Apprentice or trainee spots in UK

[Oakley]

Hi again.  I'm back again looking for advice!!   I am in my first year of studying abroad via a personal coach as opposed to a school.  I'm 16 years old.  It is just the route that opened up for me and I'm loving it.  I have been told that I should try to get short term work in a Company situation when I'm on breaks and am home.  Would this be like an apprenticeship or trainee ship- does the UK even have this type of thing?  

[Anna C]

Hi Oakley,

 

The only short term ballet dancing contracts I can think of would be things like English National Ballet’s “in the round” productions at the Royal Albert Hall when they audition external freelance dancers to be swans as part of an extended Corps de ballet.  However, I’d assume (and I may be wrong) the minimum age for this would be 18 because most 16 and 17 year old ballet students are in full time education (UK employment law and working hours may also apply).  These productions aren’t staged every year either.  

 

There certainly used to be unpaid apprenticeships in smaller companies like Vienna Festival Ballet but these were often for a year.  There are also postgraduate apprentice schemes where the student pays for a year’s training and performance experience.   Here’s one such scheme:  https://northernballet.com/professional-graduate-programme and another, similar one with Ballet Cymru (again, the minimum age is 18):  http://welshballet.co.uk/take-part/pre-professional-programme/

[Anon2]

I think you need to see if your coach has any contacts within companies and then they need to help you arrange company classes etc. My feeling is you contacting them without a school behind you will not open any opportunities as they won’t know your standard plus there are things to consider such as insurance whilst you are on their premises. 
The two graduate schemes @Anna C mentions are good but academic year long and expensive.  

[rowan]

Short-term work in a company situation while you are on breaks or at home will be hard to come by, especially if you are only 16. There are short-term dancing jobs advertised for a few months or weeks, but they might not fit with the times you have off for breaks. They will be highly sought after by professional dancers who have completed their training. At 16, most dancers are not company ready. But no harm trying if you meet the minimum age required. It might be helpful if you can explain why you want the work - to gain experience in a working company, to gain performance experience, to have something to put on a CV?  Are you looking for ballet in particular or more general dance work? If you need stage experience, could you join a dance school, or perhaps a summer school, that offers performing opportunities?

[CeliB]

I'd agree with Rowan that short term company slots for a 16 year old would be unusual. I would think a high level summer school such as Prague Masterclass (https://www.balletmasterclass.com/pages/) - or perhaps better would be a summer school associated with a company (obviously it would want to be a company you are interested in joining) such as the one Dutch National runs (https://www.atd.ahk.nl/en/dance-programmes/dutch-national-ballet-academy/summer-school/). These tend to be a bit more focused on performance plus they are linked often with the company so you get a bit of insight into the company's teaching/repertoire. 

 

I would suggest at 16 you should already be thinking a bit about the type of company you are interested in joining and the best route into those companies e.g. does your teacher have contacts, do the companies hold open auditions, do they take people directly from their associated school e.g. like New York City or Dutch National (or to a certain extent Royal ballet and English National Ballet) such that doing a final year at that school would give you the best chance or getting in etc. My impression is that getting a company place via open audition when you have no connection or school behind you is pretty tough (although not impossible).

 

It also depends on if you are looking at purely classical, or other forms of dance as well, as this makes a big difference to your planning...

 

Are you particularly keen in coming back to the UK to dance? To be honest many UK trained dancers end up elsewhere in Europe due to lack of opportunity in the UK, so you need to be open to that possibility...

 

Good luck with your studies anyway...

[Oakley]

Thank you all very much for your input.

I asked the question here purely because my coach has suggested that's what I do when I come home to UK.  My breaks are usually about a month long, 3 times a year.  I hadn't realised that at 16 this may not be possible.

I would love a classical ballet company but obviously I've noticed more and more that contemporary is also a requirement- that is skill I lack unfortunately but I hope to start classes very soon.

[Peanut68]

Maybe you could ask if any short term student programmes exist to train alongside your age group within full time schools? I’m thinking along lines of the Royal Ballet School nternational Scholars programme (though why a ‘national school’ needs to do this does slightly raise questions?) 

As you are currently overseas most of time, you might qualify to apply for this/similar? 

There is the RAD Fonteyn competition too.... think it has several days of masterclasses before the actual competition element & contemporary includes too...

Edited February 4, 2020 by Peanut68