Master Ballet Academy

[Anonymous]

I believe Molly Hohlt is now directing Master Ballet Academy DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5WvkX-yOqs

Check this girl out! She's 10.

Thanks for the pointing out this video -- I noticed Sylvie is the YAGP FINALS HOPE Award winner and she trains at Master Ballet Academy in AZ.
She's WOW -- and it looks like quite a few of her solos are on YouTube including contemporary pieces. Very cool.

As for the poster who said DC can't match this -- that might be true -- Sylvie is extraordinary. And YAGP FINALS is an International Invitation-Only Competition that includes dancers from all over the world.

BUT if you look at the list of YAGP winners from the DC Regional competition, you'll see that there a few DC-Area schools with also-amazing students who received recognization at that event.
https://yagp.org/yagp-2026-washington-d-c-winners/

Our YAGP DC-Regional HOPE Award winner was Olivia Liu, who trains at CityDance including with Molly Holht (before MBA DC while Ms. Holht was still the Ballet Program Director at CityDance).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3NUeEjZDeE

Molly Hohlt coached Olivia Liu for YAGP

[Anonymous]

I hear they are capping their class size at 15. Does anyone know how that compares to other schools?

[Anonymous]

I know at MYB and TWSB their class sizes are usually over 20. My DD doesn't dance anymore, but a couple of years ago she was in a Saturday class of nearly 40 students at TWSB. The poor teacher was so overwhelmed and no one got any individual corrections. So if Master Ballet is truly capping classes at 15 I think that is very good. But it's probably worth confirming that it's true.

[Anonymous]

Yes, on their website it says each level will be capped at 10-15 dancers.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if that means they’ll be very selective with admissions???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if that means they’ll be very selective with admissions???

My guess is that they will be more selective than other area ballet schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if that means they’ll be very selective with admissions???

My guess is that they will be more selective than other area ballet schools.

I would guess they are not going to be particularly selective this year since they are trying to build.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if that means they’ll be very selective with admissions???

My guess is that they will be more selective than other area ballet schools.

I would guess they are not going to be particularly selective this year since they are trying to build.

The younger levels require no audition, and I think those will be very popular. It fills a niche for younger dancers who want better training than what TWSB can offer.
From what I hear among DD's more advanced dance friends, a lot of more serious dancers are waiting to see if MBA will survive past the first year. The roll-out has been too late in the season for girls already committed to their studios, and there is only one (presumably part-time) teacher for advanced/pre-pro girls listed actually based in the DC area. I would guess that spring 2027 will reveal how many advanced/pre-pro girls would be willing to switch to MBA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if that means they’ll be very selective with admissions???

My guess is that they will be more selective than other area ballet schools.

I would guess they are not going to be particularly selective this year since they are trying to build.

I would bet $$$ that are enough amazing kids from CityDance, TWSB, Alchemy, MYB, ARB, MBT, etc not to mention anyone else who might move the area for it, who are fully aware of their reputation, who are constantly weighing whether their current school is the best they can find, and are constantly looking for the next brightest thing that will get them more rigorous training and social media exposure. DD's school isn't even on this list and she knows at least 2 older girls who have mentioned it in conversations as a local option along with the TWSB Trainee program if they don't receive a year-round offer at the end of the summer. I think they're going to cause a lot of churn among the local schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know at MYB and TWSB their class sizes are usually over 20. My DD doesn't dance anymore, but a couple of years ago she was in a Saturday class of nearly 40 students at TWSB. The poor teacher was so overwhelmed and no one got any individual corrections. So if Master Ballet is truly capping classes at 15 I think that is very good. But it's probably worth confirming that it's true.

MYB's classes are not usually that big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if that means they’ll be very selective with admissions???

My guess is that they will be more selective than other area ballet schools.

I would guess they are not going to be particularly selective this year since they are trying to build.

The younger levels require no audition, and I think those will be very popular. It fills a niche for younger dancers who want better training than what TWSB can offer.
From what I hear among DD's more advanced dance friends, a lot of more serious dancers are waiting to see if MBA will survive past the first year. The roll-out has been too late in the season for girls already committed to their studios, and there is only one (presumably part-time) teacher for advanced/pre-pro girls listed actually based in the DC area. I would guess that spring 2027 will reveal how many advanced/pre-pro girls would be willing to switch to MBA.

I don't think it's an issue of them surviving past the first year, I think it's more of an issue of local advanced dancers staying somewhere not as good and potentially losing ground in their training. A year at that age is huge.