SAB’s Summer 2021 Auditions: An Inside Look

Each year, SAB’s National Audition Tour gives dancers the opportunity to audition in nineteen cities across the country for the School’s summer programs. This winter, in the interest of health and safety amid the ongoing pandemic, the School made the decision to conduct the first-ever Virtual Audition Tour, beginning December 10 and running through January 31. Dancers from around the globe submitted audition videos, and SAB ultimately received over 1,6oo applications.

The admissions process was especially selective this year due to the classroom occupancy limits and distancing protocols that will still be necessary this summer as a result of the pandemic. These constraints required the faculty to be meticulous with admission decisions, meaning an applicant would often pass through several rounds of faculty evaluation before reaching a final decision. A dedicated group of seven faculty members, led by Chairman of Faculty Kay Mazzo, carefully watched each video submission.

This was no small feat. Ellen Duddy, SAB’s Manager of Auditions and Outreach, explained that the team of faculty members would email her “at all hours” with notes on each video submission, as they were working mornings, nights, and weekends to ensure every applicant received the same attention as if they were auditioning in-person.

Planning for the 2021 Virtual Audition Tour began last fall, where the faculty faced two options: holding online Zoom audition classes for over 20 dancers at a time, or accepting hundreds of applicant video submissions.

The team knew that watching such a significant number of videos would be a massive undertaking in the winter months, but they felt it was worth it so as not to miss a promising young dancer in a crowded online audition class. They also noted that in live Zoom classes, the audio can often lag and make it difficult to determine a dancers’ musicality.

Of course, the decision to move forward with home-video submissions came with many challenges for dancers, as well as expectation adjustments for the faculty. While pirouettes and sautés were still requested, some typical audition steps like grand allegro had to be made optional for safety purposes, in consideration of the fact that many applicants would be filming their auditions at home.

The chosen dancers have now received their acceptances into our 2021 NYC Summer Course, New York Junior Session, and the Young Dancer Virtual Workshop. In a year unlike any other, SAB’s commitment to recruiting talented dancers around the world has been undeterred, and we look forward with great anticipation to watching this new group of students develop their technique and grow as young artists this summer at SAB.