Auditions: Nutcracker
Sunday, September 11, the Asheville Ballet, North Carolina’s oldest non-profit ballet company, will hold Nutcracker Auditions at the studio at 4 Weaverville Hwy, Asheville, NC 28804. Audition schedule is outlined below:
1:00pm ages 4 – First Grade
1:15pm Second - Fourth Grade
1:30pm Fifth – Sixth Grade
2:00pm Everyone Seventh Grade – senior adult. Auditions will begin with a Ballet technique class (if you are a beginner, and unsure, email us to ask advice).
3:00pm-5:00pm Everyone Seventh Grade – senior adult will stay for auditions for various Modern, Contemporary, and Ballet roles and for adult roles. Auditions for Pointe roles will likely occur at the very end of the audition.
Please fill out the audition form in advance of the audition: https://forms.gle/gNExtuv61mXLjdGG9 (Even if you have to leave measurement info blank and send us a follow-up email once you know it, you should submit your audition form as early as you can, to facilitate the info going to every artistic team member in advance.)
Audition fee is $10, payable via cash or check to The Asheville Ballet.
For the health and safety of dancers and their families, everyone will wear masks while in the building for the auditions. Please note that the auditions will be filmed so that material may be reviewed by the artistic team.
Parts are available for all dancers from all regional studios for ages 4 to senior adults. Casting will be announced the week of September 21st.
All performers must be taking at least two technique classes per week, at least one of which should be Ballet, at any studio (dancers ages 4-9 may take only one class per week; for dancers age 7-9, it should be Ballet). If you’d like to enroll for classes at Asheville Academy of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, visit our Training page.
Please plan to arrive a bit early to find parking. Wear your mask the entire time you are inside. Please arrive in your dance clothes, wash your hands, remove your street shoes, and take your belongings with you into the studio, where you’ll place them by the back door. When your audition is finished, please leave out the back door (parents, please pick up your children at the back door nearest the creek). Parents of 4 to 8-year-olds may wait in the lobby if your child would feel more comfortable that way, and parents of 4 to 6-year-olds may come into the studio IF your little one looks like they need you (masked, please). The audition is closed to any other observers, but family members may come inside to use the restrooms.
Remember, fill out your audition form in advance of the audition date: https://forms.gle/gNExtuv61mXLjdGG9
For more information contact us. The Nutcracker will be held at Diana Wortham Theatre December 8th - 11th (Thursday 9:00 and 11:30am school shows, Friday and Saturday evening shows, Saturday and Sunday matinees).
Rehearsals will be held, depending on roles, on Friday afternoons and evenings (between 4 and 9:00pm) and/or Saturday afternoons (between 1:00 and 8:30pm), with special parts sometimes scheduled on Sunday afternoons (and three Sunday full group rehearsals before the show; 11/20, 11/27, and 12/4). Additional tech week rehearsals will be held Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons at 4:00 pm at the Diana Wortham Theatre, December 5th-7th. Group rehearsals will begin as early as September 23. The Nutcracker contract is available here for your reference (it contains rehearsal dates with which to mark your calendars, as well as health and safety guidelines). Occasional rehearsals may be held via Zoom.
Please note the following COVID-related protocols, and carefully consider your wish to participate within this framework. Please be aware that our protocols may need to evolve, and that updates will be made as needed. Full guidelines are available here.
MASKS:
Masks are optional in many Nutcracker rehearsals at this time, but please be aware that masks could be required at any point during the rehearsal process, for specific choreographers, or in light of any specific instances of exposure.
Dancers in Nutcracker rehearsals with 8 or more individuals present will be asked to wear masks. (Eight or more persons gathered in the lobby will also be asked to wear masks.)
After November 24th (Thanksgiving), all dancers will be masked at all times while in rehearsal, on site at our studio, as well as at all times while not actively performing on stage at Diana Wortham.
TESTING REQUIREMENTS:
All Nutcracker dancers, regardless of vaccination status, will need to submit negative tests (at-home or lab-conducted, whatever is easiest and least costly for you) on the following dates:
Saturday, November 26
Thursday, December 1
Monday, December 5
Friday, December 9
CASTING:
Artistic Team members will meet to discuss casting one week after the audition date, dancers will begin receiving emails around 9/21 or 9/22, and our first rehearsals (for some roles) will be the weekend of 9/23.
Please be aware, there may be situations in which we have to remove whole groups of dancers due to COVID exposures, so please go into this production with the awareness that there could be factors outside your or our control that prevent you from performing on a given date. If you are sick with any possible COVID symptoms (or if anyone in your household is positive for COVID), you will be asked to stay home. There may be Zoom rehearsals happening on occasion.
General audition info
The Asheville Ballet auditions dancers on a show-to-show basis and often invites selected performers to continue performing in future productions throughout the year. We offer a number of paid adult professional dancing positions as well as college apprenticeships.
Please email us with any questions. We also accept emailed video/headshot/dance shot/resume submissions to dance@ashevilleballet.com. We will review your material and contact you promptly!
In addition, students from both the Academy of Ballet and Contemporary Dance as well as other studios in the Western North Carolina region are cast both in ensemble and soloists roles in our productions. In other words, you do not have to be a student attending classes with the Academy of Ballet and Contemporary Dance to perform with us. We are delighted to include the entire community in their passion to perform, both professional and student alike. All that we ask is that students are taking at least two dance technique classes per week, somewhere, in order to maintain the high-caliber of artistry for which we have become known.