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The change needs to happen when they're younger, INSIDE the ballet class. Boys are being ridiculed by the girls in the classes and the parents put them down saying how much "easier" it is to get roles for a boy in ballet. That does not exactly encourage them to stay in ballet.

Grim reality. As the grandparent of an aspirant I always like you closing words " Keep dancing and be the best person you can be"

Yup. All of my dance jobs, as a dancer and now as a teacher, came through contacts in the dance world. Through people who already knew me. I did not show well in auditions, but through regular class attendance and then in performance, got more opportunities to work.

So basically it's impossible?

Ballet is only for the rich now

Thank you, Michael, for producing your excellent videos! The field of architecture has much the same climate for getting a job. This is true whether you’re looking for a teaching position, a job in a firm, or for finding a commission. Your astute advice is applicable to more than just ballet - which is why I so enjoy your videos.

It’s not just dance, all sports activities up until college is really only for people with deep pockets. You have camps, and camps with scouts. You have conditioning camps and specialist camps. To have a hope at a scholarship, it’s a travel league which can be a time and money pit. The reason for the money pit is it’s a faceless way to say no. In dance, it’s to cut the competition way down. If you think your kid is the next Nela, Natalia or Vadim, and have $2K to throw at a 13 year old, who has only had rec classes, there are plenty of people who will take your money. They may feel your kid has zero shot, but instead of killing the dream verbally, they kill your wallet. They figure the Carlos Acostas are so few and far between, it’s not worth sweating missing a kid that can’t pay.

Auditions? Rigged? I’m shocked. Shocked!

Thank you for saying this, not just about auditions but about the cost, in general. I found out very late that ballet came pretty easily to me but I couldn't afford to find that out until I was an adult. I still love dancing and am still learning. But i am sometimes sad that I didn't get to pursue it as a career just because my parents couldn't afford it. It makes me wonder how many talented dancers will just never get to live their potential.

EVERYTHING IS RIGGED. And has been for a a VERY long time. The "have's" are not about fairness and justice and sharing their wealth, connections, or "power". The real agenda behind all of the smoke, mirrors and feigned "goodness" and "charity" is EXTREMELY dark and malevolent.

At age 60-something my technique is NO WHERE near what it was at age 20. I also no longer perform ballet however, I do teach and coach ballet. I now perform folk dance and the overwhelming comment I receive from audience members is, “I can feel your joy when you dance!” This comment thrills me every time I hear it. Art should bring emotion to the observer, be it a painting, a piece of music, or dancing. I must add that before you mentioned the “10 pirouettes,” my mind had already jumped ahead to Mikhail Baryshnikov’s “ 11 pirouettes for 11 rubles” in the movie “White Nights.” He performed the pirouettes flawlessly but with such charisma! I suggest to all my university students that they watch that clip and the duet with Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines from the same movie to see and FEEL the power of two different dance styles. YES, we MUST have artistry to touch human emotions. Thank you for sharing this.

Need more patron groups.. Somewhere where a dancer can solicit patrons that is supervised so people donating know what their funds are being spent on and a patron can join a group to spread the cost on a specific dancer.

Thank you for talking about this.

❤❤❤🙌🙌🙌🙌❤❤❤

I was super skinny when I studied ballet. Honestly I could never be a professional ballet dancer; I like to eat. It saddens me to see how many young dancers are so painfully thin . It’s a shame. The ballet world really needs to change in many ways

I’ve seen many brilliant dancers who have technique and artistry but they are all in their thirties or forties. Yes if you look at dancers from the past , technique has come a long way. Today’s students but not all are too focused on how many pirouettes they can do.

Beautiful video

Reputable companies rarely charge audition fees for professional positions. My daughter has danced in NYC for the last decade and just refuses to consider companies who do charge.

Imagine corporations charging people to interview them. Who do we think would be the only people getting those jobs? That's literally what companies are doing. And then they wonder why they cant diversify their casting and why more people aren't approaching ballet?

I see some schools are now charging just for an application to the school.

You are 100 percent correct. I love ballet but I can’t afford schools. That are charging 300 + a month for 1 class a week. Then there’s the application fees and everything else they charge. This is the situation in America.

i agree with everything you said in this video, it is a very sad reality indeed that aspiring professionals and/or students must pay (essentially) for the prospect of being accepted into a company/school and then paying even more. but there's one topic i'd like to hear your take on, you only really brushed upon this: companies already know who they are going to hire. they hire winners of international competitions, those with connections, those with a social media following. how do these large competitions such as YAGP, PdL, and various IBCs affect career prospects for others?

Pay hundreds of dollars to audition to be offered an unpaid apprenticeship, sad state of affairs.

BRAVO, Mr. Wise, thank you for touching upon this subject. I think anyone that has had a professional career agrees with all that you stated. i think another problem is now almost everywhere their are apprentice courses, Trainees etc, it surprises me that after a student has been prepared as a Trainee or Apprentice or has attended a Professional School the probability of actually becoming a company member is almost nil. they do open auditions to take people for the corps. i can understand that a dancer with experience and has already arrived to a S0loist position auditions for another company and gets taken but years ago the major part of the corps de ballets were taken from the school or Apprentices. I would love to hear your opinion. thank you so much for your insights❤

It is nice someone talks about this topic. I see many of those factors also as an outsider. The question remains still open: where the companies should get money from, when the government does not want to give money for the culture and arts? It just becomes more and more corrupt and desperate, in every scenery of life, not only in ballet.

My daughter auditioned for a post-graduate course at a London school, at some cost to us, and didn’t get in; they only took graduates from that school - and overseas students who bring much higher fees! She did have a successful dance career, but that audition was a cynical waste of money.

Sending this to the family

im 14 and started at 12, the only thing i want in life is to be a proffesional ballerina. i only have class twice a week for 1 hour and i workout at home to also improve faster, what can i do to get better?? im from norway and its really hard to do ballet here

You could easily create an entire video from your note in this one, that, to say it a little differently, reserve beats "over the top." This is exactly what is constantly violated in today's ugly maelstrom of mass entertainment. Whatever was over the top yesterday has to be outdone in extremity today. What poverty! Follow that path and there will be twenty couples doing nothing but glorified gymnastics all over the stage, if indeed man or beast manages to survive a Hollywood-style rodent-soldier battle of pyrotechnics and gore to make it "more exciting." Where subtlety is lost, how shall beauty express itself?

I guess my dreams of being a professional dancer has been dashed😠😠

"Show your strength without looking like a Neanderthal". 😂 Seriously, though, it's a lovely pas de deux.

Hi! I would really like to be a professional dancer when im older and im wondering how should i train outside of class, for example in basketball or football there are specific exercises and drills, but i dont know really if there are any for ballet, what exercises and drills are there for ballet? Any advice welcome thank you!

Really appreciate you keeping it real Mr. Wise, I’m concerned for the youth in the industry 😭

Thanks a lot! I discovered your channel not so long ago and I've been watching one video at a time every other day, letting the messages sink in. This one has been the most relevant for me so far. I'm a late starter amateur dancer/actor and it has always been more than just a hobby - it's been a part of my lifestyle. I've been through ups and downs before but the last one has been the worst one. I've been dealing with mental health issues and even though comparing to other problems in my life (not) dancing looked like a little thing in an ocean of other problems, I realised I need to heal my relationship with dance to be whole and healthy myself again. So that'what I'm doing right now, one step at a time. From a place where I wasn't even able to enjoy watching ballet videos I seem to be back to regular classes after long two years. My technique is a terrible mess, but I feel some kind of confidence deep inside - I'm ready for classes, ready to have fun, ready to mess up combinations, ready to deal with a few toxic people and I believe I can use the worst part of the experience to become a better and happier dancer.

While this was a great confirmation and validation for me, I have a question about what you said about there being a company for just about everyone. Only about 10% or less actually make it into ballet companies. So what happens to the other 90+% talented ballet dancers who do not make it? What would you advise?

Well, in my experience (and I am 27 years old) I only see more and more YOUNGER people getting contracts and becoming soloists and principals… so I don’t think I am old but I do feel left out sometimes (especially because when I was 22, 23 covid hit so I didn’t even had the chance to try and get in into these junior companies or whatever). Then again in many companies now directors say: you don’t fit in, or you are too different from the rest of the people, I don’t see you working here because x,y,z etc. So it’s definitely tough out there these days and I am starting to rethink about my career because I am starting to get older and more tired.

So at 65 I’m too old?!!! I still love going to class though. 😊

Thank you for the video

such a huge confirmation that I'm on the right track. thank you so much for this.

Just when I felt I needed a reminder about our conversation back in June, here ya are with this video 👏 I'm so immensely grateful for your perspective.

I photographed The Nutcracker, original choreography, professionally for a local school and company for 14 years. It never grew old. Each year, new high school seniors took the lead parts, new younger children appeared in others; faces in the corps changed. New potential, new individual personalities made their own mark on the parts I had come to know so well. (I was once even asked to play Drosselmeyer; unfortunately, I couldn't devote the time.) But no matter who was dancing, the magic moments were always magic, such as the anticipation of the overture's opening bars; when the Mouse King is slain and the music changes to the beautiful, slowly rising rising melody in the cellos and horns as the Prince is revealed and the pas de deux gently begins; the joyous explosion of the final tutti -- YYYAHH dah dot dahh -- with the bittersweet knowledge that the dream will soon be over. Sometimes, there were even occasional moments when it was hard to focus the lens (back then, that was a manual operation) through a moist eye. To the dancers: Remember the young child experiencing this for the first time. You are creating a new world for him or her. The life you bring to your character will create an indelible memory.

Definitely needed to hear this today thank you so much for your content!!

On point!

I loved this thank you! Do you think you could make another video based on dance after highschool? Maybe list some ways to continue dancing after high school even if you aren't at a pre-proffesional/ professional level? Or if there is even a possibility of maybe going pro if you aren't pre-professional by your senior year of high school?

Brilliantly told and illustrated and so true of some companies Love how you put this over its a vexed subject but needs to be tackled for ballet to survive

I was lucky enough to see some of the greats live in the 60s and 70s Evdokimova Kain Haydee Keil Penney etc and males Barishnikov Kehlet Cragun Schaufus Dowell and recently the new dancers coming through ther ranks fortunately many are now able to see foreign dancers on DVD partially because companies rarely tour like they used to , I saw usually at the Coliseum or ROH Royal Danes New York City Ballet Stuttgart National Ballet of Canada plus numerous guest artists and of course English national and the Royal Ballet

Excellently told by yourself My dance teacher always said you can teach the steps but true dancing comes from within the dancer s heart

Royal Ballet's Wayne Sleep, 5'3". Wonderfully talented. They created roles for him and they were memorable. Loved to see him.

Totally! I always thought artful dancing was meant to made to make other feels. Dancing is first and foremost an art form of expression and the dancers is meant to dance true to their feelings. And secondly, what makes dance just like other art forms, is that is meant to express something to others too, and good dancing just like good art, makes others feel. I think this side of ballet is lost to some parts of today's dance world sometimes. The pressure today is to make soldiers out of dancers and armies out of companies. But the pleasure of watching dance is not in its homogeneity necessarily. Of course, this is part of the capitalistic mindset, the package is more important than the content or what it can offer to you. To me it seems it also happens with technique. We can al agree technique is indispensable in many ways to be a good dancers because it gives you the freedom to "forget" about individual steps and let yourself go to the music. But technique is not the end in itself. It's a means, albeit a necessary one. Just because you are flexible or can put your leg on your shoulder doesn't mean you are a good dancer. If it's not expressing anything to the public, but most importantly, if you are not feeling what you are doing, is it good art? Or Just like the paintings in the hotels or hospital waiting rooms.

Even in the 1990s, a lot of Audition Notices said 5'10" minimum for men. If the female average is pushed up to 5'6", the men need to be 6' or taller because you need to be as tall as her en pointe while you're in flat shoes. European companies go even taller these days.