YoungArts isn’t only a prestigious stage for the subsequent technology’s most gifted younger artists. The group additionally offers awardees, ages 15 to 18, per week of grasp courses, mentoring, and neighborhood constructing to help their budding careers. And in response to previous winners with distinction, these 5 days in Miami, the place performing, visible, and literary artists from throughout the nation convene for Nationwide YoungArts Week, can significantly reaffirm their sense of artistry. “That was the primary time that I’ve been validated and known as an artist,” says Asmund Erickson, who’s a 2024 winner in faucet dance. “I felt like, ‘Yeah, I am an artist.’ ”
The positives and perks don’t finish there. Winners obtain a medallion, help all through their careers, and unique entry to YoungArts Publish, what you would possibly name a social platform for YoungArts winners. And as a Winner with Distinction, a particular designation that makes you eligible for as much as $10,000 in awards, it’s also possible to doubtlessly be named a U.S. Presidential Scholar within the Arts, which is likely one of the highest honors for highschool college students. All of it sounds fairly dreamy, proper?
However with so many candidates vying for therefore few spots within the competitors, how do you differentiate your self within the software course of, particularly within the dance class—and what must you do to get essentially the most out of YoungArts Week?
Dance Spirit spoke with Erickson and different previous winners to spherical up some suggestions and methods for locating success within the competitors.
Signal Up for an Data Session
When Erickson was within the strategy of making use of, he made positive to attend an internet data session—and, he says, it proved useful. The session provides you a chance to talk with former winners about their experiences and ask them questions. However the important thing right here is to enroll in a session that features a member of the judging panel.
“For my software yr—they usually might change this for the approaching years—there’s a panel of some individuals who watch the finalist movies and select who stands out to them,” Erickson says. “And people are the candidates who get to return to YoungArts Week.” In accordance with Erickson, that single panel evaluations finalist purposes throughout all disciplines of dance, so understanding what a panelist is on the lookout for, which could not be particular to 1 dance type, might be priceless.
Be Your Genuine Self in Your Audition Video
For the YoungArts audition course of, you might be adjudicated virtually fully in your audition video, Erickson says. The necessities might differ barely primarily based on the self-discipline, however, usually, you might be requested to submit a solo demonstrating your method and a second solo displaying your artistry. With that form of strain on a single part of your software, it may be tempting to foreground your most spectacular methods or to reflect traits on social media or at dance competitions that garner reward. However Vyoma Bhanap, a kathak dancer, encourages candidates to current themselves within the audition video as genuinely as doable—each as artists and as folks. Earlier than filming her audition video, Bhanap remembers considering, “I might moderately apply as who I really feel I’m as an artist and a dancer as a substitute of what I feel YoungArts desires from me.” That perspective translated, and, in 2023, Bhanap was chosen as a winner in classical Indian dance. “It’s a credit score to the YoungArts Basis,” she says. “They don’t need one thing that doesn’t signify who they really try to uplift.”
It is best to carry that sense of authenticity to what you put on in your audition video, too. Sam High quality, a 2023 winner in modern dance, initially sported a black T-shirt and black tights in his video. “I spotted that was not super-flattering to my traces as a result of my legs are already very lengthy, and it simply made me appear to be I wasn’t utterly in my physique,” High quality says. When he refilmed, he wore what he felt snug in: a blue unitard. He additionally added blue backlighting to enhance the tone of his solo. And it labored. “The primary evening once I received to YoungArts Week, [the faculty and staff] had been like, ‘Oh, my gosh, the blue unitard!’ So, that undoubtedly helped me stand out.”
Carry a Congenial Angle to Miami
For many who make it to YoungArts Week, bear in mind that you will meet some very gifted peer artists. This will typically dredge up emotions of insecurity, particularly since you are being evaluated all through the week for award cash and, probably, a Presidential Scholar nod.
However being aggressive just isn’t what YoungArts Week is about, High quality says: “When you make it to YoungArts Week, the competitors is over.” As an alternative, lean into the chance to develop your artwork neighborhood. Erickson notes his fondest reminiscences of the week concerned growing friendships with different winners—some dancers, others not. Since then, “I’ve been assembly up with mates from YoungArts after they come to my hometown and once I’m touring,” he says. “It’s actually cool to have fashioned these lifelong connections.”