Ask Patty: Auditioning for Professional Ballet Schools

Each week the Artistic Director of Sonoma Ballet Conservatory will be answering a question from our readers and students about the world of ballet.  Please leave a comment today with your own question which might be answered as early as next week!

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Why should I audition for a Professional Ballet School's Summer Intensive program?

As audition schedules are now being published online by many professional ballet schools, such as American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet School, Ballet West, etc., this question is rather timely.  If you have dreams of professional dancing in your future, it is important to audition for these programs for a few reasons.  

First, the audition process itself is a wonderful tool in your dance training.  Here at Sonoma Ballet Conservatory, formal auditions are not held and so students have very little experience in this very important process.  If a dancer moves or graduates and decides to audition for a production or school, understanding and being comfortable with the audition process is definitely to her or his advantage.  Overall the audition process tests and builds character as one is called upon to exhibit professionalism, poise, and grace, whether she or he feels the audition is going well or not.  It requires one to do one's very best and with one's best attitude, which, although this is something we encourage here at Sonoma Ballet Conservatory on a daily basis, it is altogether another beast when in unfamiliar and challenging circumstances.

Secondly, and again for the dedicated dancer, auditioning for professional programs offered by some of the best ballet schools in the country or world can open a dancer's eyes to her or his "competition," so to speak.  During an audition, dancers are able to see a larger pool of dancers who also have these same dreams of dancing professionally.  These other dancers, like you, traveled from near and far to these auditions in order to do their very best in hopes of being accepted by these top ballet schools.  Take a close look.  How do you measure up within the local pool of fellow dreamers and dancers?  

Finally, although you are never required to attend a program for which you audition, being accepted or rejected also builds character.  Being accepted is a great feeling which confirms and acknowledges the amount of effort and work you put into your dance education.  Being rejected allows you a moment to consider that there is still much to learn and much to train.  A true dancer knows she or he never stops learning and growing in craft and art of dance.

If I may offer a bit of advice, even if you have decided to attend an audition for the experience itself, be clear about your goals---write them down.  Decide now whether you will attend any of these programs before you audition.  The horizon often looks much different through the exciting haze of an acceptance letter.

Best of luck!

New Additions to Sonoma Ballet Conservatory

An Instructor and Adult Ballet Classes

Meet Leigh Donlan, our new ballet instructor.  Ms. Leigh began her dance education at the age of three.  Classically trained in the Russian tradition, she began her professional dance career at the age of twenty.  More recently, Ms. Leigh danced with the Alexandria Ballet Company and served as the Director of the Athenaeum School of Ballet, both of northern Virginia.  In 2007 she was invited by Septime Webre, Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet, to serve as Children's Ballet Mistress.  Ms.  Leigh has sat on numerous arts councils and other professional organizations, and we believe she will make a fine addition to Sonoma Ballet Conservatory too.  We know you'll take a moment to greet warmly and welcome Ms. Leigh into the close-knit community that is SBC.

This autumn you will find Leigh leading our youngest dancers through the three levels Joy of Movement on Saturday mornings and our oldest and wisest dancers through Adult Ballet, offered on Wednesdays from 9:30-11:00AM and Sundays from 10:00-11:30AM.

If you have ever been tempted to slip your toes into a pair of ballet slippers, please join us!  As with our student classes, our Adult Ballet classes welcome all levels of ability and experience.  Not entirely sold?  Here's some personal encouragement from Ms. Leigh:

Ballet benefits both the mind and the body.  The nature of ballet exercises promotes a stronger memory with attention to detail and a longer attention span in general.  Endorphins released into both the brain and body allow for the release of tension and stress.  Physically, ballet improves the body's alignment and flexibility, which improves the body's overall circulation and health.  Ballet develops better balance and core stability by strengthening all the major muscles, especially the back and lower abdominal muscles.  Whatever the depth of one's interest in ballet, he or she is sure to reap many benefits!

So, step onto the floor with us this autumn to strengthen your body while enlivening your mind...and say hello to Ms. Leigh.  You could even bring flowers.

How We Spent the Last Day of Spring

Wolf House, Jack London State Park, scheduled to be closed forever July 1st

St. Francis Winery, Santa Rosa, CA

St. Francis Winery, Santa Rosa, CA

Wolf House, Jack London State Park

St. Francis Winery, Santa Rosa, CA

We spent the hottest yet day of the year traipsing about the Sonoma Valley and posing for an up-and-coming photographer for our 2012 Wine Country Calendar.  Our dancers were gracious and lovely even as they fought against the blistering sun and heat, always looking as cool and calm as a cucumber.  Well, maybe prettier than that, but you get the idea. 

Our 2012 Wine Country Calendar will be released for sale during the first week of August, but you can check out our 2011 Wine Country Calendar while you wait.  As always, you can purchase our calendar in the studio or online, and we ship worldwide!

How did you spend the last day of spring?

Auditions, Examinations, and Promotions--Oh my!

Each year, we at Sonoma Ballet Conservatory encourage our progressing dancers to submit themselves to examination by the discerning officials of the Royal Academy of Dance, from which is derived the governing curriculum of our School Program, and we are pleased to recognize the dancers who recently underwent these examinations, respective to their levels and according to the high standards of the internationally acclaimed RAD of London, England: Natalie Baker passed her Intermediate Foundations exam; Natalie Anderson, Elizabeth Eagles, Isabel Falls, Angelica Griggs-Demmin, and Jamie Melendy each passed the Intermediate Examination with Merit; Siobhan O’Reilly passed Advanced Foundation with Merit; and Mallory Bardet passed the Advanced II Examination with Merit.

We also recognize with honor the dancers who were in January promoted to pointe-work: Doris Arjona, Marissa Balchinas, Alexandra Burnham, Olivia Cole, Ariana Lopez-Casillas and Jamie Melendy.  Dancing on one’s toes takes a great deal of preparatory muscle-conditioning and -strengthening, and each of these dancers trained twice weekly for a minimum of two years, anticipating this promotion.  Not all dancers are candidates for promotion to pointe, as dancing en-pointe requires careful control of one’s body to avoid injury.  It is only the dedicated dancer who submits herself or himself to an established and comprehensive curriculum who gains the muscular maturity to dance upon her or his toes and, therefore, we salute these dancers--bravo!

Last but not in the least, each winter we at Sonoma Ballet Conservatory afford our aspiring dancers the opportunity to branch out farther into the world of dance by auditioning for pre-professional programs offered at some of the most prestigious ballet schools across the nation and worldwide: Mallory Bardet auditioned for the Joffrey Ballet and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and was accepted to both programs; Siobhan O’Reilly will attend the pre-professional program of the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp in Belgium; Jamie Melendy auditioned for the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance; Anika Ljung auditioned for and was accepted to the Summer Intensive Program of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet School in San Francisco; Olivia Cole auditioned for Ballet West of Utah and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet School in San Francisco and will spend a portion of her summer at LINES Ballet; Hannah Breall also auditioned for Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet School; and Emma Phelps auditioned for and will attend the American Ballet Theatre’s Young Dancer’s Summer Workshop in New York City.  It took a great deal of courage to audition for these celebrated programs, and we could not be more proud of these dancers of Sonoma Ballet Conservatory.

Not unlike other pre-professional programs, Sonoma Ballet Conservatory offers its own Summer Dance Workshop, which provides dancers of the Sonoma Valley and beyond the opportunity to explore dance-styles like Classical Ballet, Character, Flamenco, Jazz, and Modern, as well as Pre-Ballet, taught by our own artistic director, Patty O’Reilly, plus distinguished guest faculty from the Bay Area and as far away as Scotland.  Our 2011 Summer Dance Workshop begins Tuesday, July 5, and closes with a public performance at The Sebastiani Theatre on Saturday, August 6, 2011.  Visit our website or call (707) 938-1424, to customize your own summer dance experience!

Master Classes in Modern

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory is offering Master Classes in Modern on Mondays and Thursdays from 10:00-11:30AM, throughout the month of June.  This series of Master Classes will be taught by Kellyn Lopes, former Conservatory student and current distinguished student at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.

Intermediate and Advanced dancers may drop-in for one class or enroll for the entire series.  Please call (707) 938-1424, for a fee schedule or more information.

Please arrive ready with enthusiasm and a smile, ready to work hard in a fun and lively atmosphere!

Dress is casual and comfortable yet designed for movement.

This summer, Kellyn Lopes will be a choreographer-in-residence at the highly esteemed San Francisco Conservatory of Dance's Preprofessional Summer Intensive, Session Three, a five-week session for Advanced and Preprofessional dancers aged 14-23.  As you can imagine, we're very proud of her!