@Maureena, you have a valid point, there are fewer black girls in many top ballet schools, as well as in professional companies. As a ballet mistress, my professional perspective is this: you can't accept dancers that don't audition. I'm happy to say that many companies are taking initiative and creating opportunities for greater diversity in ballet, providing opportunities at the early stages of their training. At Saint Louis Ballet, we call the program "Pointe to Succeed", but many companies around the country are building programs with similar goals. Along with providing opportunities for training, it's also about changing a cultural misconception about ballet, whether or not it's "cool" for them to pursue it. It was great fun watching the children's faces as they met professional dancers, took backstage tours at the theater, and tried their first ballet class. I hope we can create a long-term impact.
We have watched these so many times ober the years! It is very inspirational, and now my daughter would love to attend. We would love to see some new ones. It makes all the girls wish to attend PNB summer. Hope to see some from this summer.
Is there an upper age limit to each level? I really want to audition next year but i think I would be around level VI or VII and not VIII and i will be 18 at that time...
@loulie1997 Maybe you could find a better ballet school? When I was younger we had to drive over an hour to get to ballet because that was the closest pre-professional ballet school. So yeah, my mom drove about 2.5 hours most days XD
Only 12% of the total population in the US is African American. Somehwere between 2-5% of the total population has talent for ballet. I think it is a numbers game and not necessarily based on discrimination although it has of course been in the past. I think the ballet world is leading with its enormous change towards diversity. My own home country's national ballet has now 27 nationalities in its National ballet from all different racial backgrounds.
