New Jersey Ballet

[bailarina]

The njballet website has no information:

Anybody know anythign about the company- sixe, apprentice prgorams, repertoire, auditions?

[Mel Johnson]

Hi, Bailarina, and welcome to Ballet Talk! Your post strikes me as of someone who wants to find out company information for purposes of employment or study. If so, then you want Ballet Talk for Dancers, our sister message board, which can be found at:

http://balletalert.com/dancersforum/index.php?act=idx

You'll have to register there, too, and use the same username, please, just so we can keep people straight. This board is mostly for people who watch ballet, the other for people who dance, but there's plenty of crossover. Anyway, welcome!

[bailarina]

Thanks for the tip,

I did register on teh other board, however I had to use a different user name becuase mine was already taken.

I also looked, but there's no good board for a question like mine, about specific company info... Your career/college board seems filled with parents of mostly college dancers.

[Mel Johnson]

Well, the question can certainly be answered here as well as over there, as there are people who Know Things who post here, and not there and vice versa. We're happy to have you here.

[Alexandra]

I can't help, I'm a afraid, but some of our New Jerseyites will see the question tomorrow and be able to answer, I hope.

If all else fails, you could email the company with your questions.

Good luck!

[Dale]

Well, the website www.newjerseyballet.org does give you an idea how big the company is (it has a listing of dancers). But it doesn't give you a fact box, like you sometimes see in dance magazines. You might try calling them.

I've seen a few of NJB's performances, mostly at New Jersey Performing Arts Center, where they hold their big gala performance. They are professional in quality. Other than that, they perform a mix of Russian classics (they just did a well-received production of Esmeralda), new works and pas de deux programs around New Jersey. Not school performances as such, but some of the bigger theaters in New Jersey. I think they also provide the dancers for the New Jersey State Opera's productions.

Maybe the dancers' union has more information on pay scale and auditions. Another look at their website shows that there is a small junior company.

[Amy Reusch]

NJ Ballet has also performed Balanchine works in addition to the Russian classics and new works. There is a choreographer in residence. I think he's been in residence since the company's founding decades & decades ago. The company suffers and benefits from it's proximity to New York City.

[Dale]

Amy, I've seen them do Concerto Barocco, but I haven't seen them do a Balanchine work in a long time.

[Amy Reusch]

I saw them do Barocco and also the concert version of Who Cares, but it was maybe a decade ago. I haven't seen the company since then. I did however, study there in my teenage years in the '70s. The direction of the company has been in the same hands for a very long time. Joseph Carow left some time in the late 1980s, I believe, but Paul McRae who took his place had danced with the company for years before. I mention the Balanchine because perhaps regional companies that have performed Balanchine are different from regional companies that have never performed Balanchine. I think the budget, the size, and the quality of the company have varied over the years.