Summer Dance Intensives Help Students Improve Technique

Dance schools typically follow the school year and run from September through June, taking the summer off.   So what does a dancer do all summer?  Is it time to relax and have some fun or time to look into ways to get a head start on dance technique? 

Dancers who take the summer off lose some of their technique by not practicing all summer.  Additionally, for every day a dancer stops dancing, it will take at least that many days to get back to where they were when they stopped.  So, if a dancer stops in June and takes two months off, until classes start again in September,  they will not be back in shape again until November.   Added to this, many dance schools start rehearsing for their recital by February, and there is vacation in December... so this only gives dance students about two months to make additional technical gains.  For the dancer who is serious about dance and thinks they may want to go to college for dance, dance professionally, or who just wants to do better at competitions and be a better dancer, the summer intensive is an ideal time to make some progress.

Dance students don’t have school during the summer, so they are able to spend all day dancing- something they can’t do during the school year.  Most Dance Intensives usually run from 9:00am-5:00pm Monday through Friday and last from three to five weeks.   Picking up a copy of the December issue of Dance Magazine will give you a listing of all the major dance intensives across the country as well as audition information.  However, most of the major dance intensives are highly competitive and run auditions in January and February.   Major companies such as ABT, New York City Ballet, and Boston Ballet are extremely difficult to get into and are geared for intermediate through advanced dancers.   If you have the talent to get into these programs, they are a wonderful experience and they get students seen by important companies who will sometimes offer students invitations to their trainee programs.  This can be an important tool for getting into a company.  However, few students are at this level.  In addition, most of these highly competitive programs involve travel and room and board as they are “sleep-away” camps.  Some students aren’t ready to be away from home for such a long time.  The cost can also be prohibitive as tuition plus room and board is often in excess of $1000 per week.

For most dance students who are not sufficiently advanced for these competitive programs and who just want to improve technique over the summer, a local option may be better suited and will be half the price because there are no room and board fees to pay.   Be careful what type of dance program you choose.  If your child’s goal is to improve dance technique, then you don’t want a dance camp which includes lots of non-dance activities.  A camp which offers only a couple of dance classes each day is not going to give the intensive experience that gives a dancer’s technique the boost your dancer is looking for.  If your child really wants to be a dancer, then all the extra activities will only take away from time that could be spent dancing or learning something about dance.  In addition, you need to make sure that the place you are selecting offers technique that is as good as or better than where your child goes year round and that it has well qualified teachers.  A good Summer Intensive program will often invite special Guest Teachers to teach a few Master Classes during the program also.

After you research some Dance Intensives, find out what needs to be done to audition and apply.  Some places will allow you to send in a video audition and they will tell you what needs to be on the video.  Some places will also need a photo- often in first arabesque- they will tell you what kind of photo they need.  You may also need to preregister for auditions.  It is best not to put all your eggs in one basket.  Try to pick several places you might like to go to and audition for all of them.  In the event that you are turned down by some, you may be accepted by others.  It is also best to choose one place to do a practice audition at prior to all of your other auditions.  If you pick a school that you know is too advanced for you to get into and you simply go to take the class as a sort of “Master Class” to learn what an audition is like, then you can go without worrying about whether or not you will get in.   You may also get some ideas about where you might be weak, so that you can work on these areas before your real auditions.  Taking a practice audition costs you only your time and the $15-30 class fee and will help shake out the jitters so that when it’s time for actual auditions, your child will feel more confident and prepared and less nervous.

When you go to an audition, always arrive early and expect to get out late as delays are common.  It is best to find out what the dress requirements are and if none are stated then your child should go with a plain black leotard and pink tights.  Make sure hair is in a performance ready bun and that your child is not wearing jewelry or bright nail polish!  Remember to pack a water bottle and a few emergency essentials such as safety pins, a pen, headache remedies, bandaids, toe tape, hair elastic, hair net, a book, a snack, dance essentials (shoes, extra tights) etc.   Dancers should be prepared to do pointe work if they are en pointe.  They should act professionally and warm up prior to the audition.  Examiners begin to watch students before the audition actually starts and a dancer’s behavior says a lot about them.  Once the audition starts, it is important for dancers to try to relax and have fun!  If they mess up, they should never quit in the middle of a combination, but just smile and keep going.  Examiners want to see that dancers can handle mistakes professionally and that they enjoy dance.  Expect to be notified of results about one to three weeks after the audition.  

The Fisher Academy of Ballet & Dance, in Westwood MA offers a Summer Intensive from July 9 through July 27 for students aged 12-18.  It is geared towards helping dancers from local dance studios improve their technique so that they can return to their own studios in the Fall and do better in their classes, competitions, and performances.  The Intensive consists of Ballet, Pointe or Pre-pointe, Variations (learning ballet solos), Jazz, Musical Theater, Tap, Hip Hop, and Modern Dance.  In addition there are enrichment classes offered which can include Russian Character Dance, African Dance, Belly Dance, Flamenco, Chinese Dance, Dance History, Pilates and other dance forms.  Audition is April 1st.  Video auditions are accepted and should be received by March 31st.  Cost for the program is $500 per week and the three week program concludes with a performance.  Please call the studio at 339-364-8522 or visit the website www.fisherballet.com for more information!

The Pointe Shoe

Photo of my pointe shoes, taken  by Bruce Peter Photography

When people think of ballerinas they think of them dancing "on their toes" or what is called in the ballet world as "sur les pointes."  To be able to do this takes many years of training.   Young children are not allowed to wear pointe shoes because their bones are soft cartilage while they are young and can be damaged by pointe work.  Once they enter their pre-adolescent and teen years, the bones begin to ossify and if they also have developed sufficient technique and strength they may be allowed to start studying pointe.  Among the factors that will be looked at is whether they have sufficient technique to maintain their placement and correct body alignment while en pointe.  They need to have very strong back, abdominal and thigh muscles to correctly hold their body placement.  They also have to have strong foot, ankle, and leg muscles to help to keep the joints safely aligned and to pull the dancer's weight out of the shoe.  The shoe is designed to be quite hard and supportive however it is not supposed to do all of the work for the dancer.  Allowing all the weight to fall on the shoes places too much weight on the delicate foot bones and joints.  A dancer uses her muscles to help support herself in the shoe.

In the early days of  pointe work, there was no special shoe and dancers had only their physical strength to support themselves on their toes.  Geneviève Gosselin  is thought to have danced en pointe in 1815 and  Fanny Bias appears to be en pointe in prints dated 1821.  However, these early attempts to dance en pointe  involved little more than briefly posing on the tips of the toes.  Marie Taglioni in 1832 was the first dancer to really dance en pointe and to use it artistically as part of the choreography.  Marie's father trained her for hours every day and she debuted in Paris in 1832 in  La Sylphide  in which she astonished theatre goers with her ability to stay en pointe and to appear as though she floated above the stage like the fairy that she portrayed. The shoes worn by Taglioni were not like today's pointe shoe. There was no stiffened box to support her toes. Instead she darned her shoes along the sides and around the toe to keep the slipper in shape and to give her extra support.

Today, the pointe shoe is made with a process similar to papier-mâché.   However instead of paper and glue, the pointe shoe is made of fabric and glue.  It has a leather sole with some layers of cardboard and a shank to give support under the foot.  The fabric is formed around a "last" and pleated under the toe.  Great care is taken to make the "platform" of the shoe- the tip of the toe where the dancer stands- as flat as possible in order to assist with balance.  It is also important that the bottom of the shoe lays flat so that it doesn't rock when the ballerina balances on a flat foot.  The shoe is made in many sizes and widths and also has to include other variables such as the length of the "vamp"- the part of the shoe that covers the toes.  Some dancers have long toes and some have short toes.  Where the vamp falls depends on the dancers toes and how high her arch is among other things.  Dancers also have different preferences in how the heel fits.  It is important that as they dance, the heel doesn't slip off their foot, causing them to lose a shoe in the middle of performing, which can be dangerous.  Because of all these variables, many professional dancers will have their shoes custom made.

 It can take a long time to find the right shoe.  It isn't only about the fit of the shoe, but how it moves with your foot.  In addition, once a dancer finds a shoe she wants  she prepares it to her own specifications.  First the elastic and ribbons have to be sewn on, as pointe shoes do not come with this pre-done.  Then dancers have many different things they do, most of which looks like they are taking a new shoe and destroying it!   They bang it to soften it a bit and get the noise out, they may take out some of the nails from the shank so that it conforms better to their arch, they may cut out part of the shank, they sometimes snip the satin off the tip of the shoe to make it less slippery.  Sometimes they also darn around the tip to help give them more traction and balance.  Some dancers use a rasp on the bottom of the shoe to give more traction and  pare down the sides of the sole to make it flatter for balance.  When the shoes begin to soften too much, they may pour glue or floor wax into the shoe to reharden it.  On average a professional dancer goes through a pair of shoes per performance.  With shoes costing between $60 and $90 per pair, pointe shoes are quite an expensive proposition.  Luckily for dancers, they usually receive pointe shoes as part of their company contract.

To see more about pointe shoes check out the videos listed below on You Tube:

How Pointe Shoes are Made

Dancers about Pointe Shoes

Requirements for Starting Pointe