When Genevieve Waldorf was a senior in high school, she felt conflicted about what to do next. “You’re on this cusp of deciding your future,” remembers the Pacific Northwest Ballet corps dancer. “I knew I wanted to go to college—it was really important for me to receive higher education and earn a degree. But I also wanted to pursue a career in professional dance.” Rather than choose just one path, Waldorf made the then-unconventional decision not to decide.

When the nation’s top college dance teams gathered at the Universal Dance Association Nationals in Orlando earlier this year, few could have predicted the millions who would be soon watching worldwide. The annual competition, in which college dance teams perform across a number of divisions in jazz, hip-hop, and pom categories, attracted a massive audience […]