We are considering attending the Pace Fall Intensive/Audition. Does anyone think there are advantages to auditioning at the intensive versus attending an audition closer to home, ie., Dallas?
Same question for the Jazz Workshop/Audition in Arizona? I just found out they are auditioning here in Houston which wouldn’t require us to travel to AZ and now considering traveling to NY instead. Any thoughts on advantages to either?
We had mixed feelings about that. In some cases it was easier to stand out in the smaller group during an audition tour (D18 was waitlisted from an onsite audition then reauditioned during their tour, which included both college applicants and potential summer intensive students, so the overall standard was lower, and was then admitted). But visiting the college for the audition is the best way to see if you’ll fit in.
If it’s affordable to travel there, I’d prioritize whatever gives you the chance to get auditions out of the way in the fall, to avoid overload in January (we had 9 auditions scheduled in 5 weeks then) and you can potentially find out the results sooner in some cases. Early positive results are a huge boost to confidence and the experience helps too. And some programs also let you reaudition in January if you didn’t pass the audition in the fall.
If the two fall auditions clash, then look at what your schedule might be with other auditions in January to see if you’ll run into any clashes if you do the local tour audition instead. We started that process early on and it helped to limit the number of potential conflicts (we ended up having multiple Sat-Sun or Sat-Mon audition weekends to coordinate in different parts of the state).
The only advice I can really add, having no experience with Pace itself, is that I mistakenly thought that auditioning on site would somehow be better than auditioning at a regional audition, and I didn’t realize that re-auditioning was a realistic possibility. But as Twoin18 pointed out, it just doesn’t seem to matter for some schools. I know of another dancer with a similar story - waitlisted after fall audition, admitted after re-auditioning later that winter. So if it saves time and money and possibly gives results sooner, auditioning locally sounds like a good option to me. Again, I have no experience with Pace, however, so maybe that isn’t the case with them. Hopefully others can chime in.
Pace is a small and unique program with a specific dancer in mind - commercial jazz- and therefore even more competitive. Depending on how high this program is on your list I would want to audition early to get the early results as if it’s a no-you May add additional Schools on ur list. A friend had pace as #1 and did the fall intensive- it was a no and they had to scurry to add other options as they had been super confident it would be a yes… My daughter did the first on site audition and the results last year were not given out until late March. Not sure if the notifications schedule will be the same this year but the question is are you willing to wait until March to know ur answer…