Student Opportunities
Top-Tier Training
With a faculty imported from the world’s elite academies, InDanceve is not your typical ballet intensive. This year-old summer program in Washington, DC, gives a small group of dancers the opportunity to train under internationally renowned master teachers. Last year’s lineup included faculty from the Paris Opéra Ballet School, the Vaganova Ballet Academy and La Scala Ballet School. The program offers three weeklong workshops that immerse students in a particular school’s style. Dancers can choose to attend one, two or all three sessions, depending on which techniques interest them. “InDanceve brings together the major ballet schools,” says founder Melis Varban. “Not just the physical institutions, but the schools of ballet—the French, the Russian and the Italian.”
With classes capped at 15 students, InDanceve is an opportunity to not only train with the best but also to be seen by the best. Varban hopes to eventually make InDanceve a platform for U.S. students to audition for international academies. See dancearound.org/indanceve.
—Alexis Branagan
Dance Olympics
Berlin’s Tanzolymp competition aims to be an Olympics for dance. Billed as an international dance festival, the focus, however, is not on winning medals but fostering an exchange between students of different cultures. There are no elimination rounds, and dancers are not referred to as candidates or competitors, but participants. To learn more, go to www.tanzolymp.com.
2011 Dates:
February 16–20
Apply by:
December 15
Held:
Annually in Berlin
Founded:
2004
Jury:
Led by Vladimir Vasiliev
Size:
Approximately 600 dancers from 30 countries
Categories:
Solos, duos or groups in ballet, modern, character, jazz and tap
Ages:
8–21
Awards:
Cash prizes of up to 2,000 euros, company contracts, scholarships and audition opportunities
Participation fee:
25–100 euros
Peridance’s New Program
Peridance Capezio Center in New York City is launching a new preprofessional Certificate Program for serious dance students ages 17 to 28. It is more than a scheduled array of open classes: It works as an accelerated four-semester conservatory program to give students the skills and professionalism a dance career requires.
“With our brand-new studios, we are able to offer the program’s students their own classes, rehearsals and performances, as well as individual mentoring,” says coordinator Liza Kovacs. “In addition, they can take open classes and dance side by side with some of the city’s most talented teachers and dancers.”
Students can choose a ballet/modern track, which resembles most dance conservatory programs, or a commercial track, for those pursuing a career in commercial dance or musical theater. The program requires a minimum of three classes per day, or 60 classes per month. Each student’s schedule is tailored to address her individual needs. All dancers get performance opportunities, conditioning, physical therapy, discounted or free Peridance workshops, master classes, studio space and personal mentoring from Peridance’s faculty. Find out more at www.peridance.com, and learn about other post–high school training options on DanceU101.com. —AB
TIP: What aspects do dancers overlook when they choose a summer intensive?
“The conditioning classes. A lot of technical improvement is simply about strengthening and understanding how to use the muscles correctly. Walnut Hill, for example, has a hydroconditioning class in the pool, and I’ve seen students all of a sudden figure out how to lift their leg from underneath instead of gripping their quads. Of course, the actual ballet training is the most important part of an intensive, but classes like Pilates or Gyrotonic can dramatically strengthen the muscles. That can lead to big improvement in a short period of time.” —Michael Owen, director of ballet at Walnut Hill School for the Arts