DD Driver

It seems to me that students at vocational schools (schools associated with companies) do significantly less training hours than students trained privately. Yes, private training is a very expensive route Many of the international applicants for RBS have trained long hours, more similar to those in elite sports. Also, how they looked at 11 or 12 years old, did not count them out. They had time to grow and 'see what happens'.

It is interesting that in the International auditions, White Lodge held video or in person auditions. Success in this lead to an invitation to Finals. In contrast the RBS Upper School auditions involved a Preliminary audition (video or in person), then Semi-Finals (video) leading up to Finals. I think the Semi Finals hurdle is a good idea as it is a large cost and commitment for an international student to travel to London for Finals. The more filtering the better!

Anyone know when the RBS Upper School Finals are likely to be held? How this was run last year in terms of numbers v. places, & what it entailed? Their website states that Finals are in Feb & March(?) Semi-Finals via video were required with results to be sent out near the end of January.

I think the push on Sport in Australia helped Dance along here! The exemptions for sport opened up to exemptions for Arts e.g. time off school and some credits. In every High School that I know of - state or independent - Dance is available as an extra-curricular activity within the school. I understand it is the 3rd biggest activity e.g. after netball and some form of football... Importantly you can do Dance as a subject for your High School Certificate so that is an increasingly popular elective selected. High schools enter the Eisteddfods/Comps with their troupes. There is a state-run Schools Spectacular that showcases dance/singing/music & some government funded Arts workshops.

I would add that the large number of Eisteddfods or Comps in Australia came out of the Eisteddfod tradition of being a showcase for artistic talents such as singing, dance, instrumental, speech & drama, poetry etc Yes, winners are announced but everyone quickly realises that someone gaining a 1st place in one event has no guarantee of winning a place in another. There is a level of consistency due to technical merit but the judging is very much the adjudicator's subjective appreciation. I'm not excited by the idea of ballet in the Olympics either. However, the amount of training support and funding for sport in Australia is significant. You can't help but wish for a piece of that.

I'd say Ice Dance & Ice Skating do open the door for Ballet at the Olympics as they are judged on skating skills, transitions, performance/execution, choreography, and interpretation. Most importantly, it is a way to get sports funding. I heard, on the grapevine, that the PdL jury place more importance on performance in the Master classes than on the solos. The classical solos are a couple of minutes in time and could have been practised & polished over years. In contrast, the classes show candidates over a number of days, responding to corrections in real time & working with different choreography. So very relevant to company life. The Finalists need to have performed beautifully on stage, of course, but a non-Finalist may have impressed & pick up a great offer or contract.

You really have this topic covered, @Sophoife Thank you! PdL, YAGP (& RBS) are meaningful routes into top companies. I guess that is why dancers are prepared to pay large sums of money to gain a place and travel so far. In Australia, I usually hear people talk about PdL with great respect. That the master classes & networking are so valuable, regardless of whether the dancers gets into the Finals night.

Sophoife, I was specifically thinking about new AD's and take-up of students from the associated schools e.g. ABS/TAB or Elmhurst/BRB. Is it typical for TAB to take dancers from schools other than ABS? I recall Cameron Holmes joined direct from Tanya Pearson Academy (not ABS) but I don't know if this occurred in the numbers seen this year.

Very enlightening, Sophoife! It just shows that when a new AD starts at a company... all bets are off. Another great reason for young dancers to leverage opportunities, like the PdL, to learn & to be seen.

When a company takes very few, or just 1, student from their associated vocational school then it gets pretty scary for the students in the following year groups. Does the AD not like what the school is producing OR is it just about that year group OR is it about the number of contracts available...? The students have - for the most part - given up their chance to gain performance/competition experience. They have not shown themselves to other schools/companies or experienced these through master classes, summer schools etc Certainly not in the way that private ballet school students do. Still students and parents are getting more savvy. In the graduate year they can start getting an audition video ready through their school or privately. They can be ready to press the button to enter comps e.g. YAGP or PdL if in age range. At least in Australia where the year ends in Dec. A risk however is that the vocational school may inform you that you are not going to the company BUT you must stick around (and follow their rules around comps or auditions) to graduate with a Diploma. Hopefully the balance of power starts to change at that point!

LinMM my understanding is that students at the Australian Ballet School & Queensland Ballet Academy can not participate in competitions. A student can be selected by ABS or QBA to represent the school. They make a commitment not to accept offers & probably have an 'understanding' that they will gain an offer from their company. They can not have had an official offer, under PdL rules. The school paid for that person to attend so it would be difficult to accept any PdL school or company contracts in that situation. Harrison Lee went to McDonald College in Sydney.

Kanangra, by 'vocational' are you referring to full time students at private ballet studios? I know students at Australian Ballet School or Queensland Ballet Academy can't do comps unless they are the chosen 1 allowed to go to PdL. Even then they commit to not accepting offers from other schools/companies.

My understanding is that RBS teachers see a large number of candidates e.g. on the intl audition tours. They take notes & possibly take video to share their thoughts/recommendations with the AD. Last year Australians did the Finals audition via Zoom but this year a video must be sent in and then if selected then they have to go to London audition. Of course, at YAGP & PdL some dancers may get offers - as they are being seen in person by the AD over a period of days. - I do find it confusing that UK students - not at a vocational school - are not getting advanced coaching & attending YAGP/PdL as much as o/s students do! Great teachers are available. I get that homeschooling & Distance Ed are not as big as o/s and the school exam timing may be unfavourable...but you could still get quality hours in. Can someone explain?

Based on their website, the RBS upper school Final Auditions are in Feb and March 2023. Christopher Powney is on the Prix de Lausanne jury. Prix finishes on Feb 4

Prix de Lausanne is an amateur comp - you can't be under a professional contract as a dancer (or have a firm job offer)

@junedancer that makes sense. Does show us that ballet is much-loved by young people. While Consumption of ballet may reduce, Participation in ballet is very strong.

On the PdL website it says: Organised at the end of the competition week, the Networking Forum gives the candidates who are not selected for the Finals an opportunity to be seen by schools and companies Directors from all around the world. Following an audition class, interviews are organised with Directors of the Prix de Lausanne partner schools and companies wishing to recruit one or more candidates. Interviews with Finalists who do not receive a prize are also arranged after the award ceremony. In 2022, 30 partner schools and companies attended the Networking Forum. 72 candidates participated (5 of whom could not come and compete in Montreux) and 219 potential offers were made so far.

Interesting... I saw an Australian ballet school congratulate a student for getting through to the RBS Semi-Finals for Upper School entry in 2023. What surprised me was that the ballet school stated that there had been 1400 applicants! This number is probably the total of all videos + upcoming in-person auditions registered both intl. and in the UK. A lot! Note: PdL received 429 video applicants this year. 76 candidates selected. The student would have done a video application as part of the International Audition process. The other option for intl. applicants is to do a Preliminary Audition through in-person auditions at various locations around the world. These are finished before Xmas After that, is the Semi-Finals where they send in a video submission. Maybe those who have already sent a video just have this re-looked at in the Semi-Final round.

Yes, RBS, ENBS & Elmhurst provide opportunities via YAGP. The AD's may not be in attendance but YAGP will send them candidate video if they think a dancer would suit At Semi-Finals, Dancers have been awarded acceptance or scholarships to: intensives, short-term visits & full year programs. Sometimes these awards happen at the event or in the weeks following. For those of us outside of the USA these can be more valuable than a place in the Finals in Tampa.

Kerfuffle, I see what you mean. Yes For RBS, Australian dancers can attend the Qld RBS audition in late December. This is a cheaper & more direct route to RBS than going to YAGP Finals in Tampa! Neverdancedjustamum , I think things are changing. The goal is to be the best you. Sometimes the top vocational school is not going to get you there. Maybe the training is not right for you or leaving home too early is destabilising ... Sometimes it can be better to go local /elsewhere & maybe audition much later, for the school that feeds into the company you wish to join. You need to look at the odds and make educated decisions.

Kerfuffle, sorry I don't know what you mean about auditions in person in Queensland(?) YAGP Australia was in Brisbane and Sydney, in person. The August YAGP semi-finals are headed towards the 2023 Tampa Finals in April. They also give out scholarships for short term visits, summer schools & full year. The issue is that it is too close to the start of the year programs, September 2022. Senior boys are so needed that they can get a full year scholarship (starting 1 month later). A short term scholarship for a visit however is perfectly fine. I'm just saying that the easier way to get into a full time program is to start auditioning in the November, leading up to the March Finals and then September entry...

All of the elite vocational schools, US / UK/ Europe, seem to have Finals in the beginning of the year. This way, offers are made & accepted by May. The starting point is pre-liminary auditions and/or video auditions from Nov-Feb. Entry from a summer school into the upcoming September intake is possible but exceptional. At YAGP Australia semi-finals this year, in Aug., it was difficult for YAGP to award entry into schools when the first term was about to start. The Artistic Directors tended to be on holiday. They had already filled up their classes. They did not want to offer a place for the following year as the dancer could have dramatically changed over that time. The full year scholarships offered were minimal and tended to be for boys. The AD's did offer a number of short term visits. I think this is more useful than a summer school as the best timing can be agreed. The regular teaching staff can watch the dancer over a period of time in a normal class & vice versa. Invitation to the YAGP Finals in April 2023 Tampa, were also awarded. There an AD can offer a dancer entry/scholarship in April for the Sept. intake. Going to the Finals is great but also a very expensive way for an Australian to get in front of a UK or European AD! The short-term visit scholarship was our preferred prize.

One other observation... Going to a vocational school's Summer Intensive is not necessarily the most effective way to get into that school, in the near term. Finals for places in September, are held in Feb/March. Places are allocated. If you turn up in July for a Summer Intensive then the chances of getting a place in September are limited. Of course there are exceptions & of course visiting the school you ultimately wish to attend is valuable. If the cost of the Intensive is significant for your family, then you just need to bear this in mind. We live in Australia so attending o/s Intensives is a luxury we can not afford. The money is required for attending Finals.

Only 6 candidates registered for PdL from the UK & none were selected https://www.prixdelausanne.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/number-of-candidates-pdl-2023-1.pdf As I recall, a range of reasons are given, over the years, for low UK registrations (video submissions). e.g. The timing is difficult due to academic exams. Students at vocational schools are discouraged or not given the support to enter. Dancers training outside of a vocational school, may not get the hours outside of academics to reach the level of intl students? Many other countries have Distance Education options that allow for more training hours. Every year I think the number of UK registrations & selections will increase ...but they don't. Dancers from RBS did get put forward... back in the day.

Yes, I enjoyed the Australian Ballet open class and absolutely loved the Romeo & Juliet rehearsals. Helps that they have already performed for the Melbourne season & now continue to polish in preparedness for Sydney Opera House. I watched the Queensland Ballet open class. Definitely a very vigourous company! Really challenging the dancers in speed, turns & jumps. I think they are differentiating themselves in this way (Cuban energy!).