In Munich, I visited the Munich Ballet Job Audition Workshop hosted by Munich International Ballet School. This is the third time? I'm sorry, I'm not sure.
Munich Ballet Job Audition Workshop
Date and time: February 17 (Sunday) - 27 (Wed) 11 days
Number of participants: 35 to 70 dancers a day, an average of 50 dancers
Entry fee: EUR 80 / a day 10% discount for all schedule participation
Participating Ballet Group: 12 companies
Theater Dortmund, Ballet Augsburg, Catalonia Ballet Company, Dance Company Theater St. Gallen, South Bohemian Ballet, Della Tradance Company, Theater Keel, Croatian National Theater, Salzburg State Theater, Innsbruck-Tyrol State Theater, Pilsen Ballet Company, Posterie & Company
Daily Schedule
11:00 ~ Start of reception
12:00 ~ 1.5 hours ballet lesson
13:00 ~ Variation review
15:30 ~ 1.5 hours Contemporary choreography
17:00 finish
After all the variations review, contemporary choreographer lessons start, so sometimes it end past 19:00
Benefits of Ballet job Audition Workshop
Anyone can join the audition of small to medium ballet companies
All participants can see variations
Because we receive lessons from the director himself (some exceptions), you can see and experience the color(type) of thier company
Ballet lessons and Choriograpy lessons are 1.5hours you will receive lessons firmly
It is easy to go to the venue from Japan, the venue is 5 minutes on foot from the central station.
My personal impression
I saw most of companies are not very picky to the body shape, I felt it was a relatively gentle to Japanese dancers and they could have a great chance. There are companies that are still auditioning elsewhere, so some companies didin't decide to give contracts yet, but I was surprised there were companies that gave contracts on the spot right away.
Once all the contracts are decided, I will inform you as possible.
Every day, I can witness a scene where a dancer remaining in the last stage. After the choreography lessons, and after all the people danced it with a small group, Artisct director picked some final members of canidates. I think it was very nice to able to see who were and what type of dancers were picked for final with you own eyes. At the ordinary open auditions, it is difficult to see what kind of dancers are chosen, because you are out of the studio when they failed you.
Even if members of the final group end up did not receive a contract, some company gave some surprises such as invitation for one week company lessons or invitations for performances, etc... I think that big benefit to the dancers. Sometimes company is looking for a dancer for short term contract of the project too, not only for yealy contract. So this audition gave a lot of opportunities to dancers in that aspect.
On a day with many people (there were nearly 70 dancers ), I hard some doncer said "This would be better if they select rejected person in every each step, and then we can dance more confortably"
Well, I was wondering... does she say same things if she was the one selected to regect at a bar lesson.
The most complane was still studio is too small, and can not be danced, exceeded capacity .... However, you should realize this is also an audition, so there is a difference from regular workshops. Even if the number of people is large, there are a dancer who show themselves and stayed till final or even received conttacts. I think you have to learn to show yourself according to the any situation.
Audiiton is very tough. So many dancers even can't have oportunity to go open audition, because it's so difficult to receive invittations to the open auditions now. Some company came to this audition workshop, had open audition a day before, and they were 300 dancers there. Artist director received more than 1000 applications. He said he picked 10 canidates out of 300, and he picked 6 cadinates out of 45 in this workshop audition.
The boy who came from Ballet School in New yourk city, when I saw him the first day, I thought, "He is good at classical but he can't dance contemporary at all." But end of this auditions, he was totaly changed. He was there every day, 14 days straight since he was also taking school classes 3days before started audition. I was really happy to see his growth. He is not too tall, he has good clasical tequnique but not so great for contemporary, he also doesn't have great body shape as ballet dancers of the Munich State Ballet School. Still he staied final stage almost every time in audition. I think his seriousness and hard work will be conveyed to the artistic director.
I am honest person, so I even told him, "At first, I thought you can't dance contenporary at all , but you got so much better! " He said he learned a lot of contemporary dance in this 14days, and I agree with him. In this case, it was a worthwhile job hunting audition as a workshop.
If you want to participate in this job audition workshop, it is important to have good skill of contemporary ballet. In the vicinity of Germany, contemporary ballet is the neccesary for the small to medium-sized ballet companies. As long as you are not blessed with a good appearance or amazing talent, Its almost impossible to dance only classical ballet in this generation. Be aware that the how is current ballet world now these days.