Summer intensives

[Guest frilly_tutugal]

Hi! I'm 13 and I haven't been able to go to any summer intensives yet. I want to get into a ballet company when I'm older and I was just wondering if the companies look at how many summer intensives you've attended. If not, what do they look for?

Thanks a bunch,

frilly_tutugal

[Mel Johnson]

They don't particularly look at your training background, but they do if they like what they see in the audition. Remember, it's the audition that counts the most in employment hiring. The paperwork is just to identify you further. They want to see how well you dance! They don't care if your entire training has been at Mme. Btfsplk's School of Theatrical Dancing and China-Mending. Attending Summer Intensives is, however, a good way to broaden your knowledge and experience base, and also to network with people who may have something to say someday in hiring you!

[Guest frilly_tutugal]

Are companies interested in the competitions you've done?

Thanks a bunch,

frilly_tutugal

[Guest Misballet]

I think that the more SIs you go to the better prepared you will be for a professional career. They really help with technique so that when you go back to your regular studio you will have something to build on.

[Victoria Leigh]

Competitions like YAGP or Prix de Lausanne might possibly help, but only if you win them. There are some directors who are impressed by that. Others just look at the dancer in front of them at the audition and decide whether they really like them and if they fit into their company or not. Winning a competition, or placing strongly, can help, I guess. But, there are hundreds of working dancers who have not gone that route too.

[hPijsdancer]

Is it okay if you only start doing summer intensives after your first year in high school? I'm not able to go anywhere this year because my parents want me to go to this academic program during the summer instead . Is it still decent if you only go away during your high school years?

 

Also, for next year at auditions, what should I do when they ask me to write down where I went the summer before, even though I didn't go anywhere for ballet?

[Rachie]

i have a question about ballet competitions. i have never come across any for ballet, although i have a lot of school friends who do them for lrical, jazz, modern and hip hop. how common are they? and have you ever heard of any in the Washington State area?

[Victoria Leigh]

hpijsdancer, there is no rule about when to go away to an SI. The important thing is to continue training in the summer, and, hopefully, to get more intensive training than you can do during the school year. Whether you go away or do it at home is not as important as the fact that you do it. Not dancing all summer is not acceptable at all if you plan to remain on a career track.

 

Rachie, there are very few "real" ballet competitions. Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is the major one in this country. They hold regional competitions in major cities around the country, generally during February and March, and then the top people selected from the various regions are invited to NYC to participate in the finals. In the NY finals there are also dancers from several other countries, such as Japan, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.

 

The other major ballet competition for students is the Prix de Lausanne, which is held in Switzerland. Professional dancers enter the International Ballet Competitions, which are held in Moscow, Helsinki, Tokyo, and Jackson, MS. They rotate every 4 four years to one of these cities. There is also a NY competition, and a new one in FL. These are for students, and there is information about them here somewhere on BT.

[hPijsdancer]

Ms. Leigh, I know there is no rule. But I don't think I'll be able to dance more intensively than I do during the school year... I will do lots of swimming and maybe have a personal trainer for pilates and other things, but for ballet, I think I will only be able to do a technique class a day. During the year, I take technique and pointe 6 times a week. Am I okay?

[Victoria Leigh]

At 13, as long as you keep dancing all summer, you will be okay. But, after this year it will be more important to do the intensives.

 

I do have a question, though. Why all the swimming and Pilates and other things instead of more ballet? Does your school not have a more intensive program than the one class a day? If not, is there not another school you could go to that would not mean going away from home?

[hPijsdancer]

My school does have very intensive programs (I go to Boston Ballet) but those programs are during the academic program that my parents REQUIRE me to go to this summer. That program is three weeks at the beginning of the summer, so when I come back home, I will be able to take open adult classes and this august intensive that is 2 weeks. But that is all, sadly.

 

I hope that explains everything.