Category: Uncategorized
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American Repertory Ballet Gets Real About the Pipeline
Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: Artistic Director Samantha Dunster and Executive Director Julie Diana Hench join us for a conversation that gets refreshingly honest about the post-graduate pipeline, the job market, and what it…
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The Mental Toll of “Be Grateful You’re Here”
Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: The corrections never stop. The casting is always uncertain. And somewhere along the way, many dancers learn to keep all of it behind a smile, because showing weakness feels like handing someone a…
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Ballet’s Bottom Line: Finances, Contracts, and the Fight for Dancer Rights
Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: Every ballet company’s tax return is public record. Most dancers have never seen one. Liza Yntema, founder of the Dance Data Project, and Griff Braun, National Organizing Director at the American Guild…
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Train in Germany, Dance in Europe: The Palucca Path to a Professional Ballet Career
What does ballet training look like when it’s housed inside a 100-year-old university, with the Semperoper Ballet as your next-door neighbor? We sat down with Rector and Vice-Rector of in Dresden, Germany, for a close look at one of Europe’s most…
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What Happens When You Choose Harvard Over the Company Contract
What happens when a dancer who traded pre-professional ballet training at the John Cranko School and the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company for a Harvard degree? Or when a dancer who received offers from the training programs at Joffrey, Colorado Ballet,…
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Zurich Dance Academy’s Jason Beechey on Pre-Pro Training and the Future of Ballet
Jason Beechey has spent his career shaping pre-professional ballet training. After 18 years as rector of Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, he now serves as Director of and Head of Dance at the Zurich University of the Arts. He walks us through…
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College vs. Postgrad: What One Nevada Ballet Dancer’s Path Can Teach Us
What happens when a dancer skips the postgrad route entirely and still lands a professional contract? Paityn Lauzon, now in her fourth season as a company artist with Nevada Ballet Theatre, did exactly that. She grew up at a small competition studio…
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Are Swan Lake, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty Still Relevant? Fran Makes the Case
Timothee Chalamet said no one cares about ballet anymore. Fran Veyette disagrees. He’s back on #NoThirds, and this episode goes deep into one of the most debated questions in the ballet world right now: are the classical, full-length ballets still…
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Pre-Pro to Professional Ballet Training: Jen Sommers of Houston Ballet Academy
How long can your dancer stay home before it starts to matter? It’s one of the most common questions ballet parents face, and one of the most consequential. Jen Sommers, Director of joins us to talk through exactly that, along with everything else…
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Gavin Larsen: Infinite Steps and the Truth About Ballet Careers
Author, teacher, and former principal dancer Gavin Larsen has spent her post-performance life doing something she loves just as much as dancing: drawing stories out of other people. Her new book, Infinite Steps: 33 Dancers and Their Lives in Ballet,…