ABT Jackie Onassis School

[DanceMumNYC]

If I recall correctly, they used to have 3 or 4 levels in the pre-pro division anyway, so it seems like a revert to that based on the schedule. 

[Z1ggy]

Does JKO accept dancers if they only have their senior year remaining, or do they usually want them to start younger?  Thank you!

[vrsfanatic]

They accepted a student from The HARID Conservatory, the summer after her Junior year in high school. She did one year in JKO as a senior in high school, one year in Studio Co. and is now in the corps de ballet of ABT. It is pretty tough to get into ABT without going through either JKO or the Studio Co. They currently have one of our young men in the Studio Co who will hopefully receive his corps de ballet contact soon. Who knows with COVID.

[Liana26]

On 5/19/2020 at 5:44 AM, DanceMumNYC said:

Does anyone know how many students from the children’s division made it into the pre-prof division last year (2018-2019) & this current year?

Wondering the same!

[vrsfanatic]

I would suggest you call JKO to get the actual answer to your question. What you will not know is the enrollment versus how many simply chose not to continued in ballet, how many actually wanted to attend the professional division and how many were invited to attend.

[sdancer2007]

Does anyone know if ABT cuts students every year from the pre-prof division? Upper 1,2 do they have a final evaluation to decide if the student continues?

 

[tamtam]

Has anyone received acceptances to JKO from SI auditions or know from past years about when those emails start to go out?  I know our SI acceptance said the JKO emails would come later in February.

[SFBB]

Big news from the school yesterday:  https://www.abt.org/cynthia-harvey-to-depart-as-artistic-director-of-abt-jko-school/

[InTheWings]

Does anyone have current or recent experience with the pre-professional division at JKO?  This is their Upper 1, Upper 2, and Upper 3 levels.

I would like to hear about people's experiences with the program and housing.

Also, I'm wondering how big the upper levels are.  It is striking me that there isn't much conversation here about JKO's pre-professional division and I'm wondering if it's because the levels are actually small so not that many people attend.

Thanks!

[SupportStaffMom]

Wanted to share our experience from this year with audition/timetables.

DD age 15 wanted to audition for JKO year round so we attended a joint summer and ABT year round audition during the regular summer intensive audition cycle in Orange County on Jan 22nd.  They designate the dual audition sites on the summer intensive audition schedule.

She received her acceptance to the ABT summer program on Jan 26th after her audition.

She received her waitlist notification for ABT JKO year round on March 8, 2023.  The email said they would notify people on the waitlist in June of 2023 and if you were attending summer you could request to be re-evaluated for year round.

A friend of hers also auditioned at the same summer intensive audition, and was also accepted for summer.  Received notification that she was accepted to JKO Upper 2 level on March 8, 2023 with a deadline to register of May 1st. 

Both had declined their summer offers at ABT.

I was looking for how the ABT JKO year round audition process works earlier in the year so I thought this might help others looking to audition for JKO next year:) 

[InTheWings]

Hi SupportStaffMom, thank you for sharing your timeframe!

Has anyone else received JKO results from a combined SI/JKO audition on the tour? If an email hasn't arrived I wonder if the JKO results might be visible in the student portal.

[momof5dancers]

@SupportStaffMom Thank you for teaching me something new today.  I didn't know that you had to attend a certain audition to be considered for ABT JKO School.  I thought everyone was being considered for it and I didn't know it was only certain locations.  Ugh.  We were not at one that was.  Is there any rhyme or reason why only certain locations are targeted for this?

[SupportStaffMom]

Not sure if there is a reason but Stella Abrera was at the audition we attended which I thought was awesome.  So maybe they do that so she can be at each audition for year round. 

The downside is that we had to wait for the audition and by the time it happened commitment deadlines for other auditions had already come about, so that was something I will pay more attention to next time. We ended up committing to SAB before the ABT audition:(   

I have also learned that they do hold another year round audition after the summer auditions are over so that is an option too.

[momof5dancers]

@SupportStaffMom Thanks.  That does make sense if Stella Abrera is at each audition that they do for year round.  I will have to pay attention to that next year.  Learning, learning, learning everyday about this.   I wonder if the locations that are doing the year round change from year to year.

I did see they have an audition in NYC on April 1st.  

Same thing happened to one of my dancers with committing to SAB before the ABT audition even happened.

[SFBB]

Last year they also held auditions during the SI for students who were attending and wanted to be considered for year round.