Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | Dance Magazine

The apprentice zone. (Audition Guide 2003).

Article Excerpt
What is an apprentice dancer, and why bother to become one? According to Merriam Webster s Collegiate Dictionary, an apprentice is "one bound by indenture to serve another for a prescribed period with a view to learning an art or trade." But who becomes an apprentice and why, how long it lasts, and how much it pays all depend on the company you join. * In general, an apprenticeship denotes the "end of the beginning." It's the transition phase that can follow formal training and comes before professional standing. It also tests whether a dancer's success in school translates to the stage. "Sometimes you see someone in class," says Rosemary Dunleavy, ballet mistress of New York City Ballet, "and they might happen to have a good day and look fantastic." Then, she says, "you realize afterwards they're either better than they were or worse, or they're not musical, or they can't learn movement quickly."

Given that it's impossible to tell in the studio how a dancer will appear onstage, apprenticeships allow a company, in Dunleavy's words, "to look at a product before buying it." The process, she says bluntly, "is like purchasing art from galleries that allow prospective buyers to take a painting home and hang it in their living room before making a monetary commitment." For the dancer, it is an opportunity to see if the company, or the life it offers, fits.

The terms, pay, and status of dance apprenticeships vary widely from...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!