Can I audition for a dance agency in the future if I start doing dance at 13?

mintchips49

Most people have no clue what it takes to become a professional dancer. Agents who represent dancers will not represent a dancer who cannot do everything required by the choreographer. That means we’ll trained already working dancers in many genres. Strong ballet and modern dance technique are most important. Anything else just because easy choreography for dancers with those strong basic skills. Agents book dancers for individual jobs, not to be in a dance company. They also only represent already professional working dancers. Company auditions are often held through master classes where the choreographer May invite a student taking that master class to take a “company class” with a professional dance company. From there they may offer an apprenticeship or a company position if one is available. No matter how well you can dance if you can’t pick up choreography quickly you won’t get hired. Let’s start at what is required to become a professional dancer. First you need to be born with the right body, facility and musicality that is required for a dance career. No amount of training no matter how good or how young you start can change those things. You have to be born like that. You body is your instrument. Think of it like trying to become a singer . For that you need to be born with a good voice to start. Training can help you improve, but all the training in the world won’t help if you can’t sing in tune and have a poor overall vocal quality. If you were lucky enough to be born with all of this, you then need full time professional not recreational training. Recreational schools don’t have the right training to pass on to you for a professional dance career. You start with ballet because that is where all your dance technique will come from and where you build the right muscle to control your body so you can do all types of other dance genres. Look for a teen beginner ballet class. i suggest a different school based on what you said the studio you looked into offered. One hour a week is not going to be enough class. However it is a good place to start to see if you have the real desire and ability. A standard beginner ballet class can be an hour but a standard ballet class is 90 minutes. You should also know that lyrical dance is only found in competition dance studios and recreational recital schools. It isn’t a professional dance genre. Dancers on track for a career train 20-30 hours a week year round in technique classes. Most of which are in ballet if they are just beginning. All professional schools and most good recreational dance schools will not let you take jazz or modern until you have strong ballet technique first. Schools that allow that are not going to be high caliber recreational schools. You will never find lyrical in a professional level school. As I said, it isn’t a professional dance genre. What makes a dance lyrical is just using the impetus of the lyrics of a song for the choreography. It is all about the choreography. It doesn’t have a technique of its own. Therefore there is nothing of value there to train in. Lyrical relies on strong ballet technique along with modern technique. If you truly want to do this, I suggest you find a school that has a strong ballet training program. While you can still take hip hop classes at the same time as ballet, jazz and modern along with street jazz/commercial dance ( what you see in music videos) will have to wait. This is to prevent muscle confusion while building your dancers body and technique. Concentrating on ballet will actually speed up the process as your focus will be there not all over the place taking other genre classes based off of ballet but using the technique differently. If you really have the talent and requirements to become a professional dancer, professional schools do offer scholarships so training can be free or close to free. Recreational and competition schools don’t do that. Aside from not offering the right training, they are mostly in it for the money. No training costs more than competition dance and competition dance is a dead end to a professional dance career. They spend time teaching dance tricks skipping over proper technique and form. Dancers who start with competition dance need retraining in order to stand a chance of a dance career. You can start with one ballet class a week but will need to move up to two or three a week to start seeing any real improvement. It is harder starting at 13 but it has been done. After a few years of taking classes 5 days a week you can start adding other genre. (If ballet isn’t your goal, you can skip pointe work and just work on gaining strong ballet technique.) When you are ready you start taking master classes with professional dance company choreographers and hope they notice you. Auditioning for a dance BFA is another way to go. There you will hone your skills and make career connections. Keep in mind you have to be well trained in order to attend a top dance conservatory/ college/university program. You don’t get a dance agent until you have already worked professionally. Real dance agents won’t work with dancers who are amateurs and haven’t proven themselves. Dance agents that say they work with non professionals and ask for money up front are a scam. I told you all of this not to be discouraging but to let you know realistically what is required. If you have the fire in your belly to do this, you will find a way. I’m giving you a starting point and road map on what you need to do to stand a chance for a shot at a dance career. There are so few jobs in dance and many well trained gifted dancers ready to take those jobs. Dance careers don’t pay well and are over in a flash. Then dancers need to find a second career for the remainder which is the bulk of their lives. If you need to dance like you need the air to breathe then go for it. If not just consider dance for the Joy of Dance and stay recreational.