Dance Audition

Spy_on_the_Inside

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I'm working on a story where the teenage MC is a professional ballerina auditioning for The Nutcracker (she eventually gets the role of Clara). The problem is I myself am not a professional dancer and I have no idea how the audition process for getting into a major ballet production works.

Does anyone have any experience or insight into how the dance audition process works? Would there be anything special to consider if the directors were considering her for the lead?
 

TessB

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Oof; there are a lot of little details on this that will trip you up if you're not careful. is the ballet company in your book producing the Balanchine Nutcracker? If so, the company will be sending calls out to the pre-professional ballet schools in the region to audition 12 - 16 year old students for the role. (Balanchine traditionally calls for a young Clara who doesn't do very much dancing). Clara is the protagonist, but not the lead soloist.

If they're using a different or original choreography, you have a lot more leeway there. I've worked (crew) on a very different Nut version that cast older dancers as Clara, and in that case, she got the main pas de deux with the Prince. (Our Snow Queen actually had the most complicated female choreography - 12 fouette turns in a row. Ouch!)

Here's a casting call for your 'standard' Nut, with the roles broken down by age and pointe/non-pointe work: http://www.center.iastate.edu/nutcracker/auditions/

-- it's also not a bad summary of the process, though of course the experience behind the scenes will be quite different.

This isn't a half-bad source of information (another casting call):
http://www.tvadance.org/wp-content/...on-of-Roles-for-Nutcracker-2014-Auditions.pdf

Nut roles broken down by dancer skill levels: http://www.balletdanceexperts.com/nutcracker-ballet-characters/
--

Generally speaking, a permanent company like the RBC or Royal Winnipeg will cast from within the company for all major roles, only going outside the company to cast things like children, who wouldn't already be on payroll. Is the production being put on by a full ballet company, or is it a show being put together with an all-new cast?

ETA: If you're looking for a ballet with a strong, young female lead who is also the main soloist, how about Alice in Wonderland?

ETA again!: There's a documentary out called First Position which is an excellent behind the scenes look at the lives of young dancers as they prep for a major competition/world audition. Michaela Duprince is in it! (This is where I fell madly in love with her dancing). I'm pretty sure it's available on iTunes, maybe NetFlix has it by now? It's definitely worth a watch, if just for the experience of the crazy stage mother.
 
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Drachen Jager

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My son tried out for one of the kid roles in The Nutcracker (he's on standby).

Basically there's a dance studio set aside for the day, everyone there for the audition gets sorted into groups (by age in this case) if there are too many. Each group goes through their paces and the audition staff single out individuals that they like/don't like by number (everyone wears pinned on numbers, like a marathon).

However, most ballet companies would not use an audition process to select a major role for a specific production. You audition for the company and if accepted you work at the roles they give you within the company (which may or not be a closed-house audition process). If they want a dancer from outside the company for a major role, they'd approach a star dancer's agent and either schedule an audition with them, or just offer them the role.
 

Spy_on_the_Inside

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Well, the character does attend a prestigious ballet academy, and I could easily still write the story where the production casts from her school.

The main character is fifteen and is considered a very gifted student and has been chancing professionally since she was ten. On your list, it seems a little vague whether a child that age could still audition for children's roles or whether she could give a shot at adult roles.
 

cornflake

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I'm working on a story where the teenage MC is a professional ballerina auditioning for The Nutcracker (she eventually gets the role of Clara). The problem is I myself am not a professional dancer and I have no idea how the audition process for getting into a major ballet production works.

Does anyone have any experience or insight into how the dance audition process works? Would there be anything special to consider if the directors were considering her for the lead?

If it's a major production it's likely from a major company, and thus the casting is in house. Also depends what Nutcracker.

What company? Is it at the company's house or touring?
 

TessB

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Well, the character does attend a prestigious ballet academy, and I could easily still write the story where the production casts from her school.

The main character is fifteen and is considered a very gifted student and has been chancing professionally since she was ten. On your list, it seems a little vague whether a child that age could still audition for children's roles or whether she could give a shot at adult roles.


By 'dancing professionally,' do you mean in children's roles, or en pointe? Because most young dancers won't start going on point until they've started puberty - their bones aren't strong enough to support them in the full point position until that age.

She could be Clara at 15, certainly, but she still wouldn't have the major solo dances in the production. The question would be her height, and her pointe skills -- does she have the strength and the extension necessary to make a good showing on stage with dancers who have been undergoing arduous training for a few more years than she has? I don't think a 15 year old would have the ability to dance a Balanchine Sugar Plum, no. I've worked with one in ten years who has that kind of potential - and she's back as our Clara this year, at 17. It helps that she's tiny.

But the rest still stands - if it's a proper company doing Nut, all of the adult roles would be cast in-house, and they would only go outside for the roles they couldn't cast from their own company (extra party guests, children, Clara and Fritz, perhaps a star dancer with an agent as an extra special guest soloist).

The casting calls / audition notices would be sent out to the dance schools a while before rehearsals start - early September, at the absolute latest, or even the June before, and auditions would take place shortly thereafter. Auditions would be held at a central location - at the company's studio, or a studio rented for the occasion. Kids will be expected to come in ballet gear, be given a number to wear, and bring a headshot as well as a CV / application listing their educational experience and any pro work to date.

Generally all the Claras would be auditioned together, and the auditions would take a while. The artistic director, ballet master/mistress and company director would probably be there, as well as whoever's playing the Prince, and maybe a couple more. The ballet mistress will set the workout - basic exercises to see turnout and posture, and then choreography to see how quickly they can pick up the steps.

Sometimes they might ask the Prince to get in there to see how they look, if their heights work, how easy are lifts, and so on. Sometimes not. It would depend if you have ten or two candidates at that stage, of course.

The judges will make notes during the audition, have a discussion afterwards, and usually call around and/or put up a list anywhere from a week to a month later, with preliminary rehearsal schedules. Rehearsals would begin in late September / early October, with costume fittings also around that time.
 
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Spy_on_the_Inside

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I had planned on it being put on by the Metropolitan Ballet Company in Minneapolis or nearly identical company with a different name to avoid copyright issues). They do have their own ballet academy, so that is likely where she takes lessons.
 

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You may want to take a look at On Stage, Please - it's a similar story about a young dancer who goes to the National Ballet School in Toronto and wins the role of Clara in the Nutcracker. It was written by Veronica Tennant, who was the prima ballerina of the National Ballet of Canada for years and years.
 

cornflake

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Well, the character does attend a prestigious ballet academy, and I could easily still write the story where the production casts from her school.

The main character is fifteen and is considered a very gifted student and has been chancing professionally since she was ten. On your list, it seems a little vague whether a child that age could still audition for children's roles or whether she could give a shot at adult roles.

It depends what production they're doing, but a 15-year-old is not a soloist pretty much anyplace. What do you mean by dancing professionally? Like she's had children's roles in company productions? That's a given for academy students, pretty much.

I had planned on it being put on by the Metropolitan Ballet Company in Minneapolis or nearly identical company with a different name to avoid copyright issues). They do have their own ballet academy, so that is likely where she takes lessons.

I don't know that company at all, but if they have a proper academy she doesn't take lessons there, she's THERE.
 

TessB

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What cornflake said -- dance academies are boarding schools, generally.

Eta -- that specific one doesn't seem to be? That solves that problem, then!
 
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Spy_on_the_Inside

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This is all great information everyone!

Now I'm thinking about the actual audition itself. While I was never a dancer, I was a major drama geek in high school. Right now, how I am imagining a dance audition is the same as acting auditions: the dancers are given a section of the ballet to perform for the directors and it is decided from that who will get what role.

How far off am I?
 

TessB

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Not completely off, but not exactly, either. The kids would not have pieces to prepare at home -- if your MC knows she's auditioning for Balanchine Nut she could easily find videos of the choreography and practice it, but a ballet audition has a few standard parts.

Throughout the audition, the ballet mistress will be calling out the choreography once, before the exercise. Part of the audition is seeing how easily the kids pick up the steps, so they don't get a lot of prep. What you'll often see, even with pros, is dancers walking through the steps as the ballet mistress calls them out, to get muscle memory in place - then they'll do the exercise properly with the group.

Pacific Northwest Ballet children's auditions for Nutcracker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKh5VnfnJz4

(Clara auditions start at 1:58)

Usually, there will be some kind of barre/exercise component - this lets the judges see the shapes and form of the dancers. How's their turnout, how're their extensions, that sort of thing. They'll do the same sort of exercise sets that every ballet class begins with. (rises at the barre, plies, into stretches and kicks.)

Then they'll move into centre work, so letting go of the barre and doing exercises as a group in the middle.

Lastly, they'll be given a bit of choreography - possibly from the ballet, possibly from something else - and be marked on their acting and expressiveness as well as their ability to learn choreo quickly.

Children auditioning for the Jane Eyre ballet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHn0drORC0
 

Spy_on_the_Inside

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And would the directors make their decisions the same day as the audition, or would they take several days to make up their minds?
 

TessB

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Several days, usually. When I've sat in on auditions, usually there's a general cull on the day of, cutting the ones who definitely won't be able to perform up to expectations. Then the list, headshots, notes, sometimes videos will be gone over by the committee -- they may decide to cast a Clara auditioner in a different part (one of the party girls) or as an understudy, move a girl from the chorus audition to Clara, and so on - they'll work out a whole cast list that works, sometimes with some spaces (like, Prince understudy) left TBA. Then they'll announce it all at once, usually with a list posted somewhere central (bulletin board at the theatre and on their website, for instance). It'll generally be within a week or two, if they've done all the auditions on the same day.

This video's a good one - it's a school audition, not for a specific production, but you can see the ballet mistress giving the choreography, and the kind of setup at the judges' table (with video camera). At the 35 - 50 second mark you'll see the ballet mistress giving a new exercise, and some of the better dancers mapping it bodily as she speaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl_G-Yreaxs
 
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Spy_on_the_Inside

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And once the decision was made, would they call all the students together to make the announcement, or would they simply call the dancers on the phone.

And on the day of the announcement, would it be unusually to ask the students they were considering to give one last short performance or is once the audition's done, it's done?
 

TessB

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Probably neither - the list would just be posted somewhere; the dancers would be expected to take on the responsibility of looking at it to see if they made the cast. Possibly an email out to all auditionees, if someone had the organizational skills to get the parents' email addresses. No-one has time to call 200 kids and give them the news individually.

And no - once the audition's done, it's done. They're expected to get all the information they need, sign and turn in all the waivers and forms required, and show up early for rehearsal ready to go as per whatever schedule the artistic director sets.

Those schedules would be posted at the rehearsal site and on a website like this one: http://www.balletjorgen.ca/index.cfm?id=24877

with lists of who was expected to be there at what time, ready to rehearse which thing.

This is a pretty standard rehearsal call sheet:

http://www.balletjorgen.ca/site/ballet_jhorgen/assets/pdf/rehearsal__sched_markham_2014.pdf

Or this one:

http://montanaballet.org/nutcracker-2014-rehearsal-schedule//

Notice how there are no names listed; each dancer (or parent) is responsible for knowing what scenes they're needed for, and depending on understudy casting, that can change from week to week. (A 'tech' rehearsal is one where the performers walk through the cues while the lighting designer and sound person set all the technical cues. They are excruciatingly boring.)

The times listed are times in the studio ready to dance, so the actual show-up-to-get-changed and stretching time is earlier. There's no hand-holding; you show up to work, or get cut. There will always be another dancer ready to step in.
 
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Spy_on_the_Inside

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Something I've been wondering about this grand and mythical figure: the Ballet Master. If the production is done in-house, is the Master usually one of the teachers or do they sometimes bring in an outside director?
 

TessB

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There isn't usually a Ballet Master assigned to a specific production -- the Ballet Master is the head teacher at a ballet company, who is in charge of running daily dance classes and running rehearsals for whatever productions the company is doing. She works with the company's Artistic Director to decide on how far and fast to push the dancers in class, what kind of styles they want to focus on teaching, what skills need to be refined for upcoming works, and so on.

The Ballet Master may or may not also be the company's Artistic Director, who is the person actually directing the production(s) in question. Big companies would have them as different people.

A repetiteur is a person working under the Ballet Master who runs smaller rehearsals -- while the Ballet Master is working with the Snowflakes, for instance, repetiteurs might be running steps with 1) the mini mice, 2) party guests and 3) Arabian dancers, in three other studios. These would usually be other teachers, in a school environment.

The Artistic Director will only rarely also be the Production Manager (usually not, thankfully for their sanity), who is responsible for all of the administration behind the scenes - hiring department heads, booking rehearsal spaces and catering to feed the dancers, making sure there are water bottles and snacks backstage, paying the stagehands, etc etc.

Any one of the above may or may not also double-serve as the Technical Director, who is responsible for all of the physical bits - stagehands, lighting and sound cues and crew, building the set and props, etc.

The Stage Manager works directly with the AD, TD, and BM to set the cues and all of the ... everything for every show. Once a show opens, the directors generally bugger off and the Stage Manager is left to run all the technical things. The stage manager is present at every performance to 'call the show' - she'll be on a headset, giving orders to everyone from the orchestra conductor to the lighting board guys, telling everyone when to stop, start, go out, raise the curtain, move the lights, play this sound effect, run that light effect, etc etc.

You never step onto a stage without the permission of the stage manager. That's an easy way to get set pieces dropped on your head.

Crew has a whole stack of sub-disciplines as well (electrical, props, pyro, etc), of which any particular show may have one specialist for each, one for all, or none. The TD may also be running the lighting and sound boards; if so, he'll need at least one backstage assistant for everything else. I'd expect a crew for a show as big as Nutcracker to have at least 10 people, minimum.

The Head of Wardrobe is responsible for everything that goes on a dancer's body, which may or may not include props like glasses or masks, depending entirely on the relationships between the two departments and department heads. usually I'd say masks go to props and glasses and gloves to wardrobe, but that could go any way and be done somewhere!

The Wardrobe Master or Mistress is responsible for the day to day maintenance of the costumes, including laundry. They may or may not be the same person as the Head of Wardrobe -- either way, they're paid out of the dressing/run budget rather than the pre-production budget. For professional ballet companies, you've also then got your specialists: shoe person, tutu person, and often a hair/wig/hat/headdress person.

Dressers get the costumes on and off the dancers if required, during the show. Clara always needs a quick change, going from whatever day dress she's wearing for the opening scene to the nightdress she wears for the rest of the ballet. Sometimes the full outfit has to be changed, by a crew of people up to five strong, in under 20 seconds. (remember that note re: 'high stress'? Dancers also get touched, often by relative strangers, a whole lot.) You need at least five dressers to run a production of Nut.

... I went off on a total tangent. I'm sorry. XD