Tag: professional dancer
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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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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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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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Competition Judges Pull Back The Curtain
I just spent over an hour reading comments from a few old Facebook posts about ballet competitions and whether or not they’re “rigged.” Are they? We asked three YAGP judges for their thoughts on a variety of issues related to competitions and we learned some interesting stuff, including whether or not they think they’re rigged.…
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Why We All Need To Support The Arts
When I was a kid growing up in the Washington D.C. suburbs, my parents dragged my sister and me to pretty much any live performance at the Kennedy Center or Wolf Trap. This usually involved getting dressed up (something we hated), driving a long distance (my sister got car sick) and sitting through yet another…
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When Dancers Want To Stay For Year-Round After Attending The Intensive
Welcome to the Summer Intensive season. Your kids have been in their program for a few weeks, and they are no longer outliers in their social worlds. They are surrounded by like-minded dancers who are driven and love ballet. Maybe they have connected with a teacher at their SI program and your dancer is growing…
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The Path To Professional, Part 3: Trainee and Second Companies
We are heading for the home stretch in our series, The Path to Professional! Once a student gets through the finishing levels, this is where it gets even more confusing! You’d think that at this point, students are auditioning for company spots, right? Nope! At this point, your dancer is starting to look at what…
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The Path To Professional Part 2: Finishing Programs
We’re back for our second installment of The Path to Professional and this is where it gets a little confusing. Ok, maybe a lot. Once it has become clear that a student is not getting what they need from their home studio, it’s time to move on. Some students leave their home studio and enter…
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The Path to Professional Part 1: Your Local Studio
Ever wondered what the path to becoming a professional ballet dancer is? We wondered that too when our kids were younger. It never occurred to us what a long and winding road it often is. Not to mention, it’s not the same for everyone. But, there is a pretty general path that most dancers follow. …
