Company life: Summer options

[K8smom]

Kait's a second year apprentice in a professional company. For various reasons, she's pretty certain that she will not be offered a contract in the spring (although she'd certainly take it if offered!). She will do as many auditions as possible for other companies, but logistically it will be difficult, as she's under contract until late April, and most of the auditions will be long over by then. She is willing to go back into a training situation, but as she will be 20 next fall, the options are limited - I believe that most programs that provide a year or two post-grad will not take her at 20. I believe that Boston takes older students (at least they do in the summer), as does the Cannes program that I asked about on another thread. Does anyone know of any other pre-pro programs that take 20 year olds? Any advice or suggestions will be most appreciated!

[dbleon]

K8'smom

We have been/ are in a similar situation (although thankfully DD has a Nut contract at present).

RWBS has an aspirant program ( dancers take some company classes and perfom when needed ) This is a excellent program. We know of dancers over the 20 age mark currently there.

Hope this is of some small help to you and Kait.

 

P.S. NBS also has a after grad program, though I am not up-to-date on the criteria involved.

[liebs]

I think Joffrey NYC school takes up to age 22. Worth a call.

[dbleon]

Wondering if I could get others' feelings on open auditions vs. taking company classes...what have your experiences been, does this offer a better opportunity for contract offers?

Aslo, have any parents/dancers gone the "private coaching" method to help with this?

Any and all thought's appreciated!

[K8smom]

dbleon and liebs, thanks for the replies. I've already looked at NBS (spendy for non-Canadians ), but didn't realize that RWBS took dancers older than 20 as well. I'll check into Joffrey - but I always thought that theirs was a degree program, which Kait isn't interested in doing. (She just wants to dance, which is why she isn't looking into any of the colleges, which obviously would take a 20-year-old.)

 

dbleon, great question about company class vs. open auditions. I hope that you can get some opinions on this, as Kait's leaning toward the company class route.

[BW]

While you're waiting for some helpful replies you all might like to check out this search I did on "company class" searching "all forums" looking through "the entire thread" showing the results as "posts" from a month ago and older. Scroll through carefully. There will be much that you'll skip over, but there are some good threads/posts - way too many for me to take the time to post links to them all - but you'll see the ones I mean.

[NEB]

Joffrey's trainee program takes older dancers...it's very intensive and very expensive, a little less than a thousand dollars a month for tuition (dance training daily from approx. 10 am to 6 pm daily); and then there is the expense of room and board in NYC. There is financial aid. The training is good. The facility is OK.

[Mel Johnson]

The Joffrey does have students in the Pace University degree program, but those are in the superminority. Most students there over age 18 are simply "Joffrey students".

[K8smom]

Ah, OK. The only one that I know personally has a degree from Joffrey, and is working on his MFA.

 

NEB, thanks for the warning...

[Victoria Leigh]

WSB takes dancers over 18 if we think they are potential for a company within a year or two. At this point in time there is no residence for them, however that may change, so stay tuned.

[mylildancer]

K8smom, did you figure in the currency exchange rate for NBS? It looks like it will be less expensive than Joffrey.

 

Ms. Leigh, how soon do you think you will have residency facilities and what is your targeted age range for them? We would definitely be interested!

[Victoria Leigh]

Not sure, but Ms. Wright mentioned that she wanted to do this. I would assume that she is hoping for next fall, but I don't know if it will happen that quickly or not. The age range would be upper teens to early 20's I would think. Not sure if it would accomodate students still in high school or not. There will not be an academic program.

[its the mom]

K8smom- I would also suggest talking to the Boston people. I know there are students and BBII members that are in the 18-22 range. Although they have no resident facility at this point, I do know they have a group of host families now. In addition, lots of students and BBII members share apartments. The two main teachers for the top level of the school are excellent. If you need any information, please pm me.

[dbleon]

Would any of these take students mid year, i.e January?

[Mel Johnson]

Joffrey has, and still does, to the best of my knowledge.