National Master Audition

New Way to Be Seen

The National Master Audition is a three-day SoCal event  that provides an opportunity for ballet dancers to begin or further their professional careers without spending thousands of dollars on a one-city-at-a-time audition tour. Instead, the National Master Audition allows dancers to be seen by ten company directors in one Southern California location. In addition to company positions, this year’s audition has added components focused on trainee programs and summer intensives.

The ten company directors conducting the 2022 National Master Audition this December have been announced and dancer registration is now open.  https://www.balletcalifornia.org/national-master-audition-registration

This year’s companies include Atlanta Ballet, Ballet 5:8, Ballet Austin, Ballet Idaho, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Contemporary West Dance Theatre, Louisville Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Minnesota Ballet, and Orlando Ballet. Most are companies returning from last year. Two new additions are Minnesota Ballet and Chicago’s Ballet 5:8.

 
The National Master Audition is the brain-child of Diane Lauridsen, the respected head of Lauridsen Ballet Centre and its related training company, California Ballet (formerly South Bay Ballet). Recently she talked about the history of the National Master Audition and lessons from the inaugural 2021 audition incorporated for this year.

For years, Lauridsen watched her advanced ballet students try to navigate the largely uncharted audition routes to a professional ballet career.  With most mid-sized ballet companies and many larger companies conducting auditions only in their home city, young dancers and their families struggled with how to handle the time commitment, travel and other expenses of multiple trips to audition in different cities.

 
Convinced there had to be a better way, Lauridsen proposed hosting a centralized audition where aspiring dancers could be seen by directors from multiple dance companies.  While she found interest in the idea, the existing system was what everyone was used to despite its expense and inefficiencies.

Covid upended the status quo. For more than a year, with theaters closed and Covid largely unchecked, dance companies considered new ideas as they struggled to keep their current dancers working with livestreams, dance films, and outdoor performances.  Hiring was a not a priority. Even where companies had openings, Covid precluded in-person auditions until vaccines became widely available in mid-2021.

Coming out of the pandemic last year, ballet began to resume a kind of normal. Yet Covid presented ongoing issues for in-person auditions. With ongoing travel risks and limited vaccinations for the young, audition tours remained problematic. The uncertainties proved the right time for Lauridsen’s long-simmering idea for a streamlined audition process.

 
Scheduled for the last week in December 2021, the inaugural two-day event drew artistic directors from ten mid-sized companies from across the country and 90 registered dancers. Instead of ten trips to ten different cities, those auditioning made one trip for one audition, one registration process, and one fee.  Registering involves submitting one application, a photo in arabesque, a resume, and a video of a variation.  (Full details and fees at the website.) The non-profit sponsoring organization applies the registration fees to cover the transportation, housing, and meals for the attending company directors and pay for the pianists accompanying ballet classes.

Held at ballet studios in Torrance, the 2021 audition divided the 90 dancers into two groups, each group taking a ballet class conducted by one of the artistic directors and also a modern class.  From those classes, 55 dancers, more than half, piqued the interest of one or more directors, and were invited to return the second day. Day two had more sessions including pas de deux, learning classical and contemporary repertoire, and performing a solo variation of the dancer’s choosing.  Every dancer had a conference with feedback even if no immediate job was offered.  Lauridsen was pleasantly surprised that the anticipated issue of multiple directors vying for the same dancer did not arise.

 
Lauridsen admits it is difficult to pin down how many dancers received jobs because some jobs developed later out of the audition and companies were not entirely sure of their companies’ finances and needs coming out of Covid.

“One company director told a dancer there was interest, but did not have an opening to offer at the audition,” Lauridsen recounted, “Later the director had an opening, remembered the dancer from the audition, and the job was offered.”

This year’s audition follows last year’s format with two additional components.  While indirectly trainee programs came into play last year, the 2022 audition will explicitly include trainee programs. Lauritzen noted that the participating companies are ones known to cultivate their trainees with a program that results in either a path into the professional company or with the skills to dance elsewhere professionally.

 
The second new component is a separate audition on the final day open to pre-professional dancers aged 14 to 17 to attend summer intensive programs at Atlanta Ballet, Ballet 5:8, Ballet Idaho, Contemporary West Dance Theatre, Louisville Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet . Details on the pre-professional audition for summer programs on December 30 at 3pm also are at the website.

Lauridsen admitted that while there is no perfect time for everyone, scheduling the National Master Audition for late December seems to work best for both directors and those auditioning.

“It is proving to be the most convenient travel period for the most people,” Lauritzen explained. “After Nutcracker performances most professional companies usually close in late December and it’s also a time that schools and ballet studios are closed for winter holidays.”

 
Although targeted at young dancers transitioning from student to professional, the late December 2021 audition also attracted dancers already in companies looking to explore other companies in a low key way.

Last year, stricter Covid protocols were in place with masking except for the individual variation.  This year, the audition will not impose additional protocols beyond what LA County and the city of Torrance requires. The latest Covid updates will be on the website.

 
While some companies continue to audition by video, Lauritzen underscored the value of auditioning in person.

One director last year hired a dancer who drew his attention during second day with her performing skills in the choreography and variation portions.  “He told me he never would have hired her off a video audition, but seeing her in person was compelling” Lauritzen recalled, adding “With the return to live dance in theaters, performing is what dancers are auditioning to do.”

National Master Audition
Professional Division:  December 28-30 https://www.balletcalifornia.org/national-master-audition-registration

Pre-professional Division:  December 30, 3pm https://www.balletcalifornia.org/national-master-audition-registration

Lauridsen Ballet Centre
1261 Sartori Ave.
Torrance, CA

https://www.balletcalifornia.org/

Featured Image: National Master Audition 2021. Photo courtesy of the NMA