufman. At Kaufman, he teaches Ballet, Partnering, Allegro, Repertory and Performance, Fourth-Year Seminar, and Fourth-Year Lab.

With a focus on contemporary ballet choreography, McCormick has published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at academic conferences. In the spring semester, he’s launching a new Contemporary Ballet Lab, combining his research interests with teaching. The course will explore the question of what makes ballet contemporary through a blend of McCormick’s choreography, student research of contemporary choreographers, and original student creations. 

His work in Career Services includes comprehensive support through the Fourth-Year Seminar and Lab courses, which McCormick co-teaches with Lecturer and Grammy-winning artist Grasan Kingsberry. While the lab focuses on performance preparation, the seminar details the business aspects of dance, including helping to arrange headshots and dance photography, résumé writing and biography editing, assistance with performance reel creation, and providing individual career mentorship. 

Within all this, McCormick acknowledges the evolving landscape of professional dance, noting that funding models are shifting as organizations increasingly rely on individual donors in an unpredictable economy. This reality shapes his approach to student preparation.

“[We’re focused on] helping our students leave Kaufman with the ability to get those jobs but also equipped with an entrepreneurial toolbox that will help better set them up for success,” McCormick explains. “We continuously endeavor to find new ways to be supportive within the context of a rapidly changing field and stimulate their growth as much as possible, so they walk out of the program not necessarily as finished products, but as artists ready to evolve with this evolving field.”

McCormick notes that Kaufman’s relatively small cohort allows for individualized attention and reports that USC graduates have found employment across a diverse range of dance opportunities. Recent alumni are dancing with professional ballet companies, from Staatsballett Berlin to Oregon Ballet Theatre, to contemporary ensembles, including Ballet BC and Saint Louis Dance Theatre. They’re also finding commercial success within the entertainment industry, including tours with Kendrick Lamar, Usher, and Doja Cat, among others. This is not only a testament to Career Services, but to the students’ talent and exceptional faculty.

In addition to touring with Usher, Helen “Shimmey” Gratch ’19 danced at the halftime show of Super Bowl LVIII with the R&B artist, while Onye Stevenson ’24 was a member of the ensemble on the most recent season of “Dancing with the Stars” and Kayla Goldsberry ’23 is currently on a national tour with “Phantom of the Opera” after finishing up a similar run with “Wicked.” Meanwhile, William Okajima ’24 and Juliette Ochoa ’21 landed on Dance Magazine’s 2026 list of “25 to Watch.” 

All of this makes McCormick proud, both of the students and the Career Services team, but he acknowledges there’s always more work to be done. A decade into its existence, USC Kaufman is beginning to take advantage of its growing alumni network and is enlisting its graduates to participate in panels on topics such as how to navigate a freelance career in Los Angeles or how to manage a career in Europe. 

No matter where Kaufman graduates end up, McCormick adds, “They’re very excited to come back and share their experiences.”