Ballet Help Desk

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Every ballet company's tax return is public record. Most dancers have never seen one. Liza Yntema, founder of the Dance Data Project, and Griff Braun, National Organizing Director at the American Guild of Musical Artists, walk us through what the numbers reveal. We start with the 990, how to read it, and what a...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BalletHelpDesk What does ballet training look like when it's housed inside a 100-year-old university, with the Semperoper Ballet as your next-door neighbor? We sat down with Rector Prof. Katharina Christl and Vice-Rector Prof. Juliana Sabino Wilhelm of Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, Germany, for a close look at one of...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk What happens when a dancer who traded pre-professional ballet training at the John Cranko School and the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company for a Harvard degree? Or when a dancer who received offers from the training programs at Joffrey, Colorado Ballet, and Philadelphia Ballet decides that college was always the pla...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Jason Beechey has spent his career shaping pre-professional ballet training. After 18 years as rector of Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, he now serves as Director of Zurich Dance Academy and Head of Dance at the Zurich University of the Arts. He walks us through how Zurich Dance Academy actually works: t...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk What happens when a dancer skips the postgrad route entirely and still lands a professional contract? Paityn Lauzon, now in her fourth season as a company artist with Nevada Ballet Theatre, did exactly that. She grew up at a small competition studio in Arizona, turned down a spot at Joffrey New York at 14, and l...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Timothee Chalamet said no one cares about ballet anymore. Fran Veyette disagrees. He's back on #NoThirds, and this episode goes deep into one of the most debated questions in the ballet world right now: are the classical, full-length ballets still relevant? Swan Lake. Giselle. Sleeping Beauty. Romeo and Juliet....

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk How long can your dancer stay home before it starts to matter? It's one of the most common questions ballet parents face, and one of the most consequential. Jen Sommers, Director of  Houston Ballet Academy, joins us to talk through exactly that, along with everything else families need to understand about the ro...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Author, teacher, and former principal dancer Gavin Larsen has spent her post-performance life doing something she loves just as much as dancing: drawing stories out of other people. Her new book, Infinite Steps: 33 Dancers and Their Lives in Ballet, grew out of a collaboration with longtime ABT staff photographe...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk What does it really take to go from pre-professional student to professional ballet dancer? Charlotte Junge, a company member with Madison Ballet, shares the unfiltered version of her journey from competition dance roots in Houston to training at Boston Ballet School through the height of COVID, to landing her c...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Madison Ballet's Ja'Malik didn't arrive to tinker around the edges. He came to change things, and four years in, it's working. He shares a journey that started with Michael Jackson's Thriller in his front yard and led him through the Joffrey Ballet School, the Ailey school, and North Carolina Dance Theater befor...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk In the final episode of our four-part bullying series, we're joined again by Kelsey Fyffe, a therapist who works with pre-professional dancers, and Suzette Takei, a veteran academic school administrator and educator, as we get into the messy stuff. Lobby politics, ballet parents behaving badly, peer conflict bet...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk What does it actually feel like to train at the Vaganova Academy, the school that produced some of the greatest dancers in history, and then go on to perform at one of Russia's most storied companies? Elena Kunikova has lived that story, and she's generous enough to share it. In this episode, we talk about what...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk In part three of our bullying series, we tackle some of the toughest conversations ballet parents face: what to do when teachers make harmful comments about weight, body image, or use abusive language in class. Psychotherapist Kelsey Fyffe and educator Suzette Takei give parents the exact roadmap for addressing...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk We sit down with Michelle Martin, Associate Artistic Director of Ballet Austin, for a refreshingly honest conversation about their complete training pipeline: the tuition-free Butler Fellowship program, Ballet Austin TWO, and the path into the main company. Michelle doesn't sugarcoat anything. She talks about wh...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk LeeAnaca "Lee" Moore (Pacific Northwest Ballet) and Natalie Bowman (St. Louis Ballet) are the duo behind Tights Under, the popular social media account showcasing the realities of pre-professional and professional ballet life. In this episode, Lee and Natalie get candid about their journeys from training to land...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Lynne Charles, Artistic Director of  English National Ballet School , discusses the school's new Graduate Artist Programme (GAP), a postgraduate program that combines performing with English National Ballet and continued education. Unlike traditional programs where students serve as "free labor," GAP dancers per...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Listeners asked, and Fran Veyette answers! We're bringing back this fan-favorite #NoThirds "Fran's Mailbag" episode, now combined into one extended conversation. Fran breaks down how casting really works, whether principals dance less, what happens when dancers date (and break up), the truth about dogs in the st...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk CiCi Houston-Sudholt, Rehearsal Director at Saint Louis Ballet, discusses the organization's unique approach to dance education that puts students at the center. From integrating all levels of training to tailoring performance opportunities based on individual goals, Saint Louis Ballet adapts to each dancer's ne...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk We asked you to tell us what you love about the Ballet Help Desk Podcast, what needs to improve, and what topics you want us to cover. And you delivered honest, thoughtful, sometimes tough feedback. In this episode, we share what you told us: what's working (our honest questioning, insider information, and balle...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Jayda Hazelett didn't follow the traditional pre-professional boarding school path to a ballet company. The  Ballet Hartford corps member grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, trained locally at Project Ballet, attended summer intensives, and chose to pursue college at I ndiana University's Jacobs School of Music befo...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk What does it mean to train dancers without "training them out of being natural"? For  Paulo Arrais , founder of Arrais Ballet School in Boston, that question shaped his entire approach to teaching. A former principal dancer with Boston Ballet, Paulo saw gaps in traditional ballet training: rigidity over artistry...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Joshua Beamish and Crystal Costa are building something new in the ballet world.  Ballet Vancouver is launching as a fresh company with a unique vision, and in this episode, they share the story of how it all came together. Joshua talks about starting his first company at just 17 years old and the 20-year journe...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk We're rereleasing one of Ballet Help Desk's most popular episodes! Peter Stark from The Rock School discusses the ballet job market, choosing post-graduate ballet programs, and audition strategies for pre-professional dancers. Learn how to approach ballet auditions, what trainee programs look for, and how to sta...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk A rerelease: In our first episode of Dancer Stories, Jenny and her daughter Abbey share how Abbey got her first ballet contract. Tune in to hear how a meeting about dorm policy violations at a summer intensive turned into an apprenticeship offer with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. After a last-minute decision to att...

Listen to Ballet Help Desk ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ BalletHelpDesk Raymond Rodriguez, Dean of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, breaks down their Company Experience program and why they created it. Unlike traditional summer intensives, the Company Experience simulates professional dancer life through repertoire-heavy training and direct interaction with Pittsburgh Ballet's arti...