Education Pathway to Becoming a

Professional Ballet Dancer

Researched and Composed by Mairead Moore

Early Training
Since dance is an athletic art, dancers tend to retire relatively early like other
athletes. Because of this, in order to get as much possible time as a professional,
training tends to begin very early. Most people begin their basic training when they are
three and serious training around age 11. Very young dancers train on average 1-3
hours per week when they are in lower elementary school, in upper elementary school
serious students train 5-10 hours each week along with 3-6 hours of rehearsals. Once
dancers reach junior high school and high school, if they are striving for a professional
career they will train about 10-20 hours per week and will have around 7-10 hours of
rehearsals. Young student training mainly consists of ballet classes, of which they take
1-3 each night 5-7 days per week. Rehearsals for students are similar to professionals
in that they consist of the learning and perfecting of group and solo dances. (Sagolla).
Many high level student ballet dancers will attend summer intensives. Summer
intensives are where the dancer travels to a higher level school to train for 1-7 weeks
during the summer and train around 8 hours a day for 6 days per week. Ages at
summer intensives vary greatly and range from 9-18. The vast majority of summer
intensives are audition entry only. Summer intensives are often hosted by schools that
are connected to professional ballet companies. Although summer intensives are not
required by companies to gain employment, because the mIn qualifier is simply your
skill level, they are expected because the dancers who attend become more diverse
and advance their skill level. (Boyland).

Pre Professional Training

Once students reach the ages 14-16, if they are seriously considering a
professional career, they will try to enroll in a professional training program. A
professional training program is like a summer intensive, but during the entire school
year. These programs greatly advance the dancer due to the sheer amount of time
spent dancing and the more professional lifestyle. For entry into these programs, most
require either an audition and/or the dancers acceptance into the program is evaluated
while they attend the summer intensive of that company or school. Pre professional
training programs are very important because the greatly compare to college for a
dancer looking for a professional career. They are also important because a high
percentage of dancers in a company that has a pre professional school come from that
school and the school is the first place that those companies look for new dancers to
join the professional company. (King).

Studio Companies
Time spent in a ballet studio company compares to a medical students time in
an internship. A studio company is a small, student, company, that is the step between
school and a company. They are connected to a full company and serve companies as
sources of dances, they are a way for companies to see how their students perform in
company life. I studio company, dancers still take class and do extra training but also
rehearse some roles with the full company and rehearse productions of their own.
Companies often use their studio companies for local and travel outreach such as at
local schools and community events. (Houston).

Cost
Vast majority of scholarships in the dance world are merit based and very rarely
are awarded based on financial need. For many careers, the salary of the professional
reflects the cost of the education they got; this is not the case with dance. Professional
dancers make very little money but the total cost of the education is estimated at
$120,000.
$53,000 school year time training (ages 3-18)
$32,000 summer intensives (6 summers)
$2,000 tights and leotards (ages 3-18)
$29,000 pointe shoes (7 years)
And these numbers are not even including the extra costs such as performance fees
and needs, travel and housing (audition season and summer), audition fees, and if the
dancer does competition the costs are are whole new level of crazy. (Abrams).

Bibliography
Abrams, Abby. "Raising A Ballerina Will Cost You $100,000." FiveThirtyEight.
FiveThirtyEight, 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 May 2017.

Boyland, Susie. "Posts about Top Ten Ballet Summer Intensives on A Ballet Education."
A Ballet Education. N.p., 30 Nov. 2015. Web. 2 May 2017.

"Houston Ballet II." Houston Ballet | Houston Ballet II. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May
2017.King,
David. "THE TOP TEN BALLET SCHOOLS (2016)." A Ballet Education. N.p., 12 June
2016. Web. 14 May 2017.

Sagolla, Lisa Jo. "Dancer Training for Children and Teens." Backstage. N.p., 23 Mar.
2011. Web. 2 May 2017.