Ballet Schools- any insight into these?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure this out as well for my teenage daughter who has done ABT and Houston SI, etc. The one thing I've heard about Washington Ballet for older kids is that the classes are huge (40 kids) because after Kirov folded last year - those kids moved over to Washington Ballet. I've heard they want to add teachers to reduce class size but I'm not sure if that's happened yet or not. Would love any insight if someone there has a different experience...

The classes are very large and with the level of the technique is shockingly poor. If your DD has done ABT and Houston, she will be in for a surprise if she attends TWB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

Lol. I hire ballerina'sfor my company all the time. Nothing comes close to TWB...Nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

Lol. I hire ballerina'sfor my company all the time. Nothing comes close to TWB...Nothing.

Then maybe you can enlighten us all with the names of dancers you've hired who trained for 5+ years at TWSB, or who have joined prominent companies after training for 5+ years at TWSB? I bet the only people you can come up with are dancers who entered TWSB as trainees or in PTP as older teens (17-19), stayed a year or two, and then got hired somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

Lol. I hire ballerina'sfor my company all the time. Nothing comes close to TWB...Nothing.

Then maybe you can enlighten us all with the names of dancers you've hired who trained for 5+ years at TWSB, or who have joined prominent companies after training for 5+ years at TWSB? I bet the only people you can come up with are dancers who entered TWSB as trainees or in PTP as older teens (17-19), stayed a year or two, and then got hired somewhere.

Why are you such a bitter old coot? When did they fire you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

Lol. I hire ballerina'sfor my company all the time. Nothing comes close to TWB...Nothing.

Then maybe you can enlighten us all with the names of dancers you've hired who trained for 5+ years at TWSB, or who have joined prominent companies after training for 5+ years at TWSB? I bet the only people you can come up with are dancers who entered TWSB as trainees or in PTP as older teens (17-19), stayed a year or two, and then got hired somewhere.

Why are you such a bitter old coot? When did they fire you?

They didn't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure this out as well for my teenage daughter who has done ABT and Houston SI, etc. The one thing I've heard about Washington Ballet for older kids is that the classes are huge (40 kids) because after Kirov folded last year - those kids moved over to Washington Ballet. I've heard they want to add teachers to reduce class size but I'm not sure if that's happened yet or not. Would love any insight if someone there has a different experience...

The classes are very large and with the level of the technique is shockingly poor. If your DD has done ABT and Houston, she will be in for a surprise if she attends TWB.

Are you looking for school year or SI? Either way, we moved from TWSB to Akhmedova Ballet Academy in Silver Spring. Meeting the older girl families, there are a few from Kirov who were looking for high quality Vaganova. Here's what I honestly found, the AD is quite accomplished in ballet and the teachers she selects are all truly caring, friendly, and professional. The school has a balance of performance and competition and is currently growing in performances (for example 4 performances for the spring shows this year). The quality of training for my daughter was night and day and it made a meaningful difference in her life. We came to ABA after doing a brief 2 week SI last summer. My DD is thriving with the focused, personal attention, and the nurturing to push herself through challenges in coordination and flexibility. Talent is nurtured through their rigorous program. Our daughter's scenario was a love for ballet, but needing something different than TWSB that truly pushed her to start working hard. Now her skill is matching her love for ballet. I feel like if you have a young dancer showing promise (but needing to thrive) or a love for ballet but wanting smaller classes and more personal attention (more like us, knowing there is more portential), ABA really could be a good fit to bring it out of your daughter. We just got an email about the upcoming SI's at ABA and they have an early summer after school two week intensive that could be good or if you have a younger dancer like us and want more than a few hours over 1-2 weeks, they have a 4-week intensive. https://www.akhmedovaballet.org/intensives

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Comparing Washington Ballet, CityDance, Akhmedova for a high-level dancer (ABT SI, YAGP top 12 level)

Thanks!

Washington Ballet all day. They are the standard. On par with nyc ballet, Joffery, etc. The others don't come close.

Anyone in the dance world can tell you that The Washington Ballet is no longer relevant; not even on the map in terms of good training.

Wrong. Did your child get rejected?

Lol, no! See if you can figure out how many student's from TWSB have attended elite summer programs in the past 5-10 years (and by elite I mean schools like ABT, John Cranko/Stuttgart, Houston, Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, SAB/NYCB etc), have been awarded a company contract and they actually trained at the school (ie did not come to the school as an adult trainee for one or two years and then get a contract,) and how many students have qualified, let alone medaled, in any well-respected ballet competition (YAGP, USAIBC, ADCIBC, Prix de Lausanne) both nationally and internationally. Once you have your answer, which will be exactly zero, we can talk.

Actually I know several people who have gotten into elite schools at the Washington Ballet. My daughter goes there and she is going to ABT, her best friend is going to John Cranko, and many other classmates of theirs have gotten into intensives like Houston and SAB. And for the medalling, I don’t exactly know if this girl is the only one, but one of the girls in her class placed Top 12 a few years back at finals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CityDance does not produce clean ballet technique. They have had some kids do well at YAGP and similar, but it's only a few, and the majority of their dancers have sloppy technique.

TWSB does, but it moves a lot more slowly. They eschew YAGP, so it might not be a good fit. It's all about clean perfection there.

Would love to get feedback on Akhmedova as well.

This is simply not true at all! All three of these programs are very strong. If you have a gifted dancer, they will have excellent training with strong connections and future options coming out of the CityDance Conservatory program or Washington Ballet. Akhmedova has solid training but burnout and other issues have been a problem there. Best of luck to your dancer, OP!

[Anonymous]

Such a weird thread! TSWB and MYB are solid training and CityDance is also good for more versatile dancers.

[Anonymous]

Kintz-Meijia extremely irrelevant. Akhmedova is the absolute worst.

[Anonymous]

I just noticed that this is old but anyway, does anyone know any student who is in the professional program for ages 16 - 19? How is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

Lol. I hire ballerina'sfor my company all the time. Nothing comes close to TWB...Nothing.

d


Troll. No hiring person calls dancers of varying levels of talent "ballerina's". They are called ballet dancers. "Ballerina" is a term reserved for a top dancer in the company just like "prima ballerina assoluta" also means something very specific. Only a rube would make such a mistake. They would have also used proper spelling and not singular possessive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Ballet. Nothing else comes close.

LOL you clearly know nothing about the ballet world. TWB used to be THE place to train in the DMV, but it is largely irrelevant now. The school is entirely recreational, they don't do YAGP or any other competitions, and no one who trained in the school (not including trainees who come at the age of 18 and spend one year in the school) has gone on to join the company of The Washington Ballet, let alone any other company anywhere. It's been 10 years since any of their homegrown talent did ANYTHING.

Lol. I hire ballerina'sfor my company all the time. Nothing comes close to TWB...Nothing.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Such a weird thread! TSWB and MYB are solid training and CityDance is also good for more versatile dancers.

Absolutely not. MYB is Ballet cos play. CD is deterating by the minute. TSWB is the only credible school in the area.
-someone the sits behind the desk and makes hiring decisions