When my son was ten, he came home from his first summer dance intensive and announced, “I want to get more serious about ballet and I want to do the Youth America Grand Prix.” What?!
So, like any parent who knew nothing about dance, I went and looked up ballet competitions online. The first result that popped up was a documentary called First Position. I read the summary of the movie and thought to myself, “Oh, let’s totally watch this! It will definitely convince him not to do it!”
Wrong.
Now, at this point, Sam didn’t even attend a dedicated ballet school. But, clearly it was time to find one and once we did, it would be time to explain to them why my kid would NOT be doing the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). We eventually found a local ballet studio and, after his trial class, the director came out to talk to me about which level he should be in. We also found out that most students in the school competed in ballet competitions and Sam was invited to join that group. Clearly, this was not going the way I had hoped.
As a former athlete, I never equated ballet with competitions. Oh, how naive I was! We got in the car after that first class and I turned to Sam and said, “You are not doing YAGP.” Silence all the way home. I went upstairs to his room later that night to find him royally peeved with me. He burst into tears as he explained why he simply couldn’t live without doing this competition. So, that marked the beginning of Sam’s competitive ballet career.
At this point in his dance training, he had been part of a recreational studio where most routines were done to the likes of Poker Face and pretty much anything by Adele. This was a huge switch. And, if your dancer has never done a ballet competition, let me tell you what to expect!
Keeping Ballet Competitions In Perspective
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of what to expect, I am seeing a lot more activity out on social media asking if ballet competitions are worth it. Like with everything, it depends. For my son, it was invaluable. But, he stopped doing competitions after age 12, when he moved to a company affiliated ballet school.
If you want to come out of the ballet competition world with your sanity intact, here are few key pieces of advice. First, don’t focus on winning or even placing. Few people place and no one puts where they finished in competitions on their dance resume (unless they won Prix de Lausanne or the Grand Prix at YAGP finals).
Second, emphasize the process, not the outcome. We know it sounds like a cliche, but it’s really true. Your dancer won’t get very many opportunities to pick a variation, rehearse it, perform it on stage and then get feedback on how they did. There are lots of other ways to get performance opportunities, but rarely does a dancer get to be on stage where it’s just them.
Finally, take advantage of every master class available. It’s one thing to see dancers on stage. It’s another to see them in the studio. This will also give your dancer a much clearer picture of how they stack up against the other kids. When my son went to YAGP finals, he was blown away by the other male dancers that he saw perform. And, he was pretty sure he didn’t belong in the same room with any of them.
But, once he got into the master classes, he saw that he wasn’t as far behind as he originally thought. He realized that many of these kids were very, very well rehearsed but that he could hang with them just fine when he got into a studio with them.
In our upcoming interview with Katya and Arkadiy Orohovsky, two former professional dancers and the co-owners of South Mississippi Ballet Theater, they talk, in-depth, about how they prepare their students for ballet competitions, including how they rehearse, how they help their students set goals for each competition and what they think really matters once students arrive at the event.
We’ll be publishing our interview with Katya and Arkadiy on September 13th, so be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode!
What Are Ballet Competitions Really About? (Our Opinion)
We have talked with a number of competition judges, coaches and owners of the events. Based on these conversations and our own experiences with competitions, this is how we describe them: each competition is a big matchmaking service. Of course, they give kids loads of opportunities to learn and variation and perform it. But, what they truly excel is in getting as many kids placed into company affiliated ballet schools and conservatories as possible. They are incredibly successful at it!
This doesn’t just refer to YAGP. The other large competitions, as well as some that are large but more regional, all do this successfully. My son’s studio competed at California Dance Classics (CDC), a competition that holds events in three cities in California. I watched several students from not only our small studio, but many other studios, walk away with scholarships to well-regarded summer programs along with many offers for short term stays for year-round consideration. Competing at CDC is the equivalent of being at one of the bigger YAGP regional locations. Few offers are made at a YAGP regional so in some instances, a competition like CDC may be a better option for dancers.
Competing is not cheap. And, it’s not for everyone. But, it is a great way to get a ton of exposure that a student might not otherwise get. I’m sure people will come out of the woodwork to say that their kid did just fine without competing and they are not wrong. But, if you live in an area that doesn’t have top-level training or the big summer programs don’t come through to hold auditions, competitions can be a great addition to the ballet training mix. And, even for kids, like my son, who had top flight training and access to auditions and large programs, it was worthwhile for him to compete.
There have also been some debate around whether or not competitions attract the top dancers. That may or may not be true. At the senior level, that may be the case because, by that age, a lot of the top dancers are already at company affiliated programs. But, for the kids in the junior levels, the dancers at competitions are pretty talented! While it won’t give you a full picture of the talent out there, it is often a good proxy.
And, with the growth of smaller independent ballet programs adding full-time training, we may see fewer older kids going away to finishing programs. Often, these schools compete, so we may see more dancers at the senior levels who have stuck around until it’s time to head to a trainee program or second company.
For my son, the two best things about competing were getting exposed to boys who were really great dancers and the networking, not only with other boys but also with the teachers who ran master classes. The folks who work at and for these competitions have incredible memories. You would be shocked how many of them remember dancers from years back. One judge we recently spoke with actually remembered my son from when he was 11. Now, that could have been because he went on stage with absolutely the worst stage make-up job known to humankind and he looked like a zombie!
You would also be pleasantly surprised to hear how many of them truly want your dancer to succeed. So, are competitions necessary? No. Can they be a nice complement to a dancer’s training for many reasons beyond just the ballet stuff? Yes.
Ok, so what should a parent expect?
The Preparation
Your studio director or teacher will usually come to the parent and explain which “variation” they want the student to perform. They will usually drop the names of a few different ones and suggest that we think about which would be best. Since I didn’t even know what “variation” meant, that was an easy decision. I just left it to Sam and his teachers to figure it out. And, figure it out they did! Pro-tip to parents: stay out of this process. As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, studio directors and teachers definitely have your child’s best interest at heart.
They likely won’t pick a variation that isn’t a good fit for your dancer. And, if they do, this is a great opportunity to teach your child how to have a mature discussion around it.
Once a variation is recommended or even chosen, your student will probably be told to go watch videos of it. There are loads of them on YouTube – you can find actual professionals performing them or you can find countless versions from past competitions. For the one my son was assigned, Basilio, from Don Quixote, there are currently 133,000 versions on YouTube. So, there is no shortage of material!
Your studio will also probably tell you to go find a costume. Ummm, how? Again, naive ballet parent here. We were given the name of a local costume maker and we put in a call to her. Her reply was, “Well, I’m booked out for about six months but let’s see if I can squeeze him in since it’s a boy and may not take as long.
Before he started ballet, Sam was dancing at a local studio that focused on jazz, tap, hip-hop, etc. Costumes were simply ordered and handed to him. With ballet costumes, it’s a little more involved. Our costume maker came to the house to take measurements and look at fabric samples against Sam’s skin tone. Then, off she went to do her magic. She came back a few more times to do interim fittings and then poof, the costume was done. And, it was gorgeous!
At this point, it makes sense to talk about costume costs. Costumes can be really pricey. But, there are loads of costume shops online that are great and more reasonably priced. In our upcoming interview with Katya and Arkadiy, Katya discusses how to acquire costumes without breaking the bank.
For boys, it’s not always as easy to simply buy something. We went ahead and paid top dollar for Sam’s costume because we didn’t know what else to do. Would we do it again? Probably, and we actually did. Our costume maker ended up doing three different costumes in the subsequent years. The good news is that two of Sam’s costumes are still in circulation amongst boy dancers even seven years later! So, it was money well spent. But, you absolutely do not have to spend a ton of money on costumes!
The Rehearsals
Now that your student has picked their variation and has their costume ordered, it’s time to turn their attention to rehearsals. Your student may be part of an ensemble, a pas de deux or simply a solo or two. Ballet studios handle rehearsals in a variety of ways. In Sam’s case, he took weekly private lessons to learn his variation (and to actually learn proper ballet). This lasted for a few months and then the studio started holding weekly rehearsals on Friday nights after classes ended.
Some studios rehearse far more often than our studio did. We don’t pretend to be experts on this, so I’ll leave the judgment on how often students should rehearse to others. In our interview with the Orohovskys, they talked about their views on how rehearsals should fit into the overall training schedule and I think it was a valuable conversation that listeners will find helpful.
In the case of our studio, the rehearsals turned into a great bonding experience for the parents. The studio that Sam attended was fantastic. But, time management was not their strong suit! It was not uncommon for rehearsals to run late. Like one and two hours late. Once we realized this, Friday nights turned into happy hours and potlucks in the lobby! Another pro-tip for parents: enjoy the prep time – it’s a great way to develop strong friendships with the parents!
Bonus Podcast Episode
We also have a bonus podcast episode with Mark Carlson and Sandra Kerr, the co-directors of the International Ballet School in Denver, CO. Mark and Sandra have a long history taking their students to ballet competitions and we talk to them about how they frame these events with their students. We also talk, at length, about what they see as the benefits of competing.
Look for that episode to be live on September 15th.
Next Week
Ok, that’s all for now! Next week, we’ll be joined by Ilya Kozadayev and Peter Stark to get their thoughts on the value of doing ballet competitions and what students should hope to get out of them. Until then, keep calm and pointe your toes! Oh, and in all seriousness, go watch First Position. It’s a terrific documentary!
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