Age for First Contract

[KitriFan]

I've been following the thread 'Do you have to be the best?' and was surprised when Ms Leigh mentioned that getting a contract at under 20 years old wasn't very common anymore. Now I wonder what the normal age range for getting a full company contract is? Would it still be possible for a female at 24 or 25, if she'd gone to college and done a traineeship or apprenticeship with a company first?

[Victoria Leigh]

Anything is possible, KitriFan, and there are no statistics that I know of in terms of "normal age range" for getting a contract.

[KitriFan]

Thanks Ms Leigh. So it's not unheard of that older dancers get contracts too?

I'll be 23 next season and will probably be working with a small company/school, but most likely not as a full company member yet, and am just curious whether my age will be a problem when looking for jobs.

[Victoria Leigh]

Depends on the company, I guess, but I do think that some college grads do get jobs.

[Momof3darlings]

Yes, some college grads are getting jobs, well what is offered as a starting job these days. By this I mean, if the starting rank into a company must be through the Trainee/2nd company program then college grads are sometimes getting those offers as are high school grads. Just like it is rare to get a corp contract out of high school, it is also rare to get a corp contract straight out of college. There are some college exceptions to that (again based on dancer continued focus), but it is possible.

[KitriFan]

Thank you, I'm very glad to hear that!