American Summer Schools

[dancegrad]

Hi everyone,

 

Not sure if there is already a thread on this but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of attending a summer school in America as a British national and had any opinions of any? It is something I have wondered about doing and wished to do for years and though I may be too old now for many being almost 22 there are some that take older students as well. I was just wondering if there were any thoughts on this subject at all?

 

Thank you all in advance!

[Beezie]

Any summer intensive aligned with a top US ballet company with be well-run and professional.  I suspect you will see a lot of teens attending, so the room-and-board options might be set up to oversee minors.  I would inquire if you get the freedom to come-and-go, given you age.

[Lifeafterballet]

Estonian National Ballet run a summer intensive for young adults and semi/professional older dancers. If your heart isn’t set on the US then Estonia /Tallinn is a beautiful place and the course is taught by the AD and dancers of the company. 
Also, it’s only a 2 hour 40 minute flight from the U.K. and you can get a return ticket at a very reasonable price. 😄 

[Viv]

I have had friends from Australia attend the Houston Ballet summer intensive and they loved it. They are pre-professional teen students though, one of whom is now training in the Houston Ballet pre-pro program. It's a 5 or 6 week program so quite intense, but I think most US summer programs are like that. They stayed in the dorm rooms near the campus and I believe there were organised activities off site like trips to the theatre, but they attended pre-covid so not sure what happens now.

 

I suppose it depends on your level of training and your aspirations. Houston Ballet also does a summer intensive for adult ballet students. It's only 5 days not 5 weeks but is recommended for intermediate/advanced students.

[Neverdancedjustamum]

On 05/01/2022 at 12:08, dancegrad said:

Hi everyone,

 

Not sure if there is already a thread on this but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of attending a summer school in America as a British national and had any opinions of any? It is something I have wondered about doing and wished to do for years and though I may be too old now for many being almost 22 there are some that take older students as well. I was just wondering if there were any thoughts on this subject at all?

 

Thank you all in advance!

No personal experience I’m afraid but from the information I received when DD was accepted to a few of them last year was that most were a minimum of 4 weeks (I think 4-5 weeks is the norm, always a factor for us as DD was only 11 then) and often start when the school term is still in session here in the UK. My DD does not go to a vocational school so I’m not sure if vocational schools here end their summer term earlier than other schools but I know that one of the factors why my DD could not attend was that some of them started as early as June/early July and there was no way she’d want to miss a single day of school to attend an SI. (Although I think quite a lot of European schools also start their SIs earlier, my DD also was not able to attend Dutch and ESB for the same reason). It’s a shame really as the American SIs’ timetables look intensive but have a wealth of other activities within the programmes too that sounds like a lot of fun. We also found that they are quite generous with scholarship offers.

[Neverdancedjustamum]

On 05/01/2022 at 12:08, dancegrad said:

Hi everyone,

 

Not sure if there is already a thread on this but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of attending a summer school in America as a British national and had any opinions of any? It is something I have wondered about doing and wished to do for years and though I may be too old now for many being almost 22 there are some that take older students as well. I was just wondering if there were any thoughts on this subject at all?

 

Thank you all in advance!

If you can, I’d say definitely go for it. My DD usually hates auditions but found the American SI auditions fun yet challenging. They were quite fast paced and she told me after that they seem to look beyond the usual “feet and flexibility” and there was a lot of her favourites: jumps and turns! 

[Ruby Foo]

Can only speak for SAB. Fast paced, lots and lots of pointe. Pointe shoes are hardly ever off.

[Kate_N]

MODS: I hope it's OK to recommend another ballet messageboard? It's a very good reliable one, but delete this message if it's not .

 

@dancegrad you should read Ballet Talk for Dancers (google & you'll find it). There is a whole section on Summer Intensives, mostly US-based. They are generally for 4 or 5 weeks (as US summer vacations are longer and start earlier than UK summer holidays). Most of the top ones require an audition, which I think are already in full swing. Information about the SIs are arranged in alphabetical order, and there's a requirement that members of the message board (over 10,000) post only first hand information. So you get very reliable reports from dance students, or their parents!

 

And in the Adult Ballet Students section of Ballet Talk for Dancers, you'll find a lot of information about several week-long summer intensives specifically designed for adult dancers, from Advanced Beginner to Advanced. The US "Advanced Beginner" is around the level of Intermediate here in the UK.

 

The Adult dance intensives have tended to disappear in the COVID pandemic, though, so I don't know what's going to happen in 2022.

 

The other way you could do it is to locate a US city you'd like to explore, and check out what adult ballet classes are around, and construct your own "intensive" for a week or so. I'd recommend looking at New York, and checking out teachers at Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Centre, and Peridance (the three studios I spend time at when I'm in NYC). Find the teachers whose way of teaching is giving you something new, and you can generally follow them around the city, and you'd get two or three excellent classes per day.

[Kate_N]

23 hours ago, cotes du rhone ! said:

Estonian National Ballet run a summer intensive for young adults and semi/professional older dancers. If your heart isn’t set on the US then Estonia /Tallinn is a beautiful place and the course is taught by the AD and dancers of the company. 
Also, it’s only a 2 hour 40 minute flight from the U.K. and you can get a return ticket at a very reasonable price. 😄 

 

I've done a couple of master classes with two soloists from the Estonian Ballet (one is a UK national) here in the UK. They were lovely teachers, and the class was much much more than your standard technique class. You'd get an interesting insight into Russian practices of ballet training & repertoire, I should think.

 

And Tallinn is a lovely city - well, the old bits anyway (seek out the most amazing local chocolate café in the old town!) - there's also quite a lot of grey concrete Soviet high rise, sadly. And it's an hour or so ferry ride (regular service) to Helsinki, which is one of my favourite cities in the world in the summer.

[Peanut68]

Just a bit of fact finding... I seem to recall being told that US SI’s often join together to hold joint audition sessions so one class (or trip/day/weekend?) might mean you could be seen & assessed for several at same time in same city....

Can anyone shed any light on this please? Does this happen just in USA or also overseas in U.K./Europe too a) for US SI’s or b) other SI’s? 

[StillSewingShoes]

Yes, @Peanut68, there is the National Summer Intensive Audition Tour, which is going on right now, where you audition with one of the companies/schools and many others see you at the same time. There doesn't seem to be a great website for the tour itself, but each of the participating companies has posted information about it on their own websites, so I encourage you to Google it!

[Kate_N]

@Peanut68Ballet Talk for Dancers have some information about this, plus first hand experiences of auditionees.

[Peanut68]

9 hours ago, BalletMomUS said:

Yes, @Peanut68, there is the National Summer Intensive Audition Tour, which is going on right now, where you audition with one of the companies/schools and many others see you at the same time. There doesn't seem to be a great website for the tour itself, but each of the participating companies has posted information about it on their own websites, so I encourage you to Google it!

Thanks BalletMomUs... do you happen to know if any hold an audition over here in UK or Europe (as can’t see having chance/cash to go to USA just for auditions). I guess there might be video options too (will check out websites) but not a fan of these!! 

[StillSewingShoes]

Sorry, I don't know! My daughter didn't audition for that one, so I had only heard about it through others. 

[Jan McNulty]

I've come across this article while preparing today's links.  I don't know if there is any information in it that will be of use:

 

https://pointemagazine.com/2022-national-summer-intensive-audition-tour/

[Neverdancedjustamum]

Just to add quite a lot hold virtual auditions too, if you’re like my DD who absolutely hates having to do a video audition. US time is fairly doable given the time difference to the UK (it was Australia time that was a killer for us!). It does cost around £25-40 per audition, even for virtual ones. Just this week I realised I made the stupid mistake of losing £30 audition fee because the SI dates (pretty much all 5 weeks of it) are still within my DD’s school term. Costly mistake to make as auditions fees are non-refundable.  And there I was already imagining myself tagging along for a sun-filled holiday in the summer…

[Peanut68]

Oh dear.... I forgot all about the whole fees to apply, fees to attend auditions (live or virtual) let alone thinking about fees to attend any courses & then the accommodation/flights/travel.....and possibly all for five+ weeks 😱

Why do all courses seem to be so long in US? 

 

[Neverdancedjustamum]

44 minutes ago, Peanut68 said:

Oh dear.... I forgot all about the whole fees to apply, fees to attend auditions (live or virtual) let alone thinking about fees to attend any courses & then the accommodation/flights/travel.....and possibly all for five+ weeks 😱

Why do all courses seem to be so long in US? 

 

I think for quite a few of them it serves as an audition for the full time programme. I believe this is the case for places like SAB and Kirov, and also school in Canada like the NBS.  In a way, perhaps a good thing as the students are seen over a longer period of time rather than just a day or two.  At the same time, the students can get a proper feel of the place - whether they can see themselves there or not. Obviously still a lot of expense and commitment especially if coming from overseas. Lots of pros and cons as with anything. 

Edited January 11, 2022 by Neverdancedjustamum

[Birdy]

We also have crazy long summer breaks from school in the US, usually 11 or 12 weeks. My daughter’s ballet school is closed for over 14 weeks. Kids don’t want to take too long off of dance and there is a lot of pressure to keep in shape, so they pack their summers with intensive programs, which is obscenely expensive for parents. Even a five week program leaves a lot of the summer with no regular classes. My daughter will be starting a year-round program in Europe in the fall and I will be so grateful to get off of the crazy American summer intensive program.

[Peanut68]

That’s interesting to hear - thank you Birdy & good luck to your DD with her studies in Europe! 

[Neverdancedjustamum]

2 hours ago, Birdy said:

We also have crazy long summer breaks from school in the US, usually 11 or 12 weeks. My daughter’s ballet school is closed for over 14 weeks. Kids don’t want to take too long off of dance and there is a lot of pressure to keep in shape, so they pack their summers with intensive programs, which is obscenely expensive for parents. Even a five week program leaves a lot of the summer with no regular classes. My daughter will be starting a year-round program in Europe in the fall and I will be so grateful to get off of the crazy American summer intensive program.

Wow!  That is a long summer! I believe my kids get about 6-7 weeks off school but that’s it. Even then I’ve seen my daughter’s peers hop from one summer intensive to another as they often just last 1-2 weeks at her age. Not my daughter though, she’s not a good gauge of the typical committed dancer here - she is terrible and has no qualms about not doing any training for the entirety of the summer. She actually doesn’t understand why most dancers her age go to multiple SIs (“when do they get to rest?!”).  She actually agreed to audition for a particular American summer SI precisely because of its location (the weather being so diff from England!) and thinks it will be a holiday 🤷‍♀️. All the best to your daughter starting her year round programme in Europe.

[Lifeafterballet]

My daughter won a scholarship to attend an American Intensive in Florida. She skipped the last couple of weeks of her vocational school year to go but it was so worth it. She had an amazing time and made lots of friends from all over the world 🌎 

We had to pay for flights, but they collected her from the airport, insurance and for some of the weekend trips. With all that and then the tuition fees and boarding costs we would never have afforded it without the scholarship. 
We had to provide a full vaccination history too. 

[Neverdancedjustamum]

4 hours ago, cotes du rhone ! said:

My daughter won a scholarship to attend an American Intensive in Florida. She skipped the last couple of weeks of her vocational school year to go but it was so worth it. She had an amazing time and made lots of friends from all over the world 🌎 

We had to pay for flights, but they collected her from the airport, insurance and for some of the weekend trips. With all that and then the tuition fees and boarding costs we would never have afforded it without the scholarship. 
We had to provide a full vaccination history too. 

I hope you don’t mind me messaging you. My DD is looking at a couple of SIs in FL and one is probably the one your DD went to! 

[Peanut68]

Cotes fu Rhône, did your DD attend an audition for the SI or gain the scholarship (wow & congrats to her for that BTW!) from a video submission or competition?

[Lifeafterballet]

38 minutes ago, Peanut68 said:

Cotes fu Rhône, did your DD attend an audition for the SI or gain the scholarship (wow & congrats to her for that BTW!) from a video submission or competition?

She was awarded the Harid Conservatory scholarship at YAGP NY finals and a short term to Houston Ballet Academy too. As we only had to pay for the flights etc she attended both. Harid use their SI to audition for their year round program. At the end of the course they email the students they like and make them offers. I think other US SI do this too. 

[Peanut68]

Thank you C du R....youd DD must be exceptional & you must be very proud 😊

i guess there’s no way around big money outlay in this game as I’m guessing to get to a YGAP final in NY (if U.K. based?) entailed a high degree of financial outlay in entry fees/travel/accommodation & possibly coaching & costumes?

Anyond on here have a pension? 🤔