Ballet auditions are a necessary part of any dancers’ career. From auditions for junior associate programmes through to auditions for professional ballet companies, every dancer will have to audition at some point in their lives if they wish to become a professional. You might experience feelings of anticipation, nerves, self-doubt and excitement when preparing for auditions, and it’s important to remember that all of these are perfectly normal and experienced by dancers of all levels.
There are many aspects of an audition that you can’t control, such as the exercises you are given, the difficulty of the class, the standard of the other auditionees – even traffic jams on the way to the audition! It’s important to focus on what you can prepare and this will help you feel calmer going into any audition.
We spoke with ballet teacher, Johanna Hadley, whose students have been accepted on full-time places at the Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst Ballet School, Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and The Hammond about what top six pieces of advice she gives to anyone preparing for auditions.
1. Be Prepared
In the lead-up to your audition, make sure you are attending classes regularly and paying attention in lessons with your teachers. It’s also important that you are practising in your own time and working on conditioning exercises so that you are at your physical peak when auditioning.
This may sound obvious, but it’s important that your teacher is aware you are auditioning. (Let them know even when you’re considering applying so they can advise and help you through this complex process). You will need to keep your teacher updated with all of your audition dates as these are sent directly to the parent/guardian. Each school has different requirements for the auditions (some require a solo, some a jazz or contemporary class) and these requirements change for each audition round. For your teacher to tailor their advice and support, you need to keep your teacher up to date so they can fully support and prepare you. Especially when a solo is required, your teacher will need even more time so they can choreograph, teach and refine a solo with you.
2. Organisation is key
Audition season for dancers is always more than just one audition – there are multiple schools with multiple audition rounds. You need to read carefully the information sent to you by the school and make sure you are organised. Ensure you have the correct time and venue, and check in advance where the parking is. (You may also need an overnight stay in a hotel if it’s an early morning audition.) You’ll need to arrive in plenty of time for your audition so that you are relaxed and have time to warm up. Audition days are busy enough without the added stress of arriving at the last minute!
3. Check each school’s requirements
Each school has different requirements for the auditions (solos, jazz class etc.), so make sure you are prepared in knowing what each school requires for each audition round. You also need to take note of each school’s dancewear requirements for the audition round. Do you need to take pointe shoes? Are you allowed to wear a skirt? Is it socks or tights? A general guide for audition ballet leotards is to wear a leotard with a simple camisole strap (no multi straps) in a strong colour to really stand out. The following leotards would fit the bill perfectly:
Pack your bag the night before and don’t forget to pack in spares, too! A standard bag pack for auditions is leotard and spare leotard, tights and spare tights, shoes and spare shoes, hair accessories (such as clips, grips, bun net):
hair spray, small sewing kit (for if your ballet shoe ribbons or elastics start to come undone).
Tendu Ultimate Dancer's Sewing Kit
warm ups, water, food (make sure your water and food don’t leak on your dancewear, though!), and any paperwork needed for the audition. If you have a solo, ensure that you have your music in the correct format as requested by the school (for example, on your phone or a CD).
4. Rest and eat well
Try to get a good night’s sleep and go to bed early the night before. It can sometimes be difficult to sleep if you’re excited for the audition, but even just quietly resting is better than sitting up checking your social media feeds. Also, plan your meals for the day – make sure you don’t go into the audition without having had anything to eat. Auditions are long and hard, and although it may be difficult to eat with nerves, just trying to eat something will give you more energy for the intense audition.
Some professional performers swear by eating a banana to ease nerves because of their specific vitamin and mineral content.
5. Remember to be excited!
Think of how you feel when you’re nervous: elevated heart rate and butterflies in your stomach. Now think of how you feel when you’re excited: elevated heart rate and butterflies in your stomach. It’s so similar! The research of Alison Wood Brooks, a behaviour research scientist, has shown how people perform better if they think of their nerves as excitement.
“Compared to those who attempt to calm down, individuals who reappraise their
anxious arousal as excitement feel more excited and perform better. Individuals can
reappraise anxiety as excitement using minimal strategies such as self-talk (e.g.,
saying "I am excited" out loud) or simple messages (e.g., "get excited"), which lead
them to feel more excited, adopt an opportunity mindset (as opposed to a threat
mindset), and improve their subsequent performance.”
Alison Wood Brooks, Harvard Business School
You can read the full study here
When you’re going into the audition, remember that you are excited for the day of dancing, meeting new people, maybe having the opportunity of dancing at a famous ballet school. It completely changes your outlook on the audition. And don’t forget that everyone else at the audition will be feeling the exact way you are, too.
A note to parents: I always recommend not asking your child if they feel nervous on an audition day – I’ve seen first hand how this makes a child feel even more nervous! Keep your conversations upbeat, fun and excited about this opportunity of auditioning. Even if the audition result is unsuccessful, remember that they’ll have had the opportunity of dancing with a new teacher and the added experience of another audition, which is always beneficial. You can learn and develop from both successful and unsuccessful auditions.
6. Just try your best!
Finally, remember just to try your best – that’s all anyone can ask for at an audition! A normal audition time is an hour and a half, and there is no way that someone can dance perfectly for this length of time. Remember you are human and mistakes happen. Learn to recover quickly from them and move on. Just as much as the audition panel want to see you dancing at your best, they also want to assess your attitude to work – when something goes wrong, do you give up, walk away and say “It’s too hard!” or do you keep trying? This tells them a lot about your mindset and eagerness to learn. Just keep smiling and keep going!
Tag us in your audition day photos @dancewear_central to feature on our Instagram! #dwcdancers