"Best of Annie" Workshop Performances Make Us Proud!

Cast Mates After A Performance of "An Annie Review"

It was a semester of exciting change and incredible growth for us in the Musical Theatre Department as we all came together and gave audiences something to smile about! Over the course of two busy weekends we produced 14 performances of "The Best of Annie" featuring wonderfully talented students ranging from ages 5-15. And boy did we all learn a lot! I joined our students back in September, and was exceptionally proud of their rise and dedication through out the workshop process.

It is truly inspirational to see the workshop environment cultivate a love for the arts and a passion for performing in each of these young minds.

I am tremendously excited to take what we all learned from the experience and bring that energy into our new workshop of the "Wicked of Oz". The workshop will take every one's favorite moments from "Wicked," "The Wiz" and "The Wizard of Oz" and combine them all into one showstopping performance! Dorothy and all of her friends will light up the stage for what is sure to be one of most memorable workshop experiences to date! Performances will be held in June and it isn't too late to sign up and join the fun!

Auditions....A Dancer's Life

SPAA Pre-Professional Student Stephanie Cotton in Class During our 2010 Summer Intensive

January marks the beginning of the mayhem that will forever be a part of a dancers life: AUDITIONS.  From students to professionals, summer intensives to company and college dance programs, the audition process isn't going anywhere. This mayhem continues until mid to late February and to Early to Late March for some.  The audition process is hard and almost no dancer likes it, but it is a necessary evil of the art form. Day after day in class, year after year in auditions, you are constantly trying to prove yourself to someone else. To prove that you're focused, talented and want to reach your full potential. At a young age, dancers must learn how to deal with rejection and disappointment, jealousy and excitement. Now tell me which other art form will give you all that plus self confidence, determination, a solid work ethic and all the benefits of classical music?

This past December we held our 2nd annual Winter Audition Preparation Workshop with students from Ballet schools all over San Diego coming in to participate. The program features daily pilates, ballet technique (modern is added in years where students are auditioning for college programs) and pointe classes, with seminars on topics pertinent to the audition process, allowing dancers to feel confident and ready to put their best foot forward.  So far, our students and workshop participants are doing quite well. To date they've collectively received acceptances to summer programs with American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, The Gelsey Kirkland Academy, Joffrey Chicago and New York programs, The Harid Conservatory, Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, The Rock School, San Francisco Ballet School, School of American Ballet, Walnut Hill, Washington Ballet School and the letters are still coming in.

If you're still in the throws of the audition season, I encourage you to take a moment to pat yourselves on the back. Pre-Professional Ballet training is hard, going to auditions is hard and you are doing it, nonetheless!