Birdy

It’s someone who posts regularly from the ballet. I have friends who can see his stuff still, so I seem to have been singled out.

Someone posted short clips of the performances on Instagram. I decided to follow the poster so I could see clips of my DD. The poster then inexplicably blocked me from seeing their profile or posts. I have a private Instagram and didn’t repost anything they had posted. The irony of being blocked from viewing photos of my own child by someone who was illegally recording the performance is not lost on me.

My DD was at the back so nearly impossible to see most of the time. During combinations she was often off to the side. She is a tall girl with light brown hair, wearing a 3/4 sleeve royal blue leotard with kind of a circular cut out in the back. She has an annoying tendency to avoid being seen when it suits her.

Yes, the Paris Opera Ballet School invited specific schools to participate. The schools then chose the students from their graduating class and what they would present. I’m sure there was a guideline regarding the number of students and length of the work. Each school is performing their own separate piece. POBS is hosting the students. It’s a wonderful idea and amazing opportunity. Maybe it will become a yearly thing with POB with different schools invited other years.

Thank you so much for the kind words.

I agree that parents should have been offered tickets. Each school only brought 3-5 dancers so it wouldn’t have been that many seats. My time zone is 9 hours behind Paris so emails regarding available tickets usually came to my inbox during the night and would already be sold before I was able to get them. I had resigned myself to not going as she will be performing the same thing in Amsterdam in July. Still, such an incredibly rare opportunity to dance at the Palais Garnier. She will be dancing with Dutch National Ballet Junior Company in the fall, so things are going well for her right now.

My DD was one of the students, but I couldn’t attend as I live in America (and will be traveling to Europe to see her in her graduation performances in July). The invited schools are performing at Palais Garnier on the 17th of April. I so wish they were live-streaming. The show was sold out within a minute of ticket sales starting, so even if I could afford two European trips within a few months I would not have been about to go.

As an American, I would love to know more about what you are talking about. My DD is in Europe on a student residency permit, which is available to anyone in the world. My non-dancing daughter would love to spend more than 90 days in the EU but we have never found any special way to do so.

Paris Opera Ballet may be the most insular of the major western European companies, but they do accept dancers from outside the EU and dancers who did not attend their school. I would say the most insular company in the US is probably New York City Ballet because they mainly accept students from SAB, but that is not closed to non-Americans. I’ve seen zero evidence to suggest that UK dancers are at some greater disadvantage than dancers from any other country.

For example?

Many junior/studio company positions are paid, just not as much as a full company member. Even some run through academies still give a stipend for housing and a small living expense allowance. Joffrey Studio Company in Chicago is quite generous despite being run through the school. Germany junior companies are also generally quite good. My DD’s is a little less generous so I’ll still have to supplement her a bit, but far less than if she was at university. She knows that I had a certain amount saved up for post-grad and that if she chose to pursue ballet there would not be funds left for university. I told her it is her life and her risk to take and this is what she chose. Fortunately she is at a place that has a high rate of moving their second company dancers into the main company. I don’t know if I’d feel the same if it was a place where most dancers don’t receive a place at the end. I know some junior companies leave dancers right back where they started—desperately searching for a job but two years older. I completely understand the stress and frustration of dancers and their parents during the job search. So much feels like it ultimately comes down to luck.

Full year contracts are another reason my DD wanted to be in Europe instead of the U.S.

I don’t believe that any of last year’s RBS graduates who got contracts in the USA held US passports. 2 were from Australia, 1 was from Japan, 1 was from Spain, 1 was from the UK, and 1 was from Korea. I can’t think of a single big ballet company in the United States that doesn’t have international dancers. My (American) DD was fortunate to be offered a junior company contract with a European company that she believes is a better fit for her than any company in the US.

True. I think there were only 3. I think the issue will always come down to numbers when students are looking for spots. If every high-quality company-affiliated school is graduating a class of 24 students and there are also really great non company-affiliated schools producing amazing dancers, there are just not enough places for all of them. This year does seem particularly tough for some reason. I know of schools that had close to 100% placement for their students last year that are still far from it this year.

Not related to LCB in particular, but having a lot of international dancers in companies is really not uncommon. A quick survey of dancers at American Ballet Theatre finds that more than 1/3 of the dancers are not American. In their Studio Company 5 of the 12 are not American. At San Francisco Ballet half of the dancers are not American. And we are a huge country that produces plenty of talented dancers. Last year 14 of the 24 graduates of Royal Ballet School were listed as heading to companies outside of the UK.

Thank you.

How do you find out which productions are available for livestream? Is it on the ticket page for the show?

That’s true, but if it isn’t a principal dancer you are hoping to see, the odds improve that you will see the dancer you are looking for in one role or another.

I have a particular dancer I’m hoping to get to see in this year’s production.

They only do their Nutcracker every three years. In 2021 they did a livestream that I missed so I’m hoping they do it again this year.

For some preview shows, of both opera and ballet, Dutch National will make the tickets only available to ages 16-35 and charge €10. They always sell out. I don’t know if they have a way to track how many attendees go on the attend regularly priced productions in the future, but it seems to me a great way to expose younger people to ballet and opera. It’s also a great way for them to meet other people who are interested in the arts.

Dutch National is easy as far as a residency permit. The program is run through Amsterdam University of the Arts. They initiate the process. Then you show financial means to support them, upload passport and other documents and pay fee. Once approved student has biometrics done at a quick 10 minute appointment. Permit is good for about 28 months. After the first year student just needs to confirm online that they aren’t failing classes and still have financial means to stay. The student residency permit also allows them to work.

I think every situation is different and they all need to be evaluated carefully. Some programs don’t charge tuition and give housing allowances and stipends. While it might not be quite enough to live on independently, if most dancers come out of the program with jobs, then the additional support parents give is still less (and for a shorter period) that paying for college or other apprenticeships. However, if few of the dancers end up getting jobs, either with the main company or at other companies, then they are likely mostly being used to fill out the company and extending a dream that may never become a reality. I have noticed that some second companies run through schools still give stipends and housing, where traineeships often charge tuition—so it’s hard to judge what’s what without really delving deeply into it. Whether second companies are a step that needs to exist at all is another conversation. I do think that it can be a great transition for a dancer so they don’t abruptly go from having the guidance and structure of class to being thrown into the sink or swim of company class and rehearsals. In a good program they also get a lot of performance experience, learn to work as a group and have different choreographers work with them. They also seem to get a lot more neoclassical experience in second companies than they get in schools. But again, is this totally necessary? There are still more second company spaces than company spaces, so for many this is just more expense without a job at the end of it.

Honestly, it’s refreshing to see what seems to be broader acceptance of taller dancers. The norm in the past was to exclude most of them, so I can’t feel too bad about one company being unavailable to shorter dancers.

Munich did indeed have 1.68m for women and 1.82m for men as minimums for their junior company audition. I prefer companies with a variety of heights and don’t understand the insistence on uniformity. There is a 7-8” difference in height between the shortest woman at Dutch National and the tallest. Obviously it is more difficult for a shorter man to partner a taller woman, but short women can also be difficult for tall men to partner—particularly for lifts as they have to bend too much. And as for foot size…my DD is 5’9” but her shoe size is only a 37, so there isn’t always a direct correspondence.