At Next Generation Ballet, Students Spend the Summer Onstage

Sponsored by Next Generation Ballet
January 14, 2025

Most summer intensive students spend their days inside ballet studios. But at Next Generation Ballet, there’s another setting dancers get access to: world-class theaters. The pre-professional training program is set inside the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida. Although the Center’s auditoriums are typically rented out to touring Broadway productions during most of the year, once summer hits, NGB takes over. “Two theaters become our studios,” says artistic director Philip Neal. And these are not small, black-box scenarios: One theater seats 1,100 and the other seats 2,600. “Students really love it—some of them haven’t even been inside a theater that scope and size before,” Neal says.

A Next Generation Ballet performance. Courtesy Next Generation Ballet.

Pre-professional students who attend the three- or five-week options get an opportunity to perform in that 1,100-seat hall, dancing a mix of jazz, contemporary, flamenco, and classical rep. It’s a union-operated house, so students get first-hand experience with what that means, and see for themselves the meaning of “time is money,” Neal says. “They’re learning how the ballet business works.”

But even the dancers who attend the class-only two-week program and don’t take part in the culminating showcase still get a chance to dance onstage during their technique classes. This gives them a valuable opportunity to forget about the mirror and focus on what the movement feels like instead of getting lost in their reflections, Neal says. “There’s more of a performance aspect when you’re on that stage,” he says. “It just feels different than taking class in a studio.”

Flamenco artist Irene Rodríguez, who serves as a resident choreographer for Next Generation Ballet and teaches flamenco, contemporary, and ballet at the summer intensive, points out that this time in a major theater can help shape the way students dance. “When they leave the program and go to professional companies, they already know, for example, when you are dancing in a small theater, sometimes your expressions need to be smaller, more natural,” she says. “But when you dance in the big theater, all your pantomime, your expressions, your projection have to be bigger. So they develop this quality of managing the size of the audience.”

Next Generation Ballet students. Courtesy Next Generation Ballet.

The roughly 200 students are split up into eight levels for the women and two for the men (all levels are capped at 25 students). Although not all classes take place in the theaters, the majority are held in the studios that are just an elevator ride upstairs. The entire program is centered around the performing arts complex, so students are immersed in that environment day and night. Their cafeteria is the Straz Center’s restaurant; their dorms are in the Barrymore Hotel Tampa Riverwalk just across the street.

Meanwhile, many of the resident assistants who watch over the dancers after-hours are alumni who’ve gone on to professional careers, like Neal Burks, now a corps member at Houston Ballet. “They know their way around the theater and are sympathetic to the students’ needs,” Neal says. They’re also role models that can be an approachable resource for students wondering what company life is actually like.

Philip Neal teaching at Next Generation Ballet. Courtesy Next Generation Ballet.

That’s not to mention the faculty members coming from various corners of the professional dance world. In the summer, NGB’s full-time instructors are joined by guests like New York City Ballet principal Daniel Ulbricht, Boston Ballet principal Chyrstyn Fentroy, and former Radio City Rockette Kelly King. In addition, there’s a different teacher each week from Ballet West Academy, which has an ongoing partnership with NGB. “They learn Cuban ballet technique, Russian ballet technique, American ballet, plus flamenco, contemporary, jazz,” Rodríguez says. “It’s a very complete program—they explore so much.” Neal also makes it a point to teach all levels himself at least once a week, partially because he wants to have a good sense of any students who are auditioning for NGB’s year-round program. (Two auditions are held during the intensive, and about 10 to 20 summer students attend each one, Neal says.)

Being in Tampa gives students an opportunity to mix in some fun alongside all that serious training. Saturday afternoons and Sundays are reserved for excursions to places like the beach or Busch Gardens or Disney World. “And the Straz Center is right in front of the Riverwalk,” Rodríguez adds. “So sometimes at lunchtime, after a long day of training, the students go outside and walk by the river. It’s very peaceful. They don’t feel that they are stuck in a studio.”

Intrigued? Learn about auditions for this year’s program here