16 Audition Basics and Pointers For Keeping A Positive Perspective

The Basics

One. Be rested so that you can be your best.

Two. Make nutritious meal choices, starting now. Eat a light meal at least an hour before the audition.

Three. Arrive with plenty of time to warm up your body in advance. (Some auditions, particularly for children, may be structured to provide a warm-up. Find out ahead of time. You’ll still want to arrive with time to spare to get familiar with the environment.)

Four. Dress appropriately and neatly in something that flatters you and be ready to shed layers so that the panel can see your body. Unless it is required that you dress a certain way, it is alright to choose a look that shows your personality or helps you stand out. However, use good judgment. Your look should not overshadow your dancing, after all it is your dancing you want to be remembered for.

Five. Be gracious from start to finish (even if the outcome is not what you had hoped). Treat your fellow dancers and audition panel with the utmost respect. Courteously ask questions and take corrections from the choreographer.

Six. Learn what you can about the school, company, team, ballet, or performance for which you are auditioning.

Seven. Know exactly what you will be expected to bring, complete, or have with you at the audition. Be prepared even with items you MIGHT need, like extra hair bands, knee pads, dance shoes, etc.

Eight. Perform it, “sell it.” Even in an audition class, really DANCE IT with expression, enthusiasm, and energy.

Nine. Stand where you can see and be seen without muscling your way to the front. If you are struggling or don’t know the choreography, stand further back until you do so that you can wow them once you’ve got it.

Ten. Don’t embellish the choreography unless you are asked to. If you ARE given this freedom, click here for some tips for making choreography your own.

Next Steps

One. It is okay to be human. To “never” show a mistake seems unnatural, but don’t make a spectacle of your mistakes with a tantrum or grotesque faces or by stopping. If you have covered or recovered your mistake well, forget it and keep going. If not, it is natural, while you are learning or after you have performed choreography, to acknowledge mistakes with a smile, a chuckle, or apology (if your mistake impacted others) and then move on. A light, positive, even joking manner can show that you will be fun to work with.

Two. Have no expectations. Expecting a certain outcome puts your mind in a place and time other than the audition and you’ll need to have your head in the present tense to do well. Clear your mind and dance because you love dancing, not because of the pot of gold that may or may not be at the end of this rainbow.

Three. You have nothing to lose. This is related to #2. If you are worried about what is at stake, then you have expectations that this role, this job, or this opportunity is already yours. You cannot lose what you don’t have. Knowing this, you can relax and enjoy the moment to shine, to dance, and grow with experience.

Four. Say “thank you” after the audition (with a written note or in person if possible) and say “thank you” whether you are selected or dismissed.

Five. Remember that no matter how intimidated you may be by the panel, they want you to do well. They want to have the best dancers to select from and are hoping that everyone walking into that audition is the best they’ve ever seen.

Six. Auditioning is a skill. Audition often and know that you can improve your skills. In fact, you may learn the most from your worst audition. You will likely go through many poor auditions before you are cast, and you will quickly learn that sometimes even great auditions don’t get you the job. Don’t lose faith in yourself.

Remember! You can only be you, so much of the best audition preparation is the everyday work you go through to be the best dancer you can be. Be yourself and enjoy the process!

More Audition Resources

A great article from Charlotte Examiner, Cynthia Beers on How To Audition For A Dance Program

Check out The Ballet Audition Preparation Guide. I don’t have first-hand experience, nor am I affiliated with this guide but here’s what Ginny, a dance mom, had to say about it: “It has a lot about goal setting, keeping a journal of your progress (not just in preparation for auditions, but all year long), along with practical advice about preparing for an audition, what to wear, eat, etc. If a student really took the time to read it and put into practice the advice given, I think it would be helpful.”

Look into this Kindle Edition resource: The Ultimate Guide to Dance/Drill Team Tryout Secrets, 3rd Edition. I’ve actually read a hard copy of this and it is solid information for youth or teens hoping to make the team from a successful and experienced dance and drill team performer.

Get a copy of A Dancer’s Manual: A Motivational Guide to Professional Dancing. I own this one and this 1999 guide is not a large book but it provides a mixture of motivational and practical advice if you are starting out in this tough career. The audition section offers perspective on nerves and attitude, as well as useful information on head shots and your resumé. Other areas covered include contracts, pay, injuries, and dancer fitness.

Guest Post: Insight Into ABT’s National Training Curriculum

Deb Young is a subscriber and regularly offers her thoughts and shares her knowledge and experiences in the comments here at Dance Advantage. After sharing with subscribers a bit about my experience at the Dance Teacher Summit in NYC this summer, Deb described her own productive and exhilarating summer adventures as a participant in American Ballet Theater’s National Training Curriculum program. I asked if she would recount this for you, and she happily did so with wonderful detail. Her article follows. Thanks, Deb!

What I Did Last Summer

(and This Summer, Too…)

During a break between classes at my fledgling ballet school a couple of years ago I picked up a dance trade magazine whose pages fell open to an interview with Franco De Vita, Principal of American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.  He was discussing the launching of ABT’s new National Training Curriculum, which he co-authored along with his colleague Raymond Lukens, also a teacher at the JKO school, as well as artistic associate for the ABT/NYU Masters Program in ballet pedagogy.

I remember thinking, Wow—ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie really is taking the bull by the horns:  first he muscles his way into Congress and has ABT declared “America’s National Ballet Company,” and now he has hired two ballet icons to create a new national curriculum, with the JKO School and NYU serving as its petri dishes.

What impressed me most was the saturation of excellence both in the content as described by Franco himself, and in the striking panel of experts across many disciplines (including dance medicine, physical therapy, and child development) whose wisdom had been polled to develop the curriculum.  And now ABT was opening its doors to a planet full of teachers who work every day in the ballet classroom trenches, to share its experts’ collective knowledge.  Was it possible that the NTC truly represented a methodology with the health, well-being, and safety of the child as its cornerstones?  Now they had my undivided attention.

I began to see this as an excellent opportunity for my young ballet school to serve as a local ambassador for the ABT/NTC; it was something unique I could offer my community.  A few short months after reading Franco’s interview, and after a pep talk from my former ballet school roommate who had completed certification with the inaugural group of trainees, I decided to be brave and submit my resumé to ABT.  Insofar as the resumé itself, I discovered in short order that ABT is less concerned with stage credits than they are with an assurance that you’ve had decent training, and have obtained a high intermediate-to-advanced level of proficiency.  My classmates were a mixed bag of old and young, retired and current professionals, obscure teachers like myself and famous former dancers-turned-teachers.  But we were united in our desire to learn from the best.

The Training is organized as week-long intensives; candidates are asked to obtain certification in Primary Level through Level 3 of the curriculum before being allowed to continue certification in Levels 4 and 5, and then 6, 7, and Partnering (taught as two separate intensives).

Certification is achieved by passing written and oral examinations on the final day of the intensives.  But because ABT really wants its new certified teachers to have the benefit of working with the curriculum in their own classroms for an academic year before moving ahead, the Primary through 3 training is scheduled at the very end of summer, with 4 and 5, and 6, 7, and Partnering preceding it. So it is impossible to take all three intensives in one summer.

ABT’s Young Dancer Summer Workshop (ages eight to twelve) runs concurrently with the Primary through Level 3 training so that trainees can observe much of what they are learning firsthand in the JKO School’s classrooms.  Likewise, the more advanced summer intensives run concurrently with the higher level teachers intensives.

If You Go

Be advised that when ABT says intensives, they mean it.  Prepare yourself for hours sitting in an uncomfortable metal folding chair, taking in bounteous material while taking down lots of notes.  LOTS.  At the end of eight or so hours of this, you will be dog-tired, unless you are an alien. But then you will need to summon your second wind to review all those notes at the end of each day in preparation for the upcoming exams.

During the course of one day at the training, you might have…

• a two-hour lecture on the material itself, which is rolled out a level at a time over several days;
• a “progressions” lecture—these are very important, as they clarify the evolution of basic movements from one level to the next; an hour lunch break;
• a JKO School class observation; and perhaps a review session with opportunities for questions to finish the day.

Instructors at the Primary through Level 3 session I attended last year included Raymond Lukens, assisted by Kate Lydon and Harriet Clark, and ABT physical therapist Julie Daugherty. Trainees also have the opportunity to take a class in each level of the curriculum being taught, but this is not a requirement. About half of my group participated in the classes, and the rest observed and took notes.

I participated in some classes and observed others, but ultimately I found the notes I made from observing far more helpful once I returned home and began working with the curriculum in my own classroom; I frankly could not remember much from the classes where I participated.

Additionally, in the Primary through Level 3 training we were split into smaller groups and asked to prepare sample enchaînements in each of the levels we were learning to demonstrate for our colleagues and instructors.  Sounds intimidating, and it was, to be sure. When someone complained about being too nervous Raymond quipped, “You have no choice but to get over it.”

Remember:  you are there to learn, and one of the best ways to do that is trial and error.  Nobody cares about your arches or extension—the thing that matters is whether you can teach the material you are learning.  Best to throw caution to the wind and demonstrate as if your own students are watching you, instead of other teachers and JKO faculty.

You will also have the benefit of learning some excellent exercises your colleagues give in their classes at home.  (Think cookie swap, but with ballet combinations.)  And best of all, you have ABT’s instructors at your disposal to offer constructive criticism—what an incredible opportunity.  I found their remarks to be helpful, and always delivered with professional aplomb.

The Curriculum itself is presented as guidelines, as opposed to a planned syllabus of study; it comes packaged along with ABT’s Healthy Dancer text in a gigantic three-ring binder that is included in the cost of the training. The authors borrowed from the French, Russian, and Italian schools in designing it, with a heavy emphasis on classic Cecchetti, and a healthy dose of Vaganova thrown in for good measure.

It is a very clean, simple, developmentally appropriate set of guidelines focused on correct placement and slow, careful technique building, with an emphasis on developing core strength and stability beginning in the very earliest levels.

In the Primary Levels (which may be divided into three years of study), there is no barre work given; all exercises are executed in centre floor or moving across the floor or in patterns.  The more traditional barre/centre floor format is introduced in Level 1, for children at least eight years of age.

The NTC is also an allegro-intense curriculum, with no fewer than twenty minutes of each class devoted to jumping.

Finally, the curriculum seeks to develop musicality beginning with very young children, and ultimately to keep the artist alive in young dancers.  This is accomplished in the Primary Levels through counting and clapping exercises, imaginative games that lay the foundation for correct technique, and improvisation exercises.

So You Think You Can Be An Affiliate

Once you’ve obtained certification in Primary through Level 3, and the higher levels, you are eligible to present your students in those levels to an examiner from American Ballet Theatre, who will travel to your school to adjudicate examination classes. With seventy-five percent of students achieving a passing score, ABT will bestow its affiliate status on the certified instructor who gives the exams.

I engaged my parents early last fall to be brave pioneers with me and allow their children to participate.  After ABT chose a date for us and sent the exam guidelines, I planned spring term with plenty of lead time for preparation, as I strongly believed it was very important that all my students enjoy success. About six weeks ahead of the big day I gave them their exam materials, which they practiced diligently week to week.

All levels above Primary are required to memorize the class; there is no teaching during the exams—you simply announce each exercise, and the children dance them.  But an exception is made for the  Primaries, who are quite young; the teacher can lead them through their classes so long as there is very little talking, and no correcting.  I presented two levels of Primaries who all performed very well, in addition to Level 1 and Level 2 classes.

The biggest excitement of all during this process was the news that Franco De Vita himself would be coming to our little ballet school.  But because my school population is still very young, most of the participants were undaunted by his presence. The entire experience was a tremendous success, and felt far more celebratory than nerve-wracking; all twenty-four children I presented achieved passing scores, with seven citations for Merit and two for Honors. Each child was given a beautiful certificate from ABT, and the overwhelming majority expressed immediate interest in repeating the exams in the coming year.

As I have explained to parents who ask me why their child should participate, the examination process is an excellent barometer for the quality of instruction at the school.  In short, it tells us all whether I am doing my job well, and that should matter a great deal to parents who entrust their children to me for classical ballet instruction.

I found that this affirmation also translated directly into my improved confidence as a teacher.  We all question ourselves from time to time, but it is very nice indeed for American Ballet Theatre to give you its official thumbs-up.

This summer when I stepped off the elevator on the 4^th floor at ABT to continue training in Levels 4 and 5 of the NTC, I had a little epiphany.
Had anyone told me a few years ago that I would be teaching classical ballet (after a very long absence from the ballet world), at a school I founded, and traveling to New York to train at American Ballet Theatre, and that the principal of the JKO School would in turn be traveling to my school to evaluate my students, and by extension, my teaching, well…you can imagine.

Even if you are not in a position to use the curriculum—if you teach in a large school with its own plans or syllabus, for example—there is so much wisdom to be gained from attending the intensives that can be used in any ballet classroom environment, the training is easily worth the time, money, and effort it demands of you.  I can’t wait for the chance to step off that 4^th floor elevator once more.

Deb Young received early classical ballet training in Memphis from Balanchine disciples, Yuri Chatal and Victoria Fedine; she continued Cecchetti-based training with her own mother, Pat Holden, studying concurrently with many distinguished instructors at the National Academy of Arts in Champaign, Illinois during summer intensives for several consecutive years.  After a short stint dancing with a small ensemble in Colorado in the early 1980s, she hung up her pointe shoes to go to college.  In 2006 Deb discovered herself serendipitously at the front of the ballet classroom as the founding director of Knoxville Ballet School, where she is happily the wearer of many hats.  She is certified in American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum in Primary Level through Level 3.  In May of 2010 American Ballet Theatre named her an Affiliate Instructor.  She is also a certified fitter for Gaynor Minden pointe shoes. Deb lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband and son.

Sunday Snapshot: Flying

Every photograph has a story. Megan Davis was kind enough to share the story behind this photograph which is part of a series of photos featured in her Flickr portfolio.

I became interested in photography a few years ago when I realized that I didn’t have that many dancing years left and photography would be a way for me to stay connected with the dance world. I went out and bought a fancy digital camera, and when I figured out I had no idea how to shoot it in manual, I enrolled in a few photography courses at the community college. Of course, the classes were all black and white film based which I wasn’t expecting!

After we learned about the controls of the camera and composition techniques, We had an assignment to use a Holga camera. Holga’s don’t have any controls practically at all. It’s basically a really old point and shoot camera that you guess on exposure time and guess on the focusing. The idea of the assignment was to put all the students on the same playing field. No one would be able to say so and so’s photo’s turned out better than mine because their camera is more expensive or any thing else like that because we would all be using the same type of camera.

Half of the students absolutely hated the Holga for different reasons, mostly because they felt they didn’t have any control over what they were doing. I disagreed. I felt I had more of a creative outlet without any boundaries and more control because I didn’t have to worry about the exposure.

For my assignment, I wanted to reconnect with my dancing days and do some flying, as that was my favorite part of dancing. So, my sister and I went out in the middle of no where, set up a small trampoline in the weeds, and had some fun! I set up my holga on a tripod and had my sister click the shutter when I was ready. The tramp wasn’t all that stable in all the weeds, but it got us laughing pretty hard a few times when it sent us flying! We were able to create some fun photographs and some memories that will last a while.

I developed my film myself, but instead of printing in the dark room, I chose to scan my film into the computer and develop the photographs in photoshop. There really isn’t a whole lot that I did besides a few adjustment levels and spotting (getting rid of all the dust and spots that sometimes is found on film) I really enjoyed using this format and camera and have many plans for the Holga in the future! Oh- and I did get an A on the assignment!

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