Transcript
Speaker: Take some time to watch a full length ballet. i think that's what's kind of getting lost today is that we're like cranking out these variations and dancers are so technical today. It's amazing how the training has evolved, but we got to sit down and watch these ballets in order to preserve the classics.
Speaker: I'm Kaitlyn, 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. I'm your host, Caitlin Sloan, and today I'm joined by Kari Euchre, founder of a Toile dance competition. And today we are talking all about how to choose a variation, which is something that can feel really overwhelming for dancers, especially when you're trying to find the right balance between technique, artistry, personality, and how to really shine on stage. This has been a really requested topic for our community, so I'm so excited to have Kari on here to talk it out. But of course, unless you've been living under a social media rock, you've probably seen all the controversy surrounding some of the major ballet competitions lately.
Speaker: So I think everyone sharing these stories was really brave and really important. And I'm grateful for people who have been speaking out. I have my own stories to share. But for this podcast, we really want to focus on how we can be part of changing the culture of ballet in general, starting with ballet competitions like Etoile and being really productive and taking action. i think one thing that makes Etoile really special is that it was created with a really intentional philosophy around the whole competition experience for concert dancers.
Speaker: It places a really strong emphasis on education, mentorship, artistry, and giving dancers experiences that actually contribute to their development. And choosing a variation is part of that philosophy. So rather than simply asking what variation will give me the highest score, we're going to talk about how dancers can choose something that is technically appropriate, plays to their strengths, challenges them in the right ways, but most importantly, allows them to actually be themselves as artists.
Speaker: So Keri, let's start with the hardest part from the very beginning. There's so many variations to choose from. How do you think a dancer should start? Where should they begin? Yeah. Wow. We have a lot to talk about today. Where to start?
Speaker: First, I would say the main thing to think about is what variation is going to be the most age appropriate. Now, this is tricky because classical ballet variations were created on principal dancers and soloists. That's who is performing these roles ultimately.
Speaker: So the premise is kind of strange to begin with that we're asking children to perform these variations. So with that, you want to consider the character. So if you're starting with a younger dancer, say like age nine or ten, you don't want them to be doing mature roles like Keytree or Esmeralda or some of the you know really popular trendy variations. You want to start with something sweet for their age. Bluebird is obviously a very popular one for that age group. Cupid also. Now, those are still really, really difficult variations. They're not easy. So i would start with going by the personality of the character that you're portraying. Sleeping Beauty has a nice array of options.
Speaker: Always a great place to start. And then from there, you're going to want to think about how you can adapt it for your younger dancer. Obviously, point work isn't going to be required for the younger dancers, even for the older dancers if they're not ready for point work. at a toile, that's not a requirement. If you're an advanced dancer in the teen category, yeah, put your pointe shoes on. But if you're a beginner dancer, even as a teen, there's really no need to wear the pointe shoes.
Speaker: So thinking about how you can adapt those variations. So for example, if we want to get into the nitty gritty here, we could talk about this all day probably. But for Bluebird, like even instead of those Aisha Pays and certainly Hops on Point, maybe for like a nine-year-old, I'm picturing my daughter. She wants to learn a ballet variation this year, but she is not ready. So what if we changed those to tendus and focused on the upper body, like the port-a-bra, and we just start kind of looking at that. We don't need to do Aisha Payes and Demi Point. I don't really see the point.
Speaker: What makes a variation a good fit for a dancer is gonna be the age appropriateness. Now, if you have an older dancer, That's a different story. I would say if they're more experienced and they've been competing for a while, then we can start to look at some of the more mature roles like the Gamzadis or Ketris or the Esmeraldas. Now, personality will come into play at first.
Speaker: Of course, like for Ketri, for example, that's great for your little spitfire dancers that are going to go all out and really perform it. Sass, of course. Everybody wants to do the sassy variations. I was like that too.
Speaker: They are fun, but there's ah there's a lot to consider in terms of artistry and technique. The technique, you can adapt for the dancer. The artistry, it's good to stay true to the character as much as possible.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think one thing that I always think about with dance dancers is starting with our goal for the year. So maybe I have a dancer who is really strong technically, but I think they really need to work more on their performance quality. So I might choose a variation that is going to allow them to focus on that, that maybe they already are pretty technically strong in.
Speaker: So they can kind of trust that technique and then really pursue the artistry and have that ability to get on stage and feel more comfortable with it. Or if I'm a dancer who is really already a performer, and they need to work on technique, maybe I'll gear towards something that, you know, I know they need to work on their turns. So I'm not going to choose the hardest turn variation, but I'm going to choose something that's going to allow them to work on that through the course of the year because, you know, the goal is not to get on stage and do the perfect variation. It's to improve over this process, right?
Speaker: Yeah. I guess when it comes to that, if you're choosing the variation and your question is, do I want to give them something that they're already strong in or do I want to give them a challenge? I think you want to consider...
Speaker: their stage experience because, okay, say you have a dancer who's really good at hops on point in class, but they've never competed. They haven't been on stage on point very much. Maybe you don't want to have them do hops on point their first time competing, even though they're solid in the studio. It's just a different story when you get your nerves into play, your adrenaline. And as we know, performing and being on stage is kind of its own skillset.
Speaker: So if you have a dancer that's really strong and jumps and it's their first time competing, maybe choose a variation that's a little bit more of jumpy. If you have a good turner, same thing. i think, though, the challenge is really in portraying the character. We've had a dancer who performed the same variation two years in a row. i think you were there both years as a judge. And it was so amazing to see how this dancer
Speaker: had improved and worked on the variation over the course of a year. it was like a completely different dancer. It was amazing. There's just so much to dig into in a variation that it's like, you can't really even go wrong. Like if, you know, you want the dancer to feel comfortable, of course, but even as a professional, the more you do a role, you approach it differently and you learn things about the role year after year, every time you do it. Somebody's Swan Lake Odette debut is not going to be the same as their retirement performance. There's so much to dig into so many details. So when it comes to choosing the variation for their strengths, I think there's always going to be enough of a challenge.
Speaker: Always. That's true. We're not approaching that right. Yeah. True. There's always something. that we Like you said, mean, these are variations that principal dancers are doing in companies, right? So like there's always going to be something no matter what level you get to. And like you mentioned, with the performance quality, you have your dancers who prefer the sassier roles, ones who prefer the sweeter roles. But you're doing Swan Lake, you're doing Black Swan and White Swan. You have to do both. So if you have, you know, someone who wants to do the sassier roles every single year, it's like, okay, at some point we got to do – the softer character and dig into that because you don't just get to do one kind of role in your career.
Speaker: That's such a good point. Yeah. That's a pretty you know extreme example is Swan Lake, Odette Odile. That's really hard. Really hard to do. But just to put it into context for like that dichotomy of different kinds of roles.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. Do you think that there is an advantage to choosing a less commonly performed variation? Or do you think stick with something that really suits you, even if it's something that we see all the time?
Speaker: No, i don't really think there's an advantage to that. I once had a student who picked a really obscure variation, and I just, I had to go down a rabbit hole to find out where this variation originated, what it was most commonly used in, The thing was, and the reason I went along with it was because it had some really nice steps. It was pretty straightforward and it was indeed a good variation for this dancer. But I was like, I need to know where this came from. And it's it wasn't commonly performed in the US. s It's performed more in Russian ballets and was used in Don Quixote sometimes, but was originated in pit whatever. Doesn't matter. But I wanted to know what the point of it was before
Speaker: trying to teach it. So i never let my dancers do, i didn't want to do like the Ketri and Esmeral, the the overdone ones. I was like, I'm tired of seeing these. I want to see something else. But what I think is really important for the teacher in choosing the variation is to choose one that they understand and know well. And frankly, have performed because that's when you really get into the nitty gritty of a variation and then you start to know it like inside out. And that's what makes it really good to teach. We have to pass on those things to our students. And you know what? If you've only ever performed the sugar plum variation, then let's be the best sugar plum teacher. Yeah.
Speaker: ever set your version of it. But I think it's it's just important to, as a teacher, and even if you haven't performed them, that's okay. But just making sure that you understand the nuances of each and every step, each and every transition. What's going on in this variation? What's the hard part? Where's the part where we need to use our breath? Where's the part where we need to concentrate on our port-a-bras? How do we present the feet? How do we present ourselves? So if you've performed a certain variation, don't let yourself get bored of staging it
Speaker: Like lean into that a little bit more. Lean into your experience as a performer and hand that down. Yeah, that's really good advice. And maybe that's a time when you want to delegate something too. If you have a variation that you think would be good for a dancer, who can you find in your community who would be great stager for that variation? Because it's such a good point that you see variations sometimes. And I mean, we know as professional dancers how often you're learning rep from a video. And you're missing so much of the richness of it when you do it that way because you're learning the steps. But you don't know what happened on that day in performance.
Speaker: They could have done it totally wrong and had to improvise something. We don't know that. We don't know what the feeling was, what the choreographer told them. And so there is a difference between learning something from a video and executing steps or really digging deep into a character. Because again, if you are doing a variation, you're not just doing a solo in a company. You are carrying an entire ballet. You have to know that character. You have to be able to be the lead in a performance. So how are you going to come out there and do that? That's such an important part of the coaching process.
Speaker: Right. Definitely. And it takes a team too. It takes a team of people. It shouldn't just be one teacher's eyes on it, it's really important to bring in a lot of different sets of eyes. And that's just a general training thing too. It's so good to have a lot of different teachers that are you know focusing on different areas and seeing things differently. That's good to have a wide range of input too.
Speaker: Yeah. And I was just thinking about you said that you had a done an obscure variation. i see fairy doll all the time at competitions, but I'd never seen it in any other context besides that. And then just a few weeks ago, i was part of putting on this fundraiser performance and I wasn't part of the artistic side. I was part of the admin. But... they were performing Fairy Doll, did the full pas de trois.
Speaker: And within the solo, there's all this acting. And then there's the other two men on stage. And I'm like, this all makes sense now. I get what this acting portion is. But when you're just seeing it in the competition setting, you're like, what what are they doing? Why are they shushing? Like, what is that about? So yeah, if you are not actually exploring the entire context surrounding the variation, you're really doing yourself a disservice. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Even like graduation ball is becoming a more and more popular competition variation. And it's like, i don't even think I ever saw a pro company in my time doing that one.
Speaker: I was so lucky to get to do that. Well, I didn't get to do it at Valley Tucson because I tore my calf three days before the show, but I did the entire rehearsal process leading up to it and actually got to be a part of that. But yeah, I mean, again, like Grad Ball is such a good example of there's so much story going on. There's so many side characters. different things happening. There's so much comedy. If you don't know that whole arc of the story, the variations don't make as much sense. And you can still portray that character, but it really helps to like, I think if you're going to do variation, you need to be watching the entire ballet and studying the entire ballet, not just that moment.
Speaker: Yeah. Take some time to watch a full length ballet. I think that's what's kind of getting lost today is that we're like cranking out these variations and dancers are so technical today. It's amazing how the training has evolved, but we got to sit down and watch these ballets in order to preserve the classics.
Speaker: You can read the spark notes for a novel, but sit down and read it. Absorb the story. And there are some good ones. I mean, a little, some of the ballets are a bit antiquated, but there are some good stories out there.
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Speaker: My go-to is always Paquita. There are just so many options and they're all so different. Same with Bayadere. The shades. Yeah. All the shades are so different. You've got a lot of arsenal right there just from those two ballets. That's a lot to choose from. i don't know. You could take a lot of time digging into each Paquita variation and picking one, but I think Paquita is always a great place to start.
Speaker: Yeah, that's really good advice. We saw for some younger dancers this past season, we saw some Red Riding Hood, which I thought was really nice. A good acting opportunity. i thought that was really like a good option for a younger dancer. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker: And I think a lot of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty can also be really modified nicely. yeah I always like to adapt Silver Fairy variation. the timing is really hard and it's a super fast one too. It's quick, but you can slow it down and like half time certain steps and just even for the younger dancers work on plie, returie, plie, returie. You know, there are lots of ways to adapt that one for all the levels really. You can make it intermediate. You can...
Speaker: Keep it as is, advance. So that's kind of one of my favorites to dig into. Yeah, that's a good one. What do you think judges are noticing when they're watching a classical variation? What's going make a dancer stand out beyond simply doing the steps technically correctly?
Speaker: It's always going to be the presentation, how you enter the stage with confidence. You can tell how the variation is going to go by how how a dancer enters the stage. If a dancer is kind of like skimming the floor when they enter and they're not like grounded and really working through their feet, you can kind of see the nerves overlaying. But if a dancer enters and their feet are articulating, they're presenting their heels and they're grounded, they take a nice plie to prepare. then you know it's kind of like, okay, we can settle in and watch. What are they going to do? And then the same goes for the ending.
Speaker: If they can just relax, find their plie, find the final pose, take a breath, take a moment, and then own it. Honestly, those two things, like we're going kind of forget what's in the middle.
Speaker: The middle does count, of course, but like those two parts are so, so important. Yeah. And i think judges, well, and audience members too, they want to feel comfortable when they're watching the dancer and that the dancer is relaxed and in control. And so Part of what I want to emphasize about Atoile is the performance opportunity. Being on stage is an opportunity. We don't just get to go knock on the theater down the street and be like, hey, can I use your stage?
Speaker: You have to get that experience on stage. It's different than dancing in the studio. And then when you have an audience and that's different than a dress rehearsal on stage, it's a different energy And so the dancers need to learn to hone their nerves. It's just something that takes practice, as you know, as professionals, we do it too. I will say like my very first time I did a variation at a competition, i was so nervous. I could barely walk on stage. Like it was so I was so nervous. I was like shaking and like everything that I had worked on was like out the door. But I had to have that experience.
Speaker: to like move on from that. We're rooting for you. I think that's one thing to remember when you are at a competition. We want you to succeed. We are there rooting for you. We are not wanting you to fail. We don't want you to fall. We don't want anything bad to happen. And if it does, we're still rooting for you to get up and keep going.
Speaker: That's part of the process is like sometimes you're going to fall. Sometimes you could have done this pirouette 50 times perfectly in rehearsal, and then you could go on stage and fall. It's happened to all of us. So like a lot of it, what we're looking for is Not perfection, not coming out and being like perfect every single time, but how do you recover when something doesn't go the way you thought it was going to go?
Speaker: Yeah, and just remembering that the judges, that they're giving you a score and they're giving you critiques and feedback, but it's to help you not to... work against you and watch you fail, which is kind of like the mindset I had as a student. I was like, everybody's against me. I've got to prove something. and And like, that's not the case at all. Everybody is behind you. They want to see you succeed. And we've all been up there on the stage. So we know what it feels like. We know what it's like to be nervous. So I think even as a teacher, we have to help our students just remember to breathe on stage, like take a breath and give them some coping tactics and stuff. Or, you know, they're like, oh, if you're giving a speech, just picture the audience in their underwear and then you'll... Silly things like that. It's the same concept. Like, here's where you need to breathe a little extra and use your plie and then lean into this port-a-bra a little more. So I think just kind of being mindful as a teacher of passing that on as well. It's a skill. Yes. One thing that I've been saying a lot over the past few seasons that I've noticed a lot in variations is telling the dancers to keep their head looking downstage as they're running around to another corner. Because I see so many times You know, variations a lot of times are like diagonal, run, you know, that's kind of the format.
Speaker: But a lot of times I see dancers do this gorgeous susu downstage, their head to the audience, everything beautiful. And then I just see them flip and just run up stage. All I see is the back of their head. So one thing I've been saying a lot is like, keep your head to the audience, carry us with you, take us. You're still on stage in this moment. We need you to take us with you and continue the story because all of a sudden the magic is broken. I'm out of it.
Speaker: And I want to stay in that magic you're creating. Right. Yeah. That's a good one. The transitions to just keeping it all connected. You're still a character.
Speaker: Not like, oh, and now I'm going over here to this corner to prepare for my turn. Yes. so Why are you going over there? Yeah. What's your character's motivation? Which sounds cheesy, but it's true. If you have that in your head, we feel it as the audience. And like you keep saying, Carrie, like the plie, the transitions are what's going to ground you when you're feeling nervous and bring you back. Like rely on all that technique you've worked on. You have it in you.
Speaker: Come back to that, like come back to the basics, especially when you're nervous because that's what's going to allow you to perform. Right. What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes you see dancers make when they are either selecting or preparing their variation? Right. I don't see a lot of, you know, glaring mistakes and choosing a variation, but i think following the trends is a mistake and not trusting their instructors.
Speaker: Just trust your teacher's judgment on what variations they suggest. They know and they put a lot of thought into it. And yeah, don't don't follow the trends.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true. I think sometimes as a student, I couldn't always see why my teacher was choosing a specific variation for me. But she had a reason. i feel like she would always do this thing where she would choose variation that had one thing I was really good at and one thing I really needed to work on.
Speaker: She had me do Giselle Act 1 and I was really good at Hopps on point. That was like no sweat for me. So that whole section was fine. The attitude turns were really, really hard for me. And so that was like something I really needed to work on. I see that as a trend now looking back on my training that she always made sure there was a really challenging thing that I could really dig my teeth into and something that I felt comfortable with that she knew like this will be okay and she can show her performance quality here even if the other part doesn't go the way we wanted it to. I know back when I was teaching, well, I've always been teaching, but taking dancers to competitions myself, like from my youth ballet, I used to make them like fill out like a homework assignment basically and be like, pick your top three variations that you want to do this year
Speaker: You have to tell me why. So I want you to pick one that you think you'd be good at, one that you think would be a stretch, and then like another one for fun or something like that. I don't remember what the exact assignment was. And then some of them would be like, oh, like really well thought out and be like, I can see this totally. And then others would pick stuff that was just like way out of left field.
Speaker: I'd be like, OK, we can rule that one out. That's easy. So let's look at this one. And it was just kind of really telling of where their heads were at too. So if you have three variations that could all work and you have to narrow it down and they're all possibilities, I would say consider what rep you're working on.
Speaker: Like, for example, your spring ballet. Okay, are we doing... Sleeping Beauty in the spring, then maybe we should do a variation from that ballet. Whether it's your role or not, let's stay in theme with it so then we're prepared. Maybe you have to go in as an understudy. Maybe you just need to familiarize yourself with the whole ballet. Consider the repertoire that's coming up at your home studio down the road.
Speaker: Or if you don't do a spring ballet, that's okay too. What repertoire do we want to start educating our students on? And we're probably going to pick something like, you know, Swan Lake, Pas de Toit variations, or ballets that are a bit more commonly performed. Coppelia is always a fun one. So again, just considering the overall picture at your studio would be helpful. Yeah, that's really good advice. One thing we talked about recently was how we would love to see more. core work at competitions because we do see so many variations. and Of course, we like we want to encourage this. Getting on stage by yourself is a very specific skill, but as an incoming apprentice, new company member, you are not going to get out there and do a solo right away. You're going to be a willy. You're going to be a swan. So building this core to ballet skill. And we see a lot of group contemporary numbers, which is great. That's still core work.
Speaker: But we don't see as many classical core work. So something else we've talked about that we would love to see more of. Definitely. There's so many great options too. And I remember doing them as a kid all the time, probably more so than...
Speaker: the variations, obviously, because everybody can't be a soloist. So I would love to see more corps de ballet. And I think it's so much more fitting for students in that age group too. It would be more useful to spend hours rehearsing, i don't know, a pas de trois, paquille de pas de trois even, or maybe the waltz from Swan Lake or something. Like that could be so beneficial as opposed to doing a bunch of private lessons on your variation.
Speaker: you know, ah more efficient too. okay True. I think as a teacher, way more efficient to have your whole youth company in the studio working on something together. There's a lot, you know, lot of improvement that happens as a group and learning how to stand in lines isn't easy. There are a lot of little little nuances you have to learn about core work too. So yeah, I would love to see more more group dances being brought. I know, of course, it's tricky to coordinate schedules. And if you compete and you want to take your solo out on the road independently, you can enter as an independent too. So there's that. That's a lot more accessible. But bring a corps de ballet piece. Why aren't we doing that? Yeah, don't shy away from that for sure. I think we just kind of forget about that as an option sometimes. We saw a studio do a really beautiful garland waltz.
Speaker: Yes. a couple seasons ago, and we were blown away because it was so well put together. Choreography was beautiful. And I mean, Garland core work is even harder because you have all these props you're dealing with. I mean, it was really intricate and it was so impressive to see how these dancers work together. And it was like, yes, these dancers can be really prepared for a professional career because they've had this experience. And I believe most of those dancers did do variations as well. So they were getting both ends of the spectrum. There's benefits to both, right? Right. But yeah, don't forget about that option, I think. Yeah, I'd love to see more of that for sure.
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Speaker: To learn more and register, head to the link in the show notes and start planning for an inspiring weekend this October. What do you wish more parents understood about this process when they are kind of considering what their dancers need to work on as they are pursuing a career, I think? parents can get overwhelmed by all these options. Like, should we prioritize a summer intensive? Should we prioritize doing a solo at a variation at a competition?
Speaker: What do they need to know that's going to help them? I guess as a parent, it is kind of like an elitist thing to be able to go compete. It costs money. It's expensive.
Speaker: It's a process. That's what they need to understand. Like it doesn't all have to happen in the same year. It's a long, long drawn out training process. And it's just part of the training.
Speaker: So the most important thing is that your dancer is attending their regular ballet classes. Not skipping class and being like, oh, well, I have my solo rehearsal on Friday night. I've got to be there. I can't miss that. No, don't skip class.
Speaker: That's the most important thing. Doing a solo and competing, that's like an add-on bonus. And you know as a business owner, maybe I shouldn't even be saying this because i want people to come, but it's not the be-all, end-all of your training. The training is the most important part. And i think the rehearsal process, if you're going to rehearse a variation, the rehearsal process is the best part of it. The performance is like 90 seconds. That's it. If I were a parent of a competitive ballet dancer, if I bought a tutu, I'd be like, we're doing this variation three or four times. Yeah.
Speaker: So we're going to keep doing this one and keep working on it. But the the rehearsal process is truly the best part of it. And that time in the studio is just so invaluable. Now, of course, the experience at a competition, this is why it's important to pick the competition where you're going, because That moment, that weekend, that event could just be so influential in so many different ways. And we don't want that to ever be a negative influential event. You know, at Atoile, we want the event to be uplifting. It is uplifting.
Speaker: All of our events are very, very inspiring. They're educational. All of the judges and staff that we brought on, they truly make the events so, so special. It's all about community and support. And the studios that attend are wonderful. They're also positive. And it's just really fun to see even the backstage vibes, like people from other studios making friends, not knowing anybody, cheering on other studios. It's just great. That's what parents need to understand, too, is that not every ballet competition is the same. Some of the more elite ballet competitions, okay, yeah, might be a little more stressful at the Prix de La Sonde. It should be stressful there. It's just part of the experience. One small piece of the puzzle in your dancer's training.
Speaker: And I think coming back to the very beginning of this conversation, talking about the action that we want to take and the change that Etoile is creating, we've talked about a lot of that today, I think, just holistically within this conversation. Keri, I'd love for you to even share more about the things that Etoile does, like the choreography section and those kind of things that are really special to Etoile specifically. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. So the masterclasses are a really fun part of the day. We place our masterclasses at the beginning of the day. So it serves as a warmup on stage to get you ready for your performance day. And then we follow that by a contemporary repertoire rehearsal, which is two parts. It's to build community so that you're dancing with dancers from other studios. You have to work together to learn the choreography. It's core de ballet work. You got to stay in line. And then It's also audition practice because we have them perform it at the end of the competition day. And it's kind of like you're performing new rep on the fly, just like an audition. You have to pick it up quickly. You have to take in the details and perform it. So it's a little bit nerve wracking. But we had one of our events last year.
Speaker: this is a good example of the community building part. One of the groups somehow got late on their section. And then the next group, instead of coming in on their musical cue, they took the visual cue and waited to come on. So then each group got progressively later and later and later. And by the end of it, everybody had the biggest smile and grin on their face. They were like, oh, my gosh, we are not on the music. Oh, there's no more music. It's over. And then they ran off stage and we're all cracking up backstage. And I don't know. It was a fun moment. Like, even though they messed up, it was it's OK. Like, there's no pressure. They got the job done. The audience didn't know. They're like, oh, this is very avant garde. We're ending without music. They had no idea. But the dancers just had this like funny moment like, oh, my gosh, that really just happened. But one important part of being a pro dancer, like that's happened when we would go to Island Movement Company, Newport Contemporary Ballet now, and they did the day of you could learn a piece and perform it that night. oh Yeah, the etudes. Yeah. And that happened one time when one of the pieces that I was in where a one dancer came on to do her solo. That was like during a totally different section. And so we all had to like improvise like that happens. Yeah. And what a cool thing that they made smart choices and said, okay, like we're going to use the visual cue instead of the music because we are going to have a traffic jam if we don't. And we need to be mindful of everyone else on stage and like thinking on their feet in the moment. What a valuable lesson they're learning. Yeah, that's so true. I forgot about those.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, those were a lot of fun. For sure. And that particular instance, too, we were dancing with dancers from other companies. Like it was just like whoever was there could sign up to do it that night. And like we didn't even know all the other dancers. Us, we were used to dancing together every day and can kind of predict each other's, you know, mood and vibe and what's going to happen. I could reach your mind and be like, oh, yeah. could we get kind of like Like give me an eyebrow like you're in the wrong spot. Yeah.
Speaker: you know But we didn't know some of the other dancers. so Exactly. Yeah, it was challenging. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. And then I think also another part of B12 that's really cool is the scholarships and all of the great opportunities that you do award to dancers as well as like the placement is just such a small part of the competition. Yeah, I think like one of the defenses of this, you know, ballet competition being like, but the opportunities, the opportunities, like that's all we're hearing about from them. But it's like, OK, the opportunities that they're providing in the scholarships are two pretty elite dancers, right? And to pretty prestigious programs. So at Etoile, I do have to say that it's not about just sending kids to prestigious ballet schools. We do have some lovely, lovely schools and they have prestige on our roster of scholarship opportunities. But the point is not to send everybody to these top programs. The point is to find opportunities for every dancer.
Speaker: Not every 18 year old is going to graduate high school and go on to a professional company. So it's important to consider college programs too. That's a big one for Etoile is finding feeder programs are like, oh, this dancer's really strong and contemporary. Let's send her to this summer study opportunity. So we want to provide All kinds of opportunities for the dancers. We're looking at the whole dancer, not just the stars.
Speaker: Yeah. I think so. We have a good a good roster of opportunities. And also, people aren't going to send their kids overseas just like that. like We have junior summer intensives you know in different parts of the country. Some of the programs are recruiting dancers from certain regions that maybe they feel they haven't tapped into too. So it could be a number of ways these connections are being made, not just about finding the most talented dancer and getting them into a company. That's not really what we're about. The opportunities and the scholarships that we provide are for more than just the people who win the competition. Right. And I think as two dancers who did attend college before going on to pro careers, we do see such value in that and have a lot of passion for those college programs. There is so much benefit to doing that. And for some dancers, that is the right path. You know, it was for us. So definitely like you said, having different levels of opportunities, it's holistic. It's like, what is going to help this person get to the next step they need to be at instead of saying these people are already there.
Speaker: Lots of more that exclusively. What about the people who have so much potential but need a stepping stone offer opportunity to get there? Definitely. yeah it's all about those stepping stones. And that's part of what parents should understand about the process too is that it's a long road. Like the stepping stones.
Speaker: It takes a while. My parents in particular were just kind of like along for the ride. You know, well, this one's a surprise. This child is taking a different path. So they were more like, okay, we'll just see what she comes up with. But for the parents that are like a little bit more informed on the matter, I think it's just important to remember it is such a process. Yes. And it's slow going. And like you said, you can do variation for your entire life and still have things to work on. So there's no rush. Yeah. The process is the most important part and you have to love that process part of it and learn to appreciate it through all of this.
Speaker: And that's going to help you so much in your career too because if you don't love being in rehearsal, you're not going to love being a professional dancer. Right. That's most of your career. Yeah. It takes a lot of time and work to be a professional, to be a dancer. And it doesn't get any easier when you are a professional. Yeah. If anything it gets harder, you're still putting in a ton of work.
Speaker: Being a kid today, it's so much more demanding than like when we were growing up with the social media and just, I think the physicality of children today is much different than it used to be. We've got screens to contend with. We had COVID. So that played a big part in the development of some of these kids that are in the competition circuit now. So it needs to be considered in their training too.
Speaker: Yes. And I think if you are a parent, especially, and you don't have a dance background, it's so easy to get on social media and see another nine-year-old doing like 20 pirouettes, you know, and have all this crazy extension. And it's like, that's amazing. And also that's not every nine-year-old out there. It can be so easy to compare with what we have access to. Like we did not have Instagram when we were No. Growing up, we didn't have Facebook. We didn't have – I don't even know if we had barely YouTube maybe. I couldn't get on the internet and compare myself to thousands of dancers.
Speaker: Right. I could compare myself to the other dancers at my studio, which was already hard enough. Mm-hmm. So I think to remember how much pressure kids might feel under. As an adult, I'm barely equipped to deal with all of this.
Speaker: You know, your brain is not equipped to be seeing like this many other people and what they're doing all the time. Social media is a great tool. We both use it for our business. But it can be overwhelming and knowing when to step away and just focus on what you need to work on. And back to what you said about like the nine year old doing a million pirouettes. So like being the parent of a prodigy. is going to have its own problems too, because you want to talk about longevity and burnout. If you have this nine-year-old doing amazing things and you're like, oh my gosh, this child is so talented, like they're really going places, you're going to have to manage that for a while. They have a lot more years before they're old enough to have a company job. And so You've got to be able to manage expectations and make sure it's still fun. Let them be Yeah. It's got to be fun. it's not fun, why? There's so many beautiful dancers who quit because they're so burnt out and it's not fun anymore. And it's so demanding at such a young age. It has to be an enjoyable experience. We can't even blame ballet for that. Sports are the same way.
Speaker: so Yeah, I get it. Like if you're so good at something, you know, you want to capitalize on that and you want to pursue it. And it's like easy to get lost in that and forget that this is still a child who needs to have regular childhood experiences and go camping and play with friends. And yeah, like we love ballet. are all for we definitely trained seriously and you have to take it seriously. You have to be. it is intense, but there's a balance. Yeah.
Speaker: And I think A2L just stands for that so well. I love being a part of this competition in a small way as a judge. I'm really grateful of what you've created, Keri. For anyone listening who wants to explore maybe attending A2L this year, where can we find out more information?
Speaker: You can find more info at atolcomp.com, E-T-O-I-L-E-C-O-M-P.com, or you can find us on social media at etoiledancecomp.
Speaker: Amazing. Well, we will link that in the show notes. Definitely if you are considering what your season looks like, maybe wanting to choose a different option as you're looking at your competition schedule or wanting to pursue something, I think etoile is a really great option and I would definitely check it out. Thank you so much for this, Keri. Awesome. Thank you, Caitlin. Yes, we'd love to have you all and looking forward to our season getting started.
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