ABT, SIBA, and National Ballets offer 2-4 week programs for young dancers aspiring to be prima ballerina abssoluta.
Summer's just around the corner. For many young dancers, their dance education is solely a school-year activity meant for socializing and fun. But for others, training in ballet is a time investment for fame and a chance to perform centre stage as Giselle.
Summer intensive workshops are held by almost every dance studio in the world. From small-town studios in the United States to national schools and companies, each summer intensive program requires an audition and tuition and provides a two-week class schedule and a closing gala performance.
In North America, two of the most renowned ballet schools, The National Ballet of Canada and the American Ballet Theatre, provide a workshop opportunity for serious dancers around the ages of 7 and 12. At this young age, aspiring prima ballerinas are introduced into the professional world of dancing while still being immersed in a creative and caring environment.
Being a professional dancer requires one to train almost forty hours a week and perform about three days a week, every weekend. The mental and physical hardships of being a professional ballerina are introduced to the young children with classes not only covering dance technique, but also chorography, ballet terminology, dance history, nutrition and injury prevention. For the National Ballet of Canada Summer Camp (which as been a summer tradition since 1994), tuition runs on the lower-end at $790CDN and is held in Toronto, Canada . On the other hand, the American Ballet Theatre Young Dancer Summer Workshop's tuition is a round $1000USD excluding boarding and is held at ABT's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York, New York .
While there are many well known summer intensive workshops in North America, SIBA (Salzburg International Ballet Academy) offers a four-week program set in the beautiful scenic city of Salzburg, Austria and includes four performance opportunities in three different European cities at the end of the workshop. Most summer intensive programs offer scholarship opportunities for students, as the SIBA Intensive Summer Workshop does. .
Denmark, Italy, Scotland, France, London, Hungary, Honk Kong - you name it, every worldwide dance company has come to offer a summer program! There is no need to search far and wide for ways to keep kids busy over the summer months, but for those intending ballet as a professional career auditions are coming up quickly for these summer intensive workshops.
