Transcript
Speaker: I'm Caitlin, a former professional ballerina turned dance educator and career mentor, and this is the Brand New Ballerina podcast. I am here for the aspiring professional ballerina who wants to learn what it really takes to build a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. I'm peeling back the curtain of professional dance world with open and honest conversations about the realities of becoming a professional dancer.
Speaker: Come along to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to succeed in a dance career on your terms.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Brainy Ballerina podcast. Caitlin here today with a solo episode and today we are talking about planning for your audition season. And I know it might seem early because you're probably thinking auditions don't start until January, but I know from personal experience that if you wait until later in the season, you're going to be so overwhelmed. Now cracker rehearsals are going to start picking up, you're going to have performances, you're going to holidays that you want to actually have time to relax and spend with your family. And so when I work with my clients on planning for their audition season, we start now and we try to get everything completed and ready to go. before Nutcracker performances kick off so that you can fully focus on that season of life and then come January 1st, you are ready to hit the ground running.
Speaker: Starting early also helps you feel way more confident in your materials because if you kind of wait till the last minute, you're stuck with what you got. So maybe you didn't have time to fully put the time, energy, and attention into your audition videos, right?
Speaker: But if you start now, you're going to feel a lot more calm about it because I promise it's going to take longer than you think it will. So you want to start early and just give yourself that breathing room so you don't feel stressed.
Speaker: So today I'm going to give you the exact timeline that I recommend to dancers when they are going through this process. This timeline is also available as a free download that I'm going to link in the show notes. And so if you are driving, you're out walking, you don't have a pen and paper right now, no worries. Go ahead and grab that free download later. But just tune in now to get the gist of what we're going to be doing. and we're going to break this whole season down so that, you know, we're eating the elephant one bite at a time. It's going to feel so overwhelming when we do it this way. So I have this broken down by about two week chunks. So September 1st through 15th, this is what I want you to do.
Speaker: The first is going through the intentional career handbook to look at what a successful dance career really looks like for you. The intentional career handbook is a handbook that I created for dancers and it goes through everything you need to think about when you're embarking on your dance career. Everything that I wish I had known when I was starting out. It has over 50 guided question prompts, That help you really think critically about what you want. Because what happens to a lot of dancers, and this is so common, when I first meet with a dancer for mentoring, we'll talk about their goals. And I often get two ends of the spectrum. I either get a goal that's way too big or broad where the dancer is saying, I don't care where I dance. I just want to be a professional. And I'm
Speaker: I feel like sometimes dancers say this because they feel like being a professional dancer is such a pipe dream that they'd be lucky to get a job at all, which I get that. i mean, it is a super hard career and it is an elite career. And we are really lucky to get to do this as our job. That is a very true statement.
Speaker: And at the same time, I really believe that there is a job out there for everyone. So by being a little bit more discerning, you can narrow down what you really want. And I think dancers also feel afraid that if they narrow down their options, they're going to miss out on opportunities. And I totally get that too, because I do tell dancers, when you're first starting out, you know you want to send your materials to a ton of companies. because it is a bit of a numbers game. So I'm not saying that we're gonna narrow it down like crazy, because that is the other side of the coin we're gonna talk about in a second. But when you keep your options way too broad, I don't know as a career mentor,
Speaker: how to help you focus your attention. You know, as dancers, we're always learning, we're always growing, and we know it's important to be well-rounded and seek out education as many styles as possible, but you definitely need to be able to focus your attention. You can't do everything. So you want to work smarter and develop the specific skills you need to obtain the job you really want or so that you can narrow down who you're sending your and materials to because there are hundreds and hundreds of companies in the U.S. And yes, again, we're going to send our materials to a lot of companies, but we're We probably don't have the capacity to do every single one. Where do we draw the line? And so if a dancer comes to me and they don't really have a clue what they want, then it's hard for me to recommend companies for them to look into because part of my job is saying, okay, here are the places that you're interested in. What do you like about them? What is appealing about these companies?
Speaker: That helps me be able to say, okay, let's look at these other companies as well that I think maybe you didn't know about or weren't on your radar that could also – hit the things that you like about these ones. If you have no idea what you like about them, then it's hard for me to be able to give you good advice, right? So you have to have some idea. And we're not going to get so specific that you're cutting off options, but we are going to make sure that we are building a list of places that you're going to audition for or sending materials to that matches what you really want out of your career. and you also want to sure that you're taking a job that's right for you. You have to know what you want out of your career to make that happen.
Speaker: And if you don't have an intention for your career, you're going to end up burnt out and you're going to take jobs that don't pay adequately, don't have a sustainable schedule and don't align with your values. And I know, again, when you're first getting in the industry, sometimes more often than not, to be honest, you are going to take a job that does not have a sustainable schedule, adequate pay, all the things.
Speaker: I went through that and it was the stepping stone that I needed to get into this industry. It was the experience I had to have in my resume, had to have for my own personal growth. And I was able to do that for a few years, but I couldn't have sustained that long term. right So at a certain point, I had to reevaluate, okay, what do I really want and what are my next steps going to be to get there? Because I put my time into this unpaid traineeship, unpaid apprenticeship.
Speaker: I've gained the skills. I know I'm ready. What's next? And then the other side of the coin is you don't want to get too narrow. If your only definition of success is something so specific, like I want to be a principal dancer with New York City of Ballet, it's like, okay, great. That's a great goal to have. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have an aspirational goal. like Somebody is going to have that job.
Speaker: So you should do what everything in your power to make it happen. But if you are dead set on that being the only possible successful outcome that You're going to feel like a failure if it doesn't happen. And I've seen far too many dancers give up their careers because they didn't turn out exactly as they'd imagined in their heads.
Speaker: So if a dancer had come to me and said, my big sky dream goal is I want to be a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, great. That gives us something to go off of. So I would say, what is it about this specific job that appeals to you? For example, is it living in York City? Is it dancing balancing?
Speaker: Is it getting to perform in front of a huge audience or be part of a really big company? Once we can figure that out, then again, i can give other ideas of companies that would help you reach those goals and also find fulfillment in your career. So getting to the root of your why is gonna help you expand that definition of success while still aspiring for your ultimate dream. So this is what the Intentional Career Handbook does because I feel like when you're first starting out, you don't know what to think about. You don't really have the experience. I didn't. So looking back on my career, these are the things I wish I would have thought about because I really, as an aspiring ballerina, my view of the professional world was pretty narrow. I only knew what I had seen other dancers from my studio do. And I just thought that's the only path to take.
Speaker: And that was a great path for some people, not for me. So I had no idea of the huge scope of opportunities that was available to me. i didn't know the right questions to ask. either to others or to myself.
Speaker: So that's why I wrote this handbook for dancers. This is a really important step. And I think it's a step people want to skip because you want to get right to the nitty gritty of your materials. But if you skip this step, it's going to be really challenging to build a list of companies you want to audition for.
Speaker: And it's going to be really challenging to start prioritizing when it gets to that part of the audition season. So don't skip this step. I'm going to link this handbook in the show notes. I really recommend you start with this.
Speaker: The next step I would want you to take between September 1st and the 15th is to set your budget for the audition season. Talk with any other person in your life who is going to be supporting you financially during this time. If you have support from parents, other people in your life, have a conversation with them now.
Speaker: Before you get too deep into this, because things add up quickly, flights, gas, hotels, food, audition fees. Plus, if you have a side gig and you take time off of work to a travel for auditions, that's going to be a financial drain as well. So you have to have an idea of how much you're willing to spend.
Speaker: You know, think about studio rentals to film your videos. Flights to auditions or a gas and car rental, hotels, food, audition fees. Have an idea of what you are willing to spend throughout this process so that you can stay on track as you go through. And then the last thing I would tell you to do between September 1st and the 15th is to schedule complimentary career consultation and consider adding a dance career mentor to your team.
Speaker: That could be with me or with someone else, but this process will be challenging and difficult. But if you have a career mentor on your team, it's going to be easier. My particular areas of expertise in career mentoring are really finding a clear intention for your dance career, which we just talked about with the career handbook, goal setting, you know determining your goals for the future, and then reverse engineering them to come up with a clear plan of action, audition prep, everything from mapping out companies to planning your audition tour,
Speaker: tangible materials, working through those audition day nerves, figure out next steps, all of it. Mindset, receiving ongoing support to work through your current challenges and mindset blocks is going to be huge, especially as you get further along this process.
Speaker: And then of course, just accountability, having someone in your corner to keep you accountable to your goals and say, Did you do that thing you said you were going to do? I know personally, like I work with a personal trainer and he gives me every month a personal training plan and it has three days of work and a number of exercises on the plan that I have to do. And most of the exercises I hate doing, which is because they're hard for me and I need to do them to get stronger, but I don't enjoy them.
Speaker: And if I wasn't going to see my personal trainer every couple of weeks in person, I would probably be tempted to skip things because I hate doing them. But I know I'm going to go see him and I know if I don't do them, he's going to know I didn't do them.
Speaker: And while I know that doing it for myself should be enough, sometimes you just need that outside accountability of somebody in your corner who wants the best for you and is going to keep you on track and make sure that you are doing the things. And so having a career mentor and we're talking through these action items and things you need to do and you know you're going to meet with me in a few weeks and I'm going to say, did you do those things, right? And you're going to make sure you did them on time. Whereas sometimes if it's just like, I know I should get this done, but I'd rather do something else, it really helps to have somebody on your team.
Speaker: So this is the time of year where I would schedule that consultation and think about adding that person to your team, whether it's me or someone else. The next two-week chunk, September 16th through the 30th, if you're not already, start wearing your pointe shoes and center during ballet class. This is huge. Ballet company auditions for professional companies are going to ask you to wear your pointe shoes and center.
Speaker: And I know if you are just entering this field for summer intensives, that was not the case typically. So it was a little bit jarring for me because we all know how hard it is to do adagio and pointe shoes. All the little things that are not like a pointe class exercise that are sometimes even harder to do those pointe shoes will really trip you up if you haven't been doing it and you're not comfortable. So starting now, put those pointe shoes on in the center, get used to it.
Speaker: This is also the time that you're going to really dive into researching companies and creating that list. I would say that you should send your materials to at least 50 to 60 companies, if not more. I have a whole dance company database that you can use that has a list of over 600 companies worldwide that will help you you know complete your research and find more companies. And this is where having done that but handbook comes in. So now you've done the work. Now, when you're researching the companies, you know what you're looking for. You know what you want.
Speaker: And you can say, OK, yeah, this company hits all the things I want. It hits some of the things I want. hits the important things, at least. And just start making a really vast list of companies that you could see yourself dancing with, even just for the next year. right You're just taking the next step.
Speaker: It's not a lifetime commitment. It's the next year. What do you want to do? So make that list. If you're a dancer starting to think about college or a parent trying to navigate the often overwhelming world of dance admissions, I want to tell you about an event that I wish more dancers knew about.
Speaker: CNBC is a unique college recruitment weekend designed to connect dancers with college dance programs in a supportive, non-competitive environment focused on growth, learning, and possibility.
Speaker: Hosted by Detroit Metropolitan Dance, formerly Eisenhower Dance Detroit, at Central City Dance in Canton, Michigan, this two-day event takes place October 3rd and 4th and brings together dancers, parents, and and college representatives from programs across the United States.
Speaker: Unlike a traditional audition setting, CMBC gives you multiple opportunities to engage with schools through college fair style booths, masterclasses taught by college faculty, panel discussions, and workshops.
Speaker: In addition to these classes and workshops, dancers can audition and receive valuable feedback while being considered for admissions, scholarships, and other opportunities. And the programming goes beyond auditions too.
Speaker: Dancers and parents can attend sessions covering topics like navigating the college application process, FAFSA and financial aid, careers in dance, nutrition, health and wellness, injury prevention, resilience, and preparing for life beyond high school.
Speaker: Whether you're just beginning your college search or preparing to audition this year, seeing and be seen offers a chance to learn, connect, and gain clarity on your next steps.
Speaker: To learn more and register, head to the link in the show notes and start planning for an inspiring weekend this October. Did you know the dance slipper has remained essentially unchanged for over 100 years?
Speaker: The rigors of dance have increased exponentially, and traditional dance slippers fail to meet the unique athletic needs of today's dancers. Designed and engineered by former Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Seth Orza, who experienced firsthand the need for better, smarter equipment, Orza delivers the first ever patented shock-absorbing ballet shoes.
Speaker: The Orza Pro preserves the timeless aesthetic of traditional ballet slippers while incorporating sneaker technology to maximize performance, optimizing endurance, reducing fatigue, and increasing confidence.
Speaker: Trusted by leading dancers, schools, and teachers worldwide, including myself, Orza helps you feel your best so you can dance your best. And as we head back into a new dance season with new classes, new choreography, and new goals, there's no better time to start on the right foot and make this your best season yet.
Speaker: Head to the link in the show notes and use code BRAINYBALLERINA for 10% off your order of Orza Ballet slippers today. Starting in October, and I'm going to say a caveat that if you are doing college dance auditions, I would do this whole timeline a little bit earlier. i would speed it up because college applications tend to be due earlier.
Speaker: So this is really for if you are just looking at professional companies, traineeships, apprenticeships, second companies, that kind of thing. So in that case, October 1st through 15th, I want you to reach out to your instructors, your directors, ask if they would be willing to serve as a reference or write a letter of recommendation. Ask your reference how they want to be contacted. Do they want their phone number given out? Do they want their email address given out? What is the best way to contact to them? Don't just put people down as a reference without asking them first. And it's also great to ask for a letter of recommendation and make sure you say when you need it by. And I always recommend, even if you ask in person, follow up with an email to make sure that they have the information. Because I know personally as a dance teacher, people will ask me things between classes and the hallway. And I'm like, sure, that sounds great. But then I'm going into my next class to teach or I'm running home.
Speaker: to put my kids to bed, and it's going to leave my brain. So write an email, make sure it's in writing, send it to them just as a follow-up with what you need and when you need by. If you are going to be using a professional for your headshots or your dance photos, This is the time to choose a photographer and schedule your photo shoot. Make sure you have a really comprehensive list of every single dance photo you need from your research. So when you were going through all those companies and making a list, you're not just making a list of the companies, you're also putting in what do they require for auditions. So what do they need in their video? What do they need for their photos? every single thing that they're asking for. So when you go to do your dance photos, you can say, okay, I know that I need all of these shots and going to get them today.
Speaker: If you're not using a professional, just make sure you're coordinating with a friend and scheduling studio space to take your photos. Definitely do them in a studio, not in your basement or outside or something like that. You can do really fun shots, you know, outside and do some more site-specific ones for different things. But for your auditions, you want clean photos, either in a photography studio with a backdrop or in a dance studio.
Speaker: And make sure if you're doing the dance studio that you are doing it in front of like a nice clean background, don't have dance bags and stuff in the background, clear that space, make sure it looks really nice and professional. October 16th through 31st, we're going to start gathering all of your usable performance clips for your dance reel into a Google Drive folder. Not all companies are going to ask for a dance reel and honestly, most classical ballet companies won't. It's going to be more for maybe your contemporary ballet companies or your contemporary like modern companies. But it's good to have clips that you can use for your dance reel. I know they can be hard to get sometimes. Like some companies don't release footage or you don't have anything that's super usable. And in that case, you might have to get in the studio and film some things.
Speaker: Basically, you want to make sure that the footage, it's obvious that it's you. So either a solo or a duet where it's really obvious it's you. And you want to make sure you have a variety of things. So not the same thing over and over again. Different styles of dance, partnering, solo work, that kind of thing. So we can see your skills. People are going to be watching these really quickly. So you want to make sure you're showing all of your best work without being repetitive. This is the timeline where I'd also encourage you to film all the studio footage that you need. Your classical variation, your contemporary variation, your bar work, and your center work. And again, when you went through your company research list, you were writing down every single thing you needed to film. So you can make a big master list when you get into the studio of what each place wants.
Speaker: and make sure that you have every single thing. And you are going to schedule a few different days to film your footage. So make sure when you're choosing an outfit that you are going to choose the same outfit each time so that it looks cohesive. If you have to go back and do Rond de Jamb combination again, you're wearing the same outfit.
Speaker: Try to get the lighting similar. So try not to do like one filming session in the day and one at night. Make sure that they're similar time of day so that looks cohesive as well, unless you're in just like a dark studio with no windows and then it won't matter. And try to have somebody else there with you, either a teacher who can help you make up combinations and give you pointers or a friend who you trust because we can really get in our own heads when we're filming and feel like really critical.
Speaker: So having somebody who can say, okay, I think it's time to move on from that. That looks good. Or and i think you can do better. Let's do that one again. And kind of being aware of like when you're starting to get tired and you're getting diminishing returns and maybe it's time to pack it up and come back a different day and film some more. This is probably going one of the most intense parts of this process, which is why we're doing it pretty early so you have a little bit of time if things don't go the way you want them to to get back in the studio and do them again.
Speaker: You also want to start like a Google Doc or a Word doc of all your past experience to pull from for your resume. So Every time you make a resume, depending on what job it's for, like say it's a performance job versus a teaching job or a different kind of company, maybe it's a jazz company or a ballet company, like you might have a slightly different resume based on what's relevant to that company.
Speaker: So I really recommend that you, as you go through your career, just have like this big master running Google Doc where you write down every single thing that you do because you're going to forget. You're going forget what year you did the show. Just random stuff. It's all going to become a jumble in your head through the years. So write it all down and then you can have that to pull from when you're making your resume.
Speaker: And then starting November 1st through 15th, this two-week chunk, you're going to create that first draft of your resume. You're also going to write a basic cover letter that you can use as a template. So every time you write a cover letter accompany your audition materials, you're going to personalize it for that company.
Speaker: But if you have a really basic one that has your information in it and how to contact you and that kind of thing, then you can go from that every time and have to restart. So have that basic cover letter written. And then by this time, hopefully you'll have your photos back from your photo shoot. You can choose that best headshot your best dance photos and put those in your Google Drive folder so that you can have that all ready to go and easily ready to send out.
Speaker: November 16th through 30th, you're going to start checking websites for audition postings and put them in your audition tour spreadsheet, which is where you put all those companies that you were looking at. So by this point, people should start having more information out.
Speaker: Of course, there'll be companies who are still doing it more last minute, but you're going to start to be able to put in when the auditions are and when deadlines are. So adding that to your spreadsheet, you're going to finalize your resume, make sure everything looks great, good to go. All the punctuation, spelling, fonts, everything is really nice and clean and ready to go. You're going edit your dance reel. So taking all those clips that you gathered before, going to edit them all together. You're going edit your classwork videos, start putting those together. You may need to do this a couple of times. because different companies are gonna want different things. So just start putting those together. And then you're gonna book your dance edition materials audit. So I really recommend doing this. I offer materials audits where you basically send me all your materials and I'll send you back a half hour video of me giving my feedback to make sure they're in really good shape. I'm not gonna go in and edit them for you, but I'm going to say, for example, your dance reel is getting too long.
Speaker: let's take this clip out or shorten this clip. I couldn't tell it was you. oh on your resume, you had this choreographer's name misspelled. Let's fix that. If you're like between a couple of different photos, I can tell you which one I think is better. Things like that. So I'll give you my advice on all the different materials that you have so you can feel super confident about them before you send them out into the world.
Speaker: And then December 1st through 15th, you're going to start to prioritize which additions you're going to travel to and which ones you're going send materials to. So the ones you're going to travel to, go back to your budget earlier and say, okay, how many places can I travel based on this budget? And then block those dates off on your calendar, get your plane tickets, do all the things you need to do to get ready for that. If you have friends you can stay with instead of getting a hotel,
Speaker: reach out to those friends. This is your time to make sure all those things are really squared away. And then December 16th through the 31st, that's your buffer time. So in an ideal world, we've done all the stuff. You're in a great place.
Speaker: You can focus on Nutcracker, focus on holiday season. But if not, you have a little bit of wiggle room to get some stuff done here for whatever little things pop up. And then the next chunk is a big chunk, January 1st through April 30th. This is like your whole audition season. Now you're going to start sending audition submissions.
Speaker: The earlier getting your materials out there, the better. if companies are offering private company class auditions, it give you more time to schedule those and to make sure you're getting everything you want to do. So earlier is going to be better for sending out submissions. As soon as you hear back from companies, if you do get asked to go to a company class, begin booking those travel, flights, hotels, Some companies too are just doing a basic pre-screening of your materials before inviting you to an open call audition. So as you hear back, continue on with booking things. Follow up with companies you have not heard back from, especially if you went to audition, you got to the final call, you were all the way through the audition, you didn't hear back. Follow up and then just really rinse and repeat. Schedule a time in your calendar every few weeks to check back in with yourself, within companies, reassess. Be proactive. You don't want to wait until...
Speaker: April 30th and go, okay, I didn't get anything. What am I going to do now? Not that it's too late. I will tell you that my very first audition season, I didn't get my first offer until June and I really thought it was too late.
Speaker: And then got another one at a summer intensive a few weeks later in July. So I'm not saying that if you don't get an offer by and of April that you're toast, but it is better to be proactive and not wait until then to say, okay, i need to go back to the drawing board. I need to find some more companies to audition for.
Speaker: I need to maybe think about freelancing. How would that look? Constantly reassessing and deciding what your next step is is going to really help you. So again, this entire timeline that I just went through is available for a free download in the show notes.
Speaker: So don't worry if you... Didn't write this down. i have it for you and you can go grab this and all the things I talked about, you know, getting photos, videos, resume, cover letters, references, all of this I cover in depth in the Ultimate Audition Guide. It's going to answer all your questions. So instead of spending all this time Googling, trying to figure it out, piece together information, it's all in one place.
Speaker: If you have any questions, you just have to go to the guide and it it will be there. i really recommend grabbing the audition guide. If you get the audition guide, it also has the dance company database inside of it. So you get access to that material as well.
Speaker: And this is a great option too. I send this to all my clients that i work with. But if you do feel like career mentoring is out of reach for you right now, This is a great option too. It's more of a DIY version of the career mentoring because you're not getting the one-on-one attention, but you do have all these materials at your fingertips to go and look at and make sure everything is looking in really tip-top shape and you're getting all your questions answered. So again, I'm going to link all of these materials in the show notes for you to check out.
Speaker: What I always tell my clients when I work with them is that I can't guarantee that by working with me, you're going to get a job. That's out of my control. That's a really important part of audition season is coming to terms with things that are out of your control and focusing on the things that are within your control.
Speaker: I can't guarantee that you will get a job, but I can make sure that this whole process is easier and smoother and not as stressful as it would be if you tried to do everything last minute. I know the season of life is tough. I've been through it myself, but it's worth it because we get to do what we love at the end of the day. I'm rooting for you and sending you the biggest merit for this season.
Speaker: Thank you for tuning into the Brainy Ballerina podcast. If you found this episode insightful, entertaining, or maybe a bit of both, I would so appreciate you taking a moment to leave a rating and hit subscribe.
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Speaker: I'll be back with a new episode next week. In the meantime, be sure to follow along on Instagram at The Brainy Ballerina for your daily dose of dance career guidance.
