New Bedford Youth Ballet
The New Bedford Youth Ballet is a company of intermediate and advanced dancers, ages 11 to 18 years, who are interested in developing their performance skills by participating in extracurricular dance programs. The youth ballet brings the beauty of live ballet to area hospitals, schools and nursing facilities; performs lecture/demonstrations in elementary schools throughout the region; and has performed with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra.
Each Fall open auditions for the Youth Ballet are held at New Bedford Ballet. The dancers selected for the company take ballet classes three to four times per week and often spend one or two days each week rehearsing.
The typical Youth Ballet yearly calendar is as follows:
October
- Open auditions for the Youth Ballet
- Casting for the Nutcracker (abbreviated version)
- Rehearsals for the Nutcracker begin
November
- Rehearsals for the Nutcracker
December
- Ten performances of the Nutcracker occur during two consecutive weekends.
- Nutcracker performances at St. Luke’s Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital
- PACE Headstart students and students from the Swartz Center come to New Bedford Ballet to see the Nutcracker
- Portions of the Nutcracker are performed as part of AHA (some years)
- Portions of the Nutcracker are performed with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra at the Zeiterion Theater (some years)
- Performances during Holiday Stroll at the Whaling Museum in downtown New Bedford
January
- First Night performances of the Nutcracker (some years)
- Casting for Spring School Performances
- Rehearsals for the Spring School Performance's begin
February
- Casting for the June, full length ballet performance. This ballet includes all students at New Bedford Ballet; members of the Youth Ballet frequently mentor younger students in this performance.
- Rehearsals for the Spring School Performances and full length ballet
March
- Performances for eight area schools; three or four performances per day over four days
- Performances for senior citizens; Council on Aging
- Two performances at the March fundraiser
- Performance at Children's Hospital Boston
April
- Rehearsals for full length ballet
May
- Rehearsals for full length ballet
June
- Full length ballet (includes all students from the school of the New Bedford Ballet)
July
- Summer ballet program for Youth Ballet: 3 to 5 hours of class per day, including a choreography workshop, instructed by James Brown, and a performance workshop.
- Some students attend summer dance programs in other cities and states.
August
- Summer performance which includes original pieces choreographed by students as part of the choreography workshop, variations from classical ballets, and other short ballets rehearsed during the summer program.
September
- New Bedford Ballet school year begins
