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Ballet Stars

Charlotte Edmonds, The Royal Ballet's Inaugural Young Choreographer, Gets Ready to Spread Her Wings

Photo by Andrej Uspenski, Courtesy ROH.

Wearing leggings and a puffy vest as she works in one of The Royal Ballet's light-filled studios, Charlotte Edmonds could pass for a corps de ballet member. Instead, she is choreographing on them, creating dynamic, ballet-based contemporary dance in her role as the company's first-ever Young Choreographer.

"At the Opera House you have dancers who have 20 years more experience," she says. "I bow to their experience, but I also try to hold the room. It is sometimes quite nerve-racking! But it is always exciting."

Edmonds' uncanny instincts for choreography and leadership were already apparent at age 11, when she was a first-year student in the Royal Ballet School's Lower School—and a finalist in its competition for the Ninette de Valois Junior Choreographic Award. She got her first professional commission at age 16, and was barely 19 when Royal Ballet director Kevin O'Hare named her the inaugural recipient of the company's Young Choreographer Programme. The paid position provides her with studio space, access
to dancers and the mentorship of renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor.


Photo by Alice Pennefeather, Courtesy ROH

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Views

Oregon Ballet Theatre Shows Us How Long It Takes to Become an Expert

Dancers know that practice makes...room for more practice. We spend our entire lives working to refine our technique, and what non-dancers see as perfection we see as a work in progress. But with dedication and discipline, that work-in-progress starts to change and grow, and that's the beauty of our art form: constant opportunity to push ourselves further.

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Ballet Careers

How Oklahoma City Ballet Member Devin Larsen Overcame Epilepsy and Found Dance

Larsen in The Nutcracker. Photo by Jana Carson, Courtesy OKC Ballet.

In her first season as a corps member with Oklahoma City Ballet, Devin Larsen stood among the 17 dancers who made the audience gasp as the curtain came up on Balanchine's Serenade. But her path to getting there would make anyone gasp.

At age 3, Larsen was diagnosed with epilepsy. She averaged 20 complex partial seizures per day, which eventually turned into the more serious kind, generalized tonic seizures, where she would fall and completely lose consciousness. “Your brain just shuts down," she says.

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Audition Advice

More Than a Number: How Auditions Helped One BalletMet Dancer Define Her Artistry

Photo by Jennifer Zmuda, Courtesy BalletMet.

I felt shattered. Cut from the audition at barre. I was 24 years old and had been dancing professionally for eight years already. I'd been very fortunate in my career so far, and although I was no stranger to rejections, this was a first. I thought: I must not be a good dancer anymore. I'm a has-been. Maybe it's time to rethink my career path.

As I waited for my friend, who came to the audition with me and was asked to stay, I realized which sort of dancers were let go early and which ones were kept. Everyone around me packing up their things was a seasoned dancer. A couple I knew from other companies, all beautiful and capable. The ones that were kept were young and aspiring; they had lots of potential, but no professional experience.

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Audition Advice

For Ballet Dancers Trying Their Luck on Broadway, The Audition Process is Vastly Different

Georgina Pazcoguin as Victoria in the Broadway revival of CATS (photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy CATS)

A debilitating illness forced Katelyn Prominski to retire early from Pennsylvania Ballet. However, once she recovered, she felt ready to tackle a new stage: Broadway. But before she began booking musicals like Flashdance and Dirty Dancing, she had to reckon with a new and humbling audition process. “When you go into a Broadway audition, you learn a dance combo first and then by the time they ask you to sing, your heart rate is going," says Prominski. “I remember one audition where I forgot the words and la-di-da'd my way through instead of singing the lyrics."

More and more ballet dancers are taking a chance on Broadway musicals. New York City Ballet principal Megan Fairchild recently starred in On the Town, while ballet-centric shows such as Christopher Wheeldon's An American in Paris have provided starring and ensemble opportunities for dancers from NYCB, The Royal Ballet Miami City Ballet and more. Many cite the artistic benefits of exploring an entirely new side of performance and the challenge of dancing, acting and singing. With eight shows a week, you get to practically live onstage and dive deep into a role. The pay is usually better, too. But in order to make this new world your own, you must be ready to rethink your audition approach and be open to a different set of professional expectations.

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Ballet Training

The Chance of a Lifetime: 4 Americans Share Their Experiences as Vaganova Ballet Academy Students

Vaganova Academy rehearsal with rector Nikolai Tsiskaridze. Photo by M. Logvinov, Courtesy Vaganova Academy.

As told to Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone and Madeline Schrock


What was life like at the Vaganova Ballet Academy?

Photo by Erik Tomasson, Courtesy SFB.

Gabrielle Perkins, ABT Studio Company member: I lived with about 30 other international students in the dorm, but all of our classes—except two hours of Russian language Monday through Thursday mornings—were with the Russian students. At first, it was stressful because I didn't really know what any of the other girls were saying—or even the teacher. But it was cool just to associate ourselves with them, and it helped us get more into the culture and language.

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Ballet Careers

The Quest for Confidence: How to Find and Maintain Healthy Self-Confidence

Marisa Trapani of Ballet Academy East. Photo by Nathan Sayers for Pointe.

Today, she's a confident Miami City Ballet soloist, but Emily Bromberg wasn't always so self-assured. As a teenager, she withered under the weight of self-doubt. Even being cast as Kitri in her first professional production of Don Quixote, at Festival Ballet Providence, didn't bolster her confidence—instead, she convinced herself she was too immature for the role and nearly melted in tears midway through her debut. “I was constantly double- and triple-checking myself, wondering what other people thought, wondering if I was good enough," she recalls. “It's the nature of the dance world, but there were moments when I was really at the edge of giving up."

These kinds of self-confidence issues, fueled by endless criticism, high pressure to succeed and a flood of intimidating images on social media, can plague dancers for years. It's easy to start questioning your worthiness in comparison to the latest Instagram star, but in the competitive and uncertain dance world, belief in yourself is crucial to reaching your goals—and your full potential.

A Healthy Sense of Self

The basis of innate self-confidence is recognizing that you're a human being with imperfections like anyone else, while understanding that your shortcomings don't define you as a person or as a dancer. “Self-confidence is having an accurate view of yourself and feeling good about it," says Dr. Nadine Kaslow, a psychologist who works with Atlanta Ballet. But being pleased with yourself does not necessarily mean that you have an overblown ego. “It's not arrogance or narcissism. You know you're not perfect—but you feel good about yourself."

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Ballet Training

Ask Amy: Are Private Lessons Necessary?

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Are private lessons necessary? I think I'd improve more quickly, but I'm already really busy. —Sarah

Private coaching, while expensive, certainly has benefits—it allows you to fine-tune small details or concentrate on specific things you're having trouble with (such as pirouettes or petit allégro). They're especially helpful if you're behind for your age, have some serious bad habits or if you're preparing a solo.

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Ballet Training

Ask Amy: How to Let Go of Past Mistakes and Focus on the Future

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I can't stop beating myself up over past mistakes. How can I focus on what's in front of me? —Susan

One of the most beautiful things about dance is that it exists only in the “now"—once the movement's moment is over, poof! You can never get it back. But you can always try again—and that's where the real success lies.

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Ballet Careers

In Ballet's Competitive Job Market, Can Personal Branding Help You Gain Greater Visibility?

New York City Ballet principal dancer Lauren Lovette, a prolific user of Instagram, discovered she had an eager following of aspiring ballerinas while guest teaching at Manhattan Youth Ballet and other summer intensives. “They would come up to me and say, 'I follow you,' " she says. “I realized early on the kind of influence I have on younger girls. Now I like to cater my Instagram that way."

Almost by accident, Lovette had built a "brand"—a successful ballerina whose lively photos, sparkling personality and keen fashion sense speak directly to a target audience. While "dancer as brand" may sound strange or distasteful, it has permeated the ballet world: Think of how American Ballet Theatre principal Misty Copeland has built her empire through social media, a shrewd publicist, television appearances, film and touring with rock star Prince. Now, more dancers are finding ways to market themselves by finding and promoting their unique qualities.

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Audition Advice

Mastering the Audition Circuit: 3 Pros Share What They've Learned From Years of Pinning on Numbers

Megan Zimny Kaftira believes in taking changes. Photo Courtesy Dutch National Ballet.

Ballet company auditions are hard to dodge for anyone aspiring to the profession. But they can serve as valuable learning tools by helping dancers determine which types of companies they prefer and ascertain the best ways to present themselves as artists. “How can I be seen in an audition?" “What should I say to a director?" “How do I handle my nerves?" Those are among the valid questions that the three professional dancers here thought about before plunging into the audition circuit. Over time, they've discovered ways to use the audition process to their advantage to bolster, rather than sabotage, their confidence and to reveal who they are as artists.

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Audition Advice

A Make or Break Summer: How to Strategize Intensive Auditions When You Want a Contract

Students in Miami City Ballet School's summer repertory performance. Photo by Ella Titus, Courtesy Miami City Ballet School.

Getting ready to audition for intensives? Click here to find the best summer study options for you!

By the time Washington Ballet dancer Andile Ndlovu was finishing his training in South Africa, he faced a risky decision. After attending a ballet competition in 2008, he received summer-intensive scholarship offers from The Washington School of Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem. But choosing between schools would determine more than his summer plans. The right intensive might lead to acceptance into a professional-level training program at summer's end, whereas walking away empty-handed would mean going back home, to begin again.

Many dancers on the cusp of graduation can relate. Summer intensives often serve as a lengthy audition process for year-round opportunities, a gateway to traineeships or second-company contracts that bridge the gap between student and professional. But choosing a summer program essentially means committing to a company school—before it's committed to you. If you're researching summer programs and know you want to move into a more professional sphere by summer's end, here's how to ensure that you're making a smart, career-minded decision.


Andile Ndlovu with Avana Kimura. Photo by Dean Alexander, Courtesy The Washington Ballet.


Assess Your Options

When prioritizing which intensives to audition for, start with schools affiliated with dream companies. But it's also important to investigate other options and to be very realistic about where you'd be happy day to day. “You have to take away the name brand and take a really close look at the company, at the people, at the repertoire," says San Francisco Ballet corps de ballet dancer Isabella DeVivo, who received a traineeship through SFB's summer program in 2012. “I liked how broad the rep was here."

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