ballet parents: can you help with SI questions?

College Majors Dance Major
1

<p>I know that several CC parents have experience with this, and I'd be grateful for their opinions! My 16 y/o d, a junior, is an advanced level dancer at a well-regarded (not pre-professional) local ballet school. After several years of deciding to remain at her home studio for summer training, she's wondering about auditioning for summer intensive programs this year. I've always smiled and nodded when her friends' parents discussed the SI audition circuit, pretending I understood what they were talking about and secretly relieved not to have anything to do with it. Now I'm really feeling my ignorance.</p>

<p>First - is there any point in auditioning at her advanced age? She is a strong avocational dancer, but has no intention of pursuing a dance career, or even a dance major (though she'd like to minor in dance at a college with a strong program). Are most SIs for older girls reserved for potential company members? </p>

<p>Can anyone recommend less selective SIs that offer good training and a nurturing residential experience? The top tier SIs would certainly be out of her reach, and I understand that these include PNB, ABT New York, Chatauqua Institute, etc. Would most SIs for ballet schools attached to professional companies be too selective? Would smaller companies, such as Providence Festival Ballet and Richmond Ballet, offer more inclusive SIs? Of course, I think she's a wonderful dancer, but it's hard to know how to evaluate her objectively. She's received excellent parts in studio productions, is strong on pointe, and turns well - but she sees that she is not as good as her friends who have gone to top SIs.</p>

<p>Also - I know the top schools have very stringent standards for body type, especially among the older girls. My d wears a size 4, is 5'5" tall and weighs 120-125 lbs (posted with permission) - and she wonders if she'd be the biggest kid in class at an SI, or if she'd be cut at an audition after 20 minutes at the barre because of her "size." She has a very healthy mindset about weight/eating, and I wouldn?t like to expose her to any more craziness than she already gets at her home studio, where a close friend is being treated for anorexia and another advanced student is admittedly bulimic. </p>

<p>I want her to go away this summer for some sort of residential program, to help her see what it's like to be far from home for several weeks. She's applied to some academic programs, and may decide to do one of those even if she is accepted at an SI. I'm surprised she?s interested, after all this time, but ballet is what she most enjoys doing, though she knows it won't be her life's work.</p>

<p>Many thanks for reading this long post and for any suggestions you may have. I've spent several hours on a ballet forum, but I think it will be easier to find a straight answer to my questions here :). Experts?</p>

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<p>Sorry about all the bizarre punctuation in the post above! I don't know why I've got all the question marks ... I'll try to edit them out.</p>

3

<p>I'm definitely not a dancer, but given that she's also applying to academic programs and wants a chance away from home, I just wanted to suggest she think about being a camp counselor and teach dance. At her age I'm not sure how it would work, exactly, but she may want to look into that. Congratulations on raising a healthy, confident daughter involved in dance; that can be such a difficult atmosphere to grow up in.</p>

4

<p>I don't think your D needs to be pursuing a dance major in college or a career in dance to do a summer dance intensive. </p>

<p>Some girls from our dance studio have done these summer programs:</p>

<p>Ailey School Summer Intensive Program
SUNY Purchase
Bates Dance Festival
Burklyn Ballet Theatre Summer Program
University of the Arts
Paul Taylor Summer Intensive</p>

<p>You may also want to check out:</p>

<p>Walnut Hill
Interlochen
UMich Mpulse Summer Dance Institute
Skidmore College Summer Dance Workshop
Tisch School of the Arts at NYU
North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Session in Dance
Boston Ballet School Summer Program
Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Limon Summer Dance
Princeton Ballet School</p>

<p>and there's the one with the NYC Ballet at Saratoga Springs, not sure what that is officially called.</p>

5

<p>As the mother of a past prepro dancer, I would like to recommend that you check out this ballet forum: <a href="http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?&lt;/a> Go to the forum- Parents of Dancer 13+. Post your question there and you will get a list of SI's that either don't require an audition or those that might fit your daughters needs. I have been out of the loop for several years, so I don't want to suggest a program that might have changed over the years. Also, have your daughter look at the listings in Pointe Magazine or Dance Magazine; most programs have ads for their summer progams. Auditions have already started, so get your homework done!</p>

<p>Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and I will try to help if I can. </p>

<p>I just noticed you are in New York; are you in the city or close enough to commute? I believe STEPS has a day program and might even have a residence summer program. Don't quote me on that!!</p>

6

<p>Auditions are starting right now for the SI's. Have her audition for at least four. The group auditions are actually kind of fun and exciting. Check the websites of the ballet studios to see what the requirements are. Some require certain pictures of dance positions. Some will take videos. My D was at Ballet Austin and there was a variety of levels and body types.</p>

7

<p>My daughters (17 & 13) have both attended ABT SI. They are good strong dancers, but not professional material. The first tier is SAB and PNC. My older daughter attended ABT's Orange County SI for 2 years. She loved it, everyday was a beautiful day. My younger one attended the one in Detroit. She said that she had a time of her life. ABT has a great SI program. The girls are fairly normal - not petite. My girls are tall, 5'7". They do not have the perfect SAB body, but felt perfectly comfortable at ABT. My kids did not think the girls were very competitive or cut throat. Orange County is only 3 weeks in August. They are auditioning right now. Go to <a href="http://www.abt.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.abt.org&lt;/a> to check out audition schedule. My girls audition in NY. Yes, there are usually hundreds of girls. It could be a bit intimidating the first time, but it's part of the experience. My daughters also only dance locally and are at the highest level of their school (it's one of the best schools locally), but they wanted validation.</p>

8

<p>There is a wonderful program in Vermont for the more recreational dancer, Burklyn Ballet. There are many ages and body types and the great thing is the have a performance every Saturday night. My daughter attended for four years as a much younger student, but there were many older dancers.</p>

9

<p>I'd like to give a four-star rec to the Jillana summer intensive held at Taos Ski Valley (NM)!!! Not quite as non-competitive as Burklyn but with a wide range of skill-level and body types. The style is Balanchine, so your D would have to be okay with that...my D loved it. (While home over the holidays she was still wearing her Jillana sweatshirt a lot and it's been years since she attended.) The program usually has a few kids from SAB attending (because of the Balanchine connection). It's a gorgeous environment and it's literally at the end of the road...they're in a ski resort without any big-city concerns. D loved the resort-style townhouses they used for lodging.</p>

<p>Jillana is getting up in years but she has great assistants and terrific guest teachers rotating in...and I hope I have half the energy Jillana does when I'm her age.</p>

<p>They'll meet your D at the airport in Albuquerque and shuttle her to/from the camp. Of course, you might feel that you'd have to go pick her up yourself after watching the end-of-camp performance and then get stuck spending a few days in Santa Fe, which is a real trial...oh, yes, a trial.</p>

10

<p>Bates Dance Festival (listed by soozievt) does not require an audition; it is a two week program and includes jazz, African dance, hip hop and modern.</p>

<p>Of the ones listed by soozievt, I would say Walnut Hill, NCSA, Boston Ballet and Jacob's Pillow (only accept a handful) are more selective as these programs go.</p>

<p>Paul Taylor, University of Michigan, Limon (especially!) will be modern focused.</p>

<p>My daughter has attended Burklyn (at ages 10 & 11), Walnut Hill and Long Beach Ballet, feel free to PM if you'd like more details.</p>

11

<p>Thanks, everyone, for your input! I feel as if I have a lot of catching up to do, and not much time to do it in, since audition season is already underway.</p>

<p>Snowball, thank you for posting the link to the Ballet Talk forum. I actually read that fairly regularly, and developed most of my trepidations about the selectivity and weight issues as a result :) . Maybe there's simply too much information there for me to process? I get the impression that the mods discourage posting questions until one has done an extensive search to see if a question has come up previously. With limited time and resources, I'd like my d to have some idea going in about which SI programs are realistic possibilities for her, and which simply aren't. (And I hope that same realistic POV will kick in next fall when she's applying to colleges ... ) </p>

<p>Burklyn was one that popped up on her radar screen - thank you for the other suggestions. She'd never heard of Bates, but now thinks it looks interesting. Jillana sounds wonderful, of course! One of d's current teachers danced in the corps at NYCB 30 years ago, and teaches in the Balanchine style, though I can't say my d is a natural disciple :) .</p>

<p>Another question: has anyone's child auditioned via video/DVD, and have they been accepted as a result? That sounds more appealing to me than spending the next several weekends in the car.</p>

12

<p>frazzled, since we live on the East Coast, my daughter did a video audition for Long Beach and was accepted.</p>

<p>We arranged for a private session with one of her teachers. I provided a list of requirements beforehand (gleaned from Ballet Talk), and I did the videotaping as well as the editing.</p>

<p>The actual taping took about 2 hours last year and 1 1/2 hours this year.</p>

13

<p>I have heard the Milwaukee Ballet has a very good ( I think that is the name) summer program. You also might want to go to: <a href="http://www.danceart.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.danceart.com&lt;/a>
and check their "residency programs" board. You can post questions there and people are usually quite helpful. I know there are also several programs that are non audition. People also speak very highly of these programs.</p>

14

<p>A lot of girls from our studio did Bates for several summers. I should have clarified that while all of the girls studied ballet and pointe (as did my own daughter), they also studied jazz, modern, tap, hip hop, etc. at our dance studio which is not ONLY a ballet studio. My daughter did not go to summer dance intensives like her counterparts at the highest levels of our dance studio because she is in musical theater (where dance is ONE THIRD of the skills required) and spent 8 summers away at a theater intensive. She danced almost every day at our dance studio but was the only one going into musical theater. Several girls have gone on to dance BFA programs but many have gone on to regular colleges like the OP's daughter wants to do and dance is still an interest or maybe a minor but not their career goal.</p>

15

<p>My D (who will be doing NYU Tisch dance next fall) has been doing SIs since the age of 12. Alot of those places suggested are very body conscious ....especially if she is already 16. At that age they start looking for people for their companies. If she is doing this to become a better dancer, or just to have fun, she might look elsewhere. If she is looking for fun, try steps (NYC) summer program. Not very demanding dance wise and she can attend as many or few weeks as she wants. I recomend staying away from any ballet company intensive for her. The dancers are very serious and they are very competitive. If she wants to work hard and get better over the summer, try CPYB (Central Pensylviania Youth Ballet). They don't have auditions, just placement classes to find where you belong. She might find herself dancing with 13 year olds there. They call the place "Ballet Boot camp". If she goes there, I garrentee she will come out a better dancer (or possibly quite all together). You might want to try Studio Maestro (NYC) (4 weeks in August). Very nurturing, not too body conscious, and outstanding training! Good luck to you both</p>

16

<p>When D was in this stage of her life, she did ABT Detroit. Had the time of her life. Then got chosen the next year for ABT NYC. Hated it. Worsened an injury that eventually led her to stop dancing....Used to be that the girls who fit your D's description did Ballet Met in Cleveland or the Joffrey in NYC. BTW, D wasn't destined to be a professional either, at just over 5' 9" she would have had to be a superstar. However, when she was dancing seriously she weighed in naturally at 118, so the ballet types loved her look. I think you are really smart to be aware of these issues. I always said that if D hadn't been genetically thin I would have been very careful about putting her into ballet classes. Because, heck, in the normal world, who at 5' 5" wouldn't love to weigh 120-125? As my son tells me, mom, these days Beyonce is the model....I only wish the girls believed it.</p>

17

<p>Since you are somewhere in NY, consider NYSSSA (NY State Summer school for the Arts). Although this is fairly competitive, depending on the age and the year, the audition is FREE, and the summer intensive is VERY inexpensive (as such things go), the instruction is topnotch, and this is the intensive in Saratoga where the dancers go to all the NYC Ballet performances. There are auditions held in 4 locations in the state,</p>

18

<p>My D did Joffrey on scholarship a few years ago and hated it! It was so crowded there was no room at the barre. The afternoon ballet classes (double up) put 50 plus kids in a class that would fit 20-25 at most. By the way, a friend of hers was taken into NYC Ballet the year before last and she is taller than 5'9" (just a shade under 5' 10" I think). This year Peter Martins is on a "little kick". The new apprentices are all pretty small except for Tabitha Rinko-Gay (5' 7 1/2"). My D thought ABT was way too crowded too. Her August SI at Studio Maestro had as few as 7-16 in her level depending on which week.</p>

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<p>NYSSSA is VERY body conscience. If frazzeled1 is conserned about her daughter's size and feels her D might not be as advance as other girls for her age, this would not be such a good choice for her.</p>

20

<p>Joffrey NYC may be too crowded, but for a truly wonderful experience, there is Joffrey Workshop San Antonio. My D did two summers there during hs and loved every minute of it. She made some wonderful friends who were actually from NYC and went to the Joffrey NYC school during the academic year. The NY girls said the reason they went to San Antonio was because the NY school got too crowded during the summer. I will say that she met a girl at Joffrey SA who came to San Antonio one summer straight from Jacobs Pillow and D felt like this was the only girl at Joffrey who could be described as anorexic. The rumor was that being too thin was the only way to get in Jacobs Pillow.</p>

<p>The Joffrey San Antonio workshop is very well run; they take excellent care of your D, and there are a wide variety of body types. I think that's because the Joffrey as a company is not so much into thin as ABT and SAB are. While an injury eventually caused D to decide for a regular college education over ballet, she and we would never ever trade the value of her having spent those summers training with some of the most talented, inspiring, giving and passionate people you will ever meet. D based her main killer app essay on the life lessons she learned at Joffrey Workshop.</p>

<p>D also trained at Atlanta Ballet when she was eleven and they have many different levels and several different sessions and programs. Two girls from her ballet studio spent two summers at CPYB and that is another excellent place that does not focus on being thin and accepts and trains many different body types. In general you will find that companies with a more modern dance than strict ballet focus are more lenient on the body type thing.</p>

<p>If you can afford it and she gets in - send her! It's a great way to get a taste of being away from home and Joffrey and CPYB both put the girls up in college dorms, so they really do get a preview of what that is all about. Good luck!</p>