Ballet Center of Houston offers a two week dance summer intensive program for our students Levels 4-8 here in Northwest Houston. When space is available, we also open this program up to outside students. Our program mimics programs that are held across the country providing intense training in ballet, pointe, partnering, and other dance styles such as modern dance, jazz, or contemporary. Guest teachers from around the country plus some of our permanent faculty offer a full day of high quality training.
It is important for a student’s training to learn how to focus for a full day and our dance summer intensive meets this need. Generally during summer intensive many other forms of dance are taught and pointe work is practiced daily. Variations (classical well known solos or corps pieces) are introduced to younger students and are a continued focus for older students. Learning these notable variations is an important aspect of a ballerina’s training and experience. We have pas de deux class available to our upper level plus we have been able to offer a men’s class.
Summer intensive programs can be very expensive as they involve not only the training cost but also travel, lodging, and dining fees. The BCH summer intensive is right here at our dancer’s home studio and priced so much lower than any other program available. We set our pricing low in the hopes that all of our students can afford this wonderful experience. Many summer intensive programs can have a cost in the thousands for a multi-week experience.
Houston Repertoire Ballet, our affiliated performance company, draws its membership from BCH. Dancers are invited during the summer to participate in the company for the following season. Our summer intensive is mandatory for dancers who wish to be considered for HRB membership. Guest teachers that the artistic director is interested in working with are brought in to work with the students. It is a time to push the dancer’s technique ahead quickly and also serves to prepare them for other intensive work during the summer.
Most of our more advanced students will participate in summer programs across the country so being prepared for that rigorous training is essential. It is always the first week in a summer program that the dancers are very sore because they are not accustomed to dancing all day. Our BCH summer intensive is held early in the summer to help these students adequately prepare for other programs alleviating soreness and possible injury.
Our BCH dance summer intensive program provides a wonderful bonding experience for our dancers and it can give other dancers in our area a chance to experience the benefits of training at our studio.
