If you’d like to follow my career as a professional classical dancer, go over to my Instagram page here.  Read on to find out more about my life at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy …

Antwerp – Leipzig – London – Slovakia – Brussels – Dortmund – Prague – Ostrava – Ekaterinburg – Copenhagen – Dessau …..

Just a few of the places I’ve travelled to earlier this year in pursuit of a job with a classical ballet company.  From top left clockwise – Brussels Grand Place, the beautiful Blue Church in Bratislava, Copenhagen and Wenceslas Square in Prague.

The competition is steep with few contracts and many dancers looking for work; not just this year’s graduates but last year’s and the year before’s.  Plus there are those looking to move on from junior positions or into better companies or those in more favourable locations.

It’s a tough road for anyone to take but has to be done in order to understand your place in the market.  Of course, every company has their own criteria and type of dancer that they are looking for; someone that will fit with their aesthetic and standard.  That makes it hard to determine whether or not to invest the time and cost of travelling to their open audition.

I’ve danced in lots of theatres (Ekaterinburg, Ostrava, Copenhagen and Dortmund below from left to right):

And I’ve seen lots of this:

Of course, one of the hardest things is to deal with the rejection which is an inevitable part of being a dancer; there are more no-s that yes-s!  And with all that flying around across boundaries and time zones you are inevitably tired, trying to fit auditions in on top of regular training and performances in your final year!  Who decided to make it so hard, I ask myself as I landed, yet again, back in Moscow, in the middle of the night, knee deep in snow!

Anyway, Spring has sprung here in Moscow and the temperatures are soaring!  And I’m fortunate enough to have secured work prior to my exams which took the pressure off a little and I’m looking forwards to all that it brings 🙂

My tips:

• Prepare your audition material well – photos and a video link that will show you at your best in order to get you through the door;
• Do your research into the company to get an understanding of what they might be looking for;
• Turn up in time to warm up so that you are ready for class;
• Look professional and confident and show that you are willing to learn and love to dance;
• Try and take a lesson from each experience and build it onto how you prepare for the next audition;
• Work hard on your strengths and weaknesses in class in between!

If you’d like to see where my audition journey ended up, follow my life as a professional dancer on my Instagram page.