2012 Annual Harlequin Dance Scholarship

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UPDATE: Thanks to the savvy readers who pointed out my error – Unfortunately the scholarship deadline has passed! However this is an annual scholarship. The 2013 version will be open for applications soon. 

Each year, the good folks at Harlequin distribute thousands of dollars to randomly selected dance student applicants “in an effort to provide better opportunities for young people pursuing performing arts careers.” In 2012, Harlequin allocated $25,000 for 10 lucky dancers!

Details and online, printable and downloadable applications can be found at:

http://www.harlequinfloors.com/us/en/dance-area/dance-scholarship.html

2013 SI Auditions Photo Shoot at FAB!

The esteemed French Academie of Ballet has arranged for Joseph Henry Ritter to photograph students on Wednesday, December 19, 2012, in preparation for the upcoming audition season! This event is open to students who are not enrolled a FAB. Francois Perron and Nadege Hottier will be on hand to personally guide participants on placement and photo selection. (Participants are responsible for knowing exactly what poses and types of photos are required by all schools they will be auditioning for.) Sign-up for this event by emailing Leslie Schiller at ‘lschiller [at] frenchacademieofballet [dot] org’ by THIS FRIDAY, December 7, 2012!

Space is limited! Thanks to FAB for providing a much-needed service during their sold out European Masters Workshop.

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Royal Ballet Student Prisca mediates on her final year in the lower school and the expectations she has placed on herself for success. This post is beautifully written and a must-read.

Prisca's avataraléas

 “I am pleased to confirm that The Royal Ballet School in London has offered a full-time place in Year 7 of our Lower School to Prisca Bertoni, commencing September 2008 through to July 2013 subject to satisfactory annual appraisals.”

I will always remember the moment I heard that I had successfully passed through the stringent audition process and that within a few months White Lodge would become my home. I couldn’t stop spinning around and jumping for joy. However, perhaps I should have paid more attention to those last five words.

As I commence my fifth and final year here I have been reflecting on my life at The Royal Ballet School; it really is an environment like no other and it is easy to understand how it is respected as one of the top ballet schools in the world. Creating a positive and lasting success in life requires the…

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Dancewear en l’air: Stripey Bamboo Legwarmers

New York City Ballet dancer and self-made entrepreneur Cameron Dieck has established his own line of legwarmers, Échauffe. These line-lengthening limberers are made from high-end bamboo yarns and are designed to keep your gammies warm without hiding the muscle definition you’ve worked so hard for.

Available in multiple colors, my favorite is the striped “truffle/conch” version. For their debut, Pointe Magazine is giving away a few pairs to lucky entrants here!

Dear CBT: Help Me With My Turns!

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Dear CBT,

I need help turning. My pirouettes are a fail. I can never get the right amount of force and my leg to passé fast enough or my arms in tight enough. Don’t get me started about pirouettes (or any turn for that matter) on pionte. I’m at my wits end! Help!!!

Don’t fret! Quarter and half turns from fifth and fourth are a great exercise for this. Focus on opening your eyes all the way and truly focusing the eyes on an spot or item when you are quickly spotting. See this fabulous instructional video from guru Finis Jung for visual help on that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahTicm9n2s. Then work on coordinating the leg and arms to meet the speed and precision of that spotting style. Also, check out my post on pirouettes from winter before last, as true today as it was then.

Remember that quality in a quarter or half turn will become quality in a single and so forth. You have to start small and work your way up, so be patient. Getting ahead of yourself in revolution numbers will not pay off if the turn is not good quality from start through finish. Now go have fun improving your turns!

DanceTube: Ballet Takes Over TV!

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Ballet fascination is taking over TV and film! Get your popcorn ready and check out the latest line-up:

Bunheads – ABC Family has been promoting this new series, which echoes a bit of Australia’s Dance Academy, everywhere. Dance magazine publishers got their hands on a sneak peek for the first 1500 viewers to get a clip here using code “DanceSpiritBunheads” or “DanceTeacherBunheads”.

Breaking Pointe – Intent on highlighting the intensity of pursuing professional dance, the CW is jumping on the ballet trend, adding their special brand of drama to the lens with this BBC produced series premiering May 31 and following well-respected company Ballet West.

Dance 212 – Season 6 is almost here. Follow aspiring dancers trying to make it in the Big Apple as professionals with top NYC companies and schools.

Joffrey Documentary – Learn the story of iconic ballet company Joffrey Ballet in the documentary Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance.

Summer Programs Database

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A BalletScoop reader has supplied the link to his family’s invaluable summer planning resource: summer programs in a database format at www.summerintensives.com.

Complete with a Regional Audition Locator and various handy search tools, this site is the brainchild of dance parents who were themselves looking for a better way to reflect on the abundant info collected for their own daughter. Thanks again to those readers for creating and sharing this resource!

Easy Peazy DIY SAB Skirt!

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Merry Christmas readers! Today we have the pleasure of a holiday visit from the AdultBeginner, author of my favorite blog for adult dancers. The Adult Beginner happens to be a master seamstress and has offered her expertise on the steps to creating one of those too-cute-for-words DIY skirts made famous by the students at the School of American Ballet. Quick shout-out to SG, the student that inspired this post. Enjoy this project over your holiday break!

Hello BalletScoop Readers! Guess what – the Adult Beginner had never even heard of an SAB skirt until Juliette asked me to do this tutorial. Can you believe? This is like the best skirt ever! No sewing, super-fast, and just look at how this skirt elongates the legs! Want to learn how to? Ok! Let’s do this thing!

Step 1. Select your fabric

You need one yard of a Four-Way Stretch fabric. “Four-way stretch” means the fabric stretches equally up, down, and side to side. Anything that does not stretch equally all four ways will hang funny and be difficult to pull on. Who needs that? Not you! I’m using a four-way Lycra miliskin that my husband picked up for me at the Michael Levine Loft in downtown Los Angeles. If you’re in LA, totally go there, they sell fabric By The Pound!!!

Step 2. Measure.

The skirt sits below the waist, about hip-bone level. This mannequin measures 30″. You may be bigger, I certainly am, but for sake of example we’re gonna roll with 30″. Continue reading →

Ballet in Print: Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear

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Are you looking for the must-have dancer gift (or self-gift!) this year? Look no further! Hot off the presses, Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet is possibly the most readable and informative non-fiction book on ballet company life available today – making it an absolute Must Read for aspiring ballet dancers.

Celebrated author Stephen Manes brought his finely-honed talents into the dance world by spending an entire season with world-class company, Pacific Northwest Ballet. Immersing himself in the microcosm of ballet business, Manes brings this experience to life for ballet fans everywhere through his latest book.

Deliciously written, Manes deftly captures the dance-world drama and ballet bustle that make it the fascinating industry that we love – without squeezing the life out of the art and distilling it to a protracted history lesson (ahem, Apollo’s Angels, ahem). The book starts with a bang and dives right into an intimate look into the professional path of Artistic Director Peter Boal, a narrative which does not disappoint in its insight and charm. Throughout, Manes allows the reader to sit alongside Boal as he juggles budgets, dancers, casting, unions, choreographers and somehow, time. Read: Invaluable insight for an aspiring dancer into the mind of an AD!

The reader also walks alongside dance luminaries like Carla Korbes, Christopher Wheeldon and Twyla Tharp as well as lesser-known – and lesser-appreciated – professionals like stagehands, musicians and apprentices. The daily lives and struggles of these myriad artistic talents unfold to reveal a full spectrum of professional accomplishments and frustrations, illuminating the realities of life in ballet, for better or worse.

This book is nothing short of everything a non-fiction ballet book should be. You don’t want to be the last dancer to discover Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear!

2012 Summer Intensive Auditions!

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Boston Ballet School studentsThe 2013 Summer Intensives list is posted!

REMINDER: Please share your SI stories/reviews at Ballet Talk for Dancers, which archives this info for research by future students. If you are looking for info on an SI, make a free account there and you’ll have more info than you’ll know what to do with!

The 2012 summer audition dates are in! I can’t believe it’s been a year already! Time to start planning your winter audition schedule, and I’m here to help with tips and links for some of the best programs on the continent. Don’t forget to check out every program’s website for supplemental and alternative summer training programs, such as:

  • choreography intensives
  • mentoring programs for one-on-one coaching
  • jazz/contemporary programs
  • collegieate programs
  • recreational programs
  • add-on weeks to boost program length
  • satellite locations

Be mindful of any pre-registration requirements for each audition. And be sure to have your calendar handy! Continue reading →

Audition Season is Just Around the Corner!

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This past August, BalletScoop turned one year old. (Yay!) Back in fall of last year, it was all about the upcoming spring audition season for the annual summer programs around the country. This year will be no different, and if we have half the comments activity that we had last year, I’ll be a very busy bee! I love hearing from you all though, so please do post your questions and I’ll do my best to keep on top of them all.

Audition line-ups for the 2012 summer programs are not quite complete at many schools, so look for my 2012 auditions post in a few more weeks. In the meantime, get prepped for success by checking out two great new audition-related articles from Dance Informa, “Don’t Stress” and “Audition Do’s and Don’ts“. And be on the lookout here for info coming soon about exciting new books and dancewear.

Finally, I stumbled on a new blog I’ve just added to the blogroll, SteelsBallet, written by an intelligent and talented young dancer, Sarah Steele, who is pictured above and is currently training at the Valentina Kozlova Dance Conservatory of New York. (Be sure to check out the archive page, which is an easy to browse collage of all her posts to date.) Follow along as she tackles pre-calculus by day and pas de deux by night.

Ballet in Film: Two PBS Specials!

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I am thrilled to see that PBS is making dance, particularly ballet, a big part of their fall and winter line-up. Starting this month, they will be airing programs from major American ballet companies that most of us would never have a chance to see otherwise. Kicking off the series is none other than Miami City Ballet, fresh from it’s blockbuster trip to Paris, with a mixed bill of crowd pleasing Balanchine and Tharp works on October 28. I don’t know about you, but I always prefer to see Balanchine performed by Balanchine style dancers, so I’m doubly excited for this show.

Later in the season on December 16, look for San Francisco Ballet’s newer ballet, The Little Mermaid, by John Neumeier – but remember they used the Anderson version of the story, not the Disney one. Local air times for both of these programs will be available at www.PBS.org as the dates get closer. Just click “TV Schedules” (on the black navigation bar) and enter your zip and provider to get your local schedule. Once there, the easiest way to pull up ballet programs is just to enter “ballet” into the guide’s search bar (not the “Search PBS” bar). Bring on the ballet, PBS!