JULY 15 – AUG 2: Junior Division – 3 Weeks (AGES 10-13)

We are currently accepting video auditions only.

SacBallet’s Summer Intensive is an immersive program created to enhance and further a dancer’s training. Meet other artists with the same passion and have fun in a nurturing environment. Our daily schedule includes ballet technique, pointe, variations, partnering, modern, contemporary, body conditioning, choreography, hip-hop, pilates, yoga, performance — and workshops for jumps & turns, body positivity and creating your resume/CV.

School of SacBallet Summer Intensives are held in the capital of sunny California led by School Director, Jorge Laico, SacBallet’s Artistic Director Anthony Krutzkamp, Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer James Kirby Rodgers, Joffrey Ballet principal dancer Victoria Jaiani, Cincinnati Ballet principal dancer Melissa Gelfin, former Boston Ballet principal dancer, John Lam, and Sacramento Ballet staff and faculty. Aspiring Second Company pre-professional dancers are encouraged to audition. 

Contact us with any questions by clicking below.  Please be sure to check out all of the information on this page and especially the FAQs sections before submitting your questions.

Submit your question

Our mission at the Summer Intensive ballet program is to nurture and develop aspiring dancers with a passion for ballet. Through a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum, we provide an immersive and transformative experience that equips dancers with the technical skills and resilience necessary to thrive in the demanding world of ballet.

We engage world-class faculty, offer diverse repertoire and embrace innovation to cultivate well-rounded dancers who embody artistry, strength, and versatility. Using a holistic approach, we provide workshops for body positivity, injury prevention, and resume writing to help dancers achieve their goals and develop confidence and security in their abilities.

We offer full scholarships to male students, recognizing and addressing the historical barriers and discrimination faced by male dancers. Additional support and mentorships are provided to foster their success. We welcome and encourage women to apply for scholarship support.

Our commitment is to empower each dancer to reach their full potential and support their preparation for a successful future in professional ballet 

Video Auditions: Last Day of Submission Saturday, March 30, 2024.

We highly recommend that you audition in person, but if it is not possible, we are accepting video auditions until March 30, 2024.

Submit a Video Audition

Frequently Asked Questions

Sacramento Ballet’s auditions are structured similarly to a ballet technique class. Dancers will complete barre and center combinations, including pointe work if applicable. Audition results for live auditions are emailed within two weeks of the audition. Audition results for video auditions are emailed within four weeks of the submission.

Please find the audition you are interested in attending in the Audition Tour tab above and click on the appropriate link.

If you register online, bring a copy of your audition registration confirmation and payment notification as proof of registration. If you uploaded an incorrect photo or document, you may bring the correct items with you to the audition.

If you register in person, you should bring a headshot. Payments must be made through the registration site. Credit cards and cash are not accepted in person.

Please audition for the age group that matches your age when the Summer Intensive starts.

Dancers may audition for the Junior Division at 9 years old, and for the Senior Division at 13 years old as long as they are the correct age at the time of the Intensive

An in-person audition is always preferred over a video audition. However, dancers not able to attend a scheduled live audition are allowed to submit a video audition through our online portal for $40.

Submit a Video Audition

Audition results for video auditions are conveyed within four to six weeks of the submission.

VIDEO REQUIREMENTS (10 Minute Limit)

BARRE WORK (ONE SIDE ONLY)

  • Pliés
  • Tendus
  • Rond de jambe
  • Adagio

For beginner pointe students, please complete center work on flat. Kindly add a combination en pointe at barre with sous sus and échappé.

 

CENTER WORK (DANCERS ON POINTE)

  • Adagio 
  • Pirouette combination
  • Petit allegro
  • Grand allegro

GENTLEMEN, PLEASE ADD:

  • Tour en l’air
  • Entrechat
  • Big jumps

Female students should wear a solid color leotard, skin-tone or pink tights, skin-tone or pink ballet shoes, and have pointe shoes ready.

Male students should wear a solid color leotard or t-shirt, black or gray tights, and black or white ballet slippers.

Program registration is first-come, first-served and will close when classes reach capacity. Students who are accepted for SacBallet Summer Intensive programs must register by the deadline on their acceptance notifications. 

If accepted students miss their registration deadline, they must contact us to request to be placed on the waiting list. 

Registration deposits are nonrefundable

If you have not been able to find the answer to your question, please click the button below to submit your question. We will reply to you and post additional FAQs as we soon as we can.  Please note: during Nutcracker season and holidays, we may be delayed.

Submit your question

Junior Tuition                    $1,595

A non-refundable $500 deposit is required to reserve a place in the program when you accept your offer.

The balance of the tuition is due by April 15, 2024.

This deposit is applied toward the total tuition.

Frequently Asked Questions

Every day starts with classes with certified instructors in either stretching, conditioning, yoga, or pilates, leading into ballet technique class and followed by variations class. Our class schedule changes daily to accommodate a variety of classes and rehearsals. Lunch and snacks must be brought by the dancers. Students dance full days Monday through Friday (9:30 am – 3:30 pm).

The class schedule changes daily but students may take classes in the following:

Ballet

Pointe

Jumps & Turns

Variations & Repertoire

Contemporary

Modern

Hip-Hop

Stretch, Conditioning & Pilates

Yoga

Seminars & Workshop in Body Positivity, Injury Prevention, and Resume/CV Creation!

Students must bring snacks, lunch and water every day. Reusable water bottles are recommended as we have a water fountain for refilling water bottles.

Please do not bring any food item with peanuts in it.

Summer Intensive is by audition only. Students are assessed based on their technique, overall ability, physical attributes, strength, focus, attitude, and previous classical ballet training, as well as the ability to receive and apply corrections.

For in-person auditions, we will contact everyone by email within two weeks. 

For video auditions, we will contact everyone by email within four to six weeks. 

We are as excited as you are for the program! We kindly request you do not make follow-up calls to Sacramento Ballet as our small but mighty staff will be working on sending the results by email.

Accepted students must respond by the deadline in the acceptance letter. Registration fee, tuition, and housing deposits and their due dates will be listed in your offer letter/email.

All Summer Intensive participants take a placement class on the first day of their session and receive their level placement prior to their second day of classes. Level placement is subject to change throughout the course of Summer Intensive.

All Financial Aid and Merit Scholarships have been awarded.  If you submitted your materials and did not hear from us, please contact us on intensives@sacballet.org

Thank you!

Yes! Our resident faculty evaluate and recruit students who are interested in joining our year-round training programs. Summer Intensives serve as a vital entry point to School of Sacramento Ballet’s classes and training including Trainee Project, Second Company and opportunities to dance with Sacramento Ballet.

Parents are not allowed to observe classes. 

We hold end of session performances. Students are encouraged to invite their families and friends to attend at the end of the session.

Yes! Students participate in a culminating performance on the last day of intensives. Friends and family are invited to attend.

If you have not been able to find the answer to your question, please click the button below to submit your question. We will reply to you and post additional FAQs as we soon as we can.  Please note: during Nutcracker season and holidays, we may be delayed.

Submit your question

Saturday, March 30, 2024           Video Auditions Due

Tuesday, April 30, 2024              Registration Forms Due

Friday, May 10 2024                  Balance of Fees Due

Monday, July 15, 2024                First Day of Junior Division Classes

Friday, August 2, 2024                Final Day of Junior Division Classes

Friday, August 2, 2024                End of Junior SI Performance – Time TBD

 

  • Face masks are optional for all students
  • In class: only small stud earrings are permitted – no other jewelry
  • Hair must be neat and secured away from the face
  • When dancers arrive and leave the building they must wear street clothing over their dancewear
  • Warm-up booties may only be worn in the studios – not outside, not on the bus, not in the Dining Hall
  • It’s Summer Break! Be your creative self and have fun!

Vaccinations are not required. Masks are optional at the moment but can be required if Sacramento County goes to a red level. There is not an on-site medical nurse. Sutter Medical Hospital is 4 blocks away. We have an Osteopathic Physical Therapist who is ready to provide referrals and will also be conducting a lecture and Q&A session on injury prevention.

Originally from San Francisco, California, he trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he was a YAGP finalist in 2014. He attended summer courses at San Francisco Ballet and Houston Ballet. Mr. Rogers joined Houston Ballet II in 2015 and Kansas City Ballet in 2016. He joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a soloist in 2021.

While at Houston Ballet II, Mr. Rogers performed leading and featured roles in John Neumeier’s Yondering, Ben Stevenson’s The Sleeping Beauty, and Stanton Welch’s The Long and Winding Road. At Kansas City Ballet, Mr. Rogers danced leading roles in Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias; Devon Carney’s Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and The Sleeping Beauty; William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated; Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort,and Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room. Mr. Rogers is the co-founder of Creative Intersections, a Kansas City-based dance festival.

Born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, Victoria Jaiani began her training at the age of ten at V. Chabukiani Ballet School. She continued her studies in New York and in June 2003 was awarded a Bronze Medal at the New York International Ballet Competition.

Since joining the Joffrey, she has danced leading roles in many ballets, including Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake (Odette-Odile), Stanton Welch’s La Bayadère (Nikia, Gamzati), Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella (Cinderella), Giselle (Giselle), John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote (Kitri), Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow (Henna Glawari), Lar Lubovitch’s Othello (Desdemona), and the Sugar Plum Fairy in Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker.

Jaiani originated the lead pas de deux in Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence and Woven Dreams; Possokhov’s Bells; Welch’s Son of Chamber Symphony; and James Kudelka’s Pretty BALLET. Other significant performances include George Balanchine’s Apollo (Terpsichore), Stravinsky Violin Concerto Aria II; Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain, Carousel (A Dance) (Julie); Wayne McGregor’s INFRA; Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land (Black pas) and Return to a Strange Land;  William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated; Possokhov’s RAkU; Jerome Robbins’s In the Night (3rd pas) and Ballerina in The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody); Justin Peck’s In Creases; Welch’s Maninyas; Antony Tudor’s Lilac Garden, Dark Elegies, and Operetta Star in Offenbach in the Underworld; Lar Lubovitch’s …smile with my heart; Frederick Ashton’s Monotones II; Gerald Arpino’s Sea Shadow, Round of Angels, Reflections, Kettentanz, Birthday Variations, and Viva Vivaldi; Nicolas Blanc’s Evenfall; and Alexander Ekman’s Tulle.

In 2010, Jaiani was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine and was named “Chicagoan of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune Arts Critic. In 2012, Today’s Chicago Woman named her one of Chicago’s top women in the arts. In 2013, Chicago Magazine named her “best dancer.” Jaiani is married to Joffrey dancer Temur Suluashvili.

 

Melissa Gelfin De-Poli began her ballet training with Lisa Collins Vidnovic at Metropolitan Ballet Academy and continued with Barbara Sandonato and Andrea Long-Naidu at Barbara Sandonato School of Ballet. She joined the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in 2009, under the direction of Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens, and was awarded a National Training Scholarship with ABT. 

Prior to dancing with Cincinnati Ballet, Gelfin De-Poli danced for Orlando Ballet II and Orlando Ballet Company from 2011-2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Jackson International Ballet Competition. She joined Cincinnati Ballet for the 2014-2015 season and was promoted to corps de ballet in February 2015, later promoted to Senior Soloist in 2017 and Principal Dancer in 2018. As a dancer with Cincinnati Ballet, Gelfin De-Poli’s repertoire includes classical and contemporary works by Septime Webre, Yuri Possikov, Victoria Morgan, Val Caniparoli, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Nicolo Fonte, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Adam Hougland, and Ma Cong. 

She has danced Principal roles in Septime Webre’s ALICE (in Wonderland) and The Wizard of Oz, Victoria Morgan’s The Nutcracker, King Arthur’s Camelot and Romeo and Juliet, Kirk Peterson’s Coppélia and Swan Lake, George Balanchine’s Rubies and Serenade, Devon Carney’s The Sleeping Beauty and originated roles in Penny Saunders Nannerl, Myles Thatcher’s Anamoly, Andrea Schermoly’s Swivet and several works by Jennifer Archibald. 

Most recently debuted her world premiere Clockwise in Cincinnati Ballet’s 2019 The Kaplan New Works Series and choreographed and performed a solo work in the inaugural 2018 Female Choreographic Initiative Festival hosted by Houston Ballet. During the summer months, Gelfin De-Poli performs and tours with Moving Arts Company.

Anthony Krutzkamp – Artistic/Executive Director Sacramento Ballet

Jorge Laico – School Director

Jill Marlow Krutzkamp – Second Company Director

Rhodes Elliott – Assistant Trainee Program Director

Stefan Calka – Sacramento Ballet Rehearsal Director

Elise Elliott – Sacramento Ballet Rehearsal Director

Colby Damon, Faculty & Choreographer

Michelle Katcher – Company Member

Ava Chatterson – Company Member

Wyatt McConville-McCoy, Company Member

Julia Payne, Company Member

Genevieve Szaly, School Faculty

Alexa Herman, School Faculty

Katie Kilbourn, Modern

Agata Gzelak, Modern

Joseph Dang, 2nd Company (Hip-hop)

Leah Bueno, Injury Prevention

Greta Karagianes, Pilates