Summer Intensives are here! Audition season is upon us! The stress of it all is overwhelming. Everyone is thinking the same thing, are summer courses even going to happen? Once you can get your mind around that, you start to wonder what is next? What program is right for you? Where is this all even leading?
What are some of the best programs out there? Ballet has changed so much in the last ten years, and probably even more so in the last two years than ever before. When it comes to deciding on a program, here are things to consider:
How old are you? If you are ages 16+, you will want to go to a summer course attached to a company in hopes of securing a traineeship or spot in the school.
English National Ballet School
What are you looking for? Are you looking to try the Balanchine Technique? Are you looking to try the Russian method? Are you looking to catch your technique up?
Is it even right to go away? The answer is going to depend on where you are in your ballet journey and what you are looking for.
Professional schools are schools attached to a company. As it stands, with companies hiring new directors, it means the schools will be changing as well, what they are looking for, and the aesthetic they are after. Here is a list of summer courses associated with companies.
Kansas City Dance School
–San Francisco Ballet School (new artistic director is taking over, but it seems that the current school director will be staying on.)
Pre-professional schools have definitely replaced professional schools when it comes to training. Power schools have made their presence known through competition, and now are dominating the job placement market. Smaller class sizes, more individualized training, and attention to detail have allowed these schools to create some of the best dancers around the world.
Summer courses around the US happen at every school. It is a way to expose kids to a professional environment and enhance their training. Here are even more programs to consider this summer!When you don’t have much experience outside your home studio, figuring out which of many summer dance programs best suits you is difficult. As a young dancer, your worst fear may be to arrive at a dance intensive only to discover that you don’t enjoy the atmosphere of the program and are going to be stuck there for several weeks of your summer.
Ellison Ballet Summer Intensive Audition Tour
Sixteen-year-old, Divya Rea from Wheaton, Illinois and Noah Miller, 17 years old, from Lake Forest, California faced the same fears and decisions in their hunt for the right summer dance program. They found the Houston Ballet Academy summer intensive and now attend the school’s year-round program in Texas’s largest city.
Noah began looking out of state for a summer dance program when he was fifteen after receiving a very direct signal that it was time.
“I was approached at YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) and given the offer and knew that people were beginning to look at me and I needed to be seen by more people, ” he says.
Best Summer Intensives
It was important to Noah that a program’s teachers look at each individual student and care for them. He also took into account his future, considering the types of dancers the companies usually hired.
Shelly Power, Houston Ballet Academy Director (who will begin her new role as Artistic Director and CEO of Prix de Lausanne this summer), thinks students should experience a variety of summer programs.
“However, ” she adds, “when they are getting close to realizing where they wish to concentrate their future training or time, they should be consistent with one program. This is usually for the older student.”
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Divya has been auditioning for summer dance programs since she was 12 but didn’t feel ready to leave home for the summer until she was 13 years old.
“Not only did I feel ready to take care of myself, ” she remembers, “the director of my home studio told me he thought I was ready to go.”
“Going anywhere new can be scary, especially far away from home. It is normal to worry about where you fit in and what might happen, but don’t let those worries override your excitement. Going to a summer dance intensive is an unforgettable experience. You will meet so many people from different places who all have the same passion for dance that you do. I remember before my first summer program, I would stay awake at night thinking about all the uncertainty in the coming weeks. But, by the end of the six weeks I had made so many new friends and I was reluctant to leave them and go back home.”
The Best Dance Summer Programs For High School Students
Divya chose Houston Ballet’s program as the right one for her from the very beginning. To make that decision she broke the search process into steps, starting with figuring out what she was really looking for in a summer program.
Defining your goals and desires is indeed the first, perhaps most difficult step of the search process and, according to Power, much depends on the level of dedication the student has, the number of years in training, prior attendance, long-term training goals, desire to perform, one’s budget, and more.
“A lot of younger students have never been away from home for 5 or 6 weeks. Many students are not used to dancing 6 days a week all day long, ” says Power. “Coping mechanisms are important when deciding on a summer intensive. Students must be prepared to deal with competition, homesickness, time management, good healthy sleep habits, and injury prevention with maturity and an ability to communicate when one or all of these arrives.”
Summer Ballet Intensive
Houston Ballet offers a three week course in the summer for level 5’s to ease the adjustment for younger students. They also have several resources available to support students, including a nutritionist, athletic/artistic trainers, psychologist, and trained chaperones.
To help summer program students immediately get to know Houston Ballet, they begin with a performance from the company, followed by a performance by the second company, Houston Ballet II. But long before you arrive you should thoroughly research all of or your choices via the web and other resources.
“Students should know something about the company (if the school is attached to a company), the rep of the company, and the teachers of the school, ” explains Power, “and ask themselves ‘why are they choosing this school?’”
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This is the time to have conversations with your home school director in order to “see” yourself more clearly and more clearly define your goals.
Houston Ballet II Ballet Master, Claudio Munoz instructing Houston Ballet Academy students during the 2015 Houston Ballet Summer Intensive Program. (Noah is on the far left.)
After Divya and Noah decided what they wanted from a program they researched programs online, talked to their teachers, and talked to students who attended those programs.
Professional Ballet Education
“The director of my home studio was the first person to tell me it was time to audition for summer programs, ” Divya explains. “He gave me suggestions of which auditions to take and which programs would help me the most. I knew many people from my home studio who had gone to Houston Ballet’s summer program, and they always returned stronger and more artistic.”
“They gave me really good tips on multiple intensives. Throughout the years they have had many of their students go to many programs, so they know a lot about some intensives.”
“The biggest concern for my family is the cost, ” says Noah, “and while I was younger, how far away it was from home, and how long the intensive was.”
Week Summer Intensive
Budgeting, according to Shelly Power, is always a concern for students and their families. She advises that students consider, but not base their decisions solely, on scholarships.
“The student should consider where they want to train first and then decide, if possible, on the offers any schools might make, ” she explains.
Tip: If you are offered a scholarship, respectfully respond on or before the deadlines to improve a school’s ability to manage enrollment, housing, and wait-lists.
Southland Ballet Academy
“They wanted a program that was well chaperoned. I wanted a program that had world-class training, the potential to attend the year-round program, and an intense dance schedule.”
Most company schools, in addition to providing excellent technical and artistic training and giving students first hand experiences with repertoire that reflects what the company performs, also offer city living. This may be a new experience for many students, therefore, it is natural for students and their parents to want it to be a positive one.
Power suggests learning about the city which is home to the intensive you are considering and to ask yourself how you will handle living there.
Summer Intensive Program
“Experiencing how the summer is handled and prepared will give the student an idea of what the year round program will be like, ” she reminds.
“I spent a lot of time looking at sample schedules and thinking about the class offerings, ” she says. “I had countless papers with the pros and cons of each of my options. Once I saw it all in writing, my choice was easy.”
Tip: Divya’s father made a spreadsheet to make her search easier. You can
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