In this blog, we offer insights and guidance based on our years of experience raising serious ballet dancers. We cover a range of topics, including the benefits of ballet, selecting the right ballet school, supporting your child’s training, and navigating the challenges of the dance world.
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Tips For Nailing Your Summer Intensive Auditions
Updated: January 5, 2026 – Happy New Year everyone! The day has finally arrived! Summer intensive auditions! You’ve been waiting for this day (or days) since your dancer came home from last summer’s intensive. Or, maybe this is your first go ‘round with the audition season. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned ballet lobby
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Why Choose a Company Experience for Summer Ballet Training?
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about a more specialized type of summer ballet intensive called a “Company Experience” or “Choreography Workshop.” Seriously? Another summer program? Actually, we think this new development in summer ballet training is pretty cool. Several ballet programs have implemented these over the years and they appear to be growing in popularity.
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Finally—Real Reviews of Local Ballet Programs
Until now, if you wanted to get a sense of the ballet training available in your local area, your best bet was to ask around. Maybe post in a Facebook group. Maybe text a friend-of-a-friend. Hope that the reviews from ten years ago on Yelp are actually real? But real, detailed insight into what a
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The Waiting Game
**This is a guest post from Elizabeth Sullivan, founder of The Dancer’s Coach** Now that audition season is coming to a close, several dancers, especially those waiting on offers, report feeling a little uninspired and unmotivated. They aren’t sure how to manage these feelings and still get themselves to daily classes and rehearsals. First, this
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Helping Ballet Students with Tourette’s Syndrome Thrive: Practical Advice for Parents
**Our fourth in our series from guest blogger Chelsea Weidmann on neurodivergent kids in ballet. Be sure to check out her new book, Artistry Inside Ballet Technique** I am thrilled to be back writing for the Ballet Help Desk. When they asked me to consider writing a post on teaching students with Tourette’s Syndrome, my
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Grad Pro: A New Path for Dancers
With audition season around the corner, we’re excited to introduce Grad Pro, a relatively new organization from England, founded by Julie Bowers, former dancer with The Royal Ballet. After first coming across the Grad Pro website, we reached out to Julie to invite her to come on our podcast. We were especially intrigued by the
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Girls Of Color Are Allowed To Feel Beautiful Too
**We are so happy to introduce Jessica Klanderud, a Professor of African and African American History and a ballet parent to two kids! Jessica was kind enough to share her newly developed method for dyeing point shoes to match skin tone. For anyone dealing with trying to match colors on tights and shoes this is
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Supporting Autistic Dancers in Ballet
Our third in our series from guest blogger Chelsea Weidmann on neurodivergent kids in ballet In this post, we are talking about low support needs autism. These are the kids that people don’t guess have autism. So why am I writing about ways to support these dancers if no one thinks they need support? Because
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Why Having Boys at Summer Intensives Matters and How Our New Filters Can Help You Find Them
Did your dancer ever arrive at a ballet summer intensive and find that they were the only boy? Or, did your fifteen year old attend a program where there was no partnering due to lack of male dancers? When Sam was younger and first starting to look at ballet summer intensives, our biggest fear was
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Supporting Introverted Dancers in Ballet
Our second in our series from guest blogger Chelsea Weidmann on neurodivergent kids in ballet I recently heard the phrase “Extroverts sparkle, introverts glow.” How perfect is that? Everybody gets to shine, just in a different way. But in the competitive ballet school bubble, it can feel like your child, who is so clearly glowing
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Ballet Tips for Parents of Neurodivergent Kids
**Our first in a series on neurodivergent kids in ballet. Thanks to Chelsea Weidmann for the contribution! If your dancer has ADHD, that might have played a big part in why you signed them up for ballet in the first place. These dancers tend to be high energy and amazingly creative and when they were
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Addressing Neurodivergent Needs In the Studio
*We are joined by our guest blogger, Chelsea Weidmann, better known on social media as the Geeky Ballerina. Chelsea has agreed to contribute some articles on neurodivergent kids and ballet. We hope you enjoy them! Hi, I’m Chelsea and I’m a ballet teacher and mom to a neurodivergent kid. As I’m writing this, my heart
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Stressing at Your Summer Intensive?
This is a guest post by Elizabeth Sullivan, Founder of the Dancer’s Coach Many of you who are away at summer intensives may be hoping for a year-round offer. If that’s the case, you may notice that you’re approaching classes differently than during your year-round program: Maybe you’ve been told, “Every class is an audition!”
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How Older Teens Can Make The Most Of Their Summer Intensives
**This post has been updated** In our last post we focused on sending younger dancers for their first summer intensive. In this post, we’re focusing on the older kids, primarily those ages 15-18. Parents, by this time, you know the drill, right? We’re assuming your kids have been to summer programs before. And, if not,
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Sending Your Young Dancer Off To A Summer Intensive
**This post has been updated** A while back, we got a question from a reader that asked the following: My dancer is heading off to their first “real” summer intensive. What can I do to make sure they have the best experience possible? We addressed this in one of our podcasts but some of you
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College Ballet Programs: The Pros And Cons
It’s an age-old question: “Which path sets my student up to get a job as a professional ballet dancer – college or straight into a post-graduate training program?” It can be a tough decision for a lot of students, especially with the proliferation of post-graduate programs that often have large numbers of dancers all vying
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Introducing The Encore Fund
Fact: Most professional dancers make very little moneyAlso Fact: Most professional dancers are super smart and driven Logic would tell you that dancers would want to pursue some sort of higher education either while they’re dancing or once they finish. The problem? Most education subsidies that some professional dancers get while still performing don’t carry
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Happy Anniversary To Ballet Help Desk!
One day, about 18 months ago, Jenny and I were out hiking. We got to talking about how many people were calling us to ask for advice on sending their students to San Francisco Ballet School. Since our kids had been there for four years, apparently we were considered some sort of resident experts on
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The Culture Of Fear In Ballet Schools Is Real
When we launched our summer intensive reviews back in May of 2023, we hoped to get a few submissions for a handful of the larger programs. But, wow, did people come through! As of today, we have nearly 900 reviews for 169 different programs! We can’t thank you enough for the huge levels of participation!
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Mental Fitness Maintenance
Today, we’re joined by Elizabeth Sullivan, a success coach and wellness mentor for pre-professional dancers. Full disclosure: Both of our kids have worked with Elizabeth over the years. While we might be biased, we think she brings a fresh voice in the ballet training world. Winter and early Spring, better known as audition season, brings
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Post-Graduate Programs – What Does It All Mean??
This is an update to a post we published in May of 2023. We’ve added important updates so give it a read! It’s audition season! For summer programs, right? Yes, but also it’s time for dancers to start sending out materials in hopes of landing a coveted post-graduate spot. You’re thinking, “Wait! My dancer is
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Summer Intensives: Rejections, Acceptances & Scholarships
As we roll into the holidays, better known as Nutcracker and summer intensive audition season, we wanted to give you a bit of advice on how to handle the inevitable acceptance, rejection and scholarship issues that will arise after auditions conclude. Ballet summer intensive auditions are some of the most stressful times in a young
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Are European Summer Intensives Worth It?
It’s time for a bonus entry to our Summer Intensive Boot Camp! This article is all about European summer intensives. What are they? How do they work? How do you get admitted and are they worth it? Sometimes it feels like everyone is talking about going to a summer intensive in Europe. It definitely felt
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Tips & Tricks For Summer Intensive Audition Photos
We are so fortunate to have a guest blogger today! Meet Emily Brunner, a professional dance photographer based in Philadelphia. In addition, to sitting down with us for an interview, she has generously put together this list of tips and tricks for audition photos! Hope you find it as helpful as we did! It’s almost
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What Boys Should Look For In Summer Intensives
The first part of this week’s installment of our Summer Intensive Boot Camp is all about the boys! Let’s talk about ballet summer intensives – what to look for, how scholarships work and how to avoid going insane in the process! Much of what we’ve written as part of our boot camp series applies to