Regional High School Dance Festival:

Audition Guidelines & Information

Audition Registration Form Due  February 9, 2024

Please review all pertinent information and forms before submitting your form. No on-site registrations.

Students must have pre-registered to be admitted to the scholarship auditions classes.  

List of 2024 Scholarships

Eligibility

• College scholarships are only open to students in grade 12.
• All other scholarships are open to students in grades 10-12.
• A maximum of 10 students per school may audition.
• Students in grade 12 auditioning for scholarships must have already applied to the colleges that are offering scholarships prior to the festival audition.
  • Students must contact the dance divisions of those institutions and notify them of their participation in the Regional High School Dance Festival auditions prior to the festival.
  • Students should call the institution directly for any additional information.
• Students may only audition for those scholarships they can accept based on dates, travel, and financial obligations.

Components of the audition

Mandatory Warm-Up Class – During the mandatory warm-up class, students will be given warm-up exercises including a dynamic warm-up and ballet barre.​ 

​Ballet Components and Criteria: Please wear POINTE Shoes if you dance en pointe.  (There will be NO BARRE component to the auditions) The combinations will include the following and will be the same for all auditioning:

• Adagio – includes extensions moving in and through body positions, port de bras, and épaulement.
• Multiple tours and balances on relevé.
• Petite Allegro including batterie
• Grand Allegro

​Modern Components and Criteria: The combination will include the following and will be the same for all auditioning:

• Spine work: Contractions, spinal succession, tilts.
• Floor work- rolling to, from, and on the floor.
• Tilts, spirals, recovery, fall, and rebound.
• Combination with big directional changes, turns, jumps, and floor work.
• Structured improvisation exercise.

Audition Attire:  Students should be dressed in appropriate audition attire. Ballet shoes or socks are required for the ballet component. If you have had pointe at an advanced level and feel comfortable wearing pointe shoes for the entire ballet portion of the audition, you are encouraged to do so. Students must remove shoes for the modern component. No warm-ups or sweats are permitted. It is suggested students wear convertible tights.

Audition Classes

• Festival scholarship auditions will take place on Saturday, March 9, 2024, with the first group beginning at 8 am with a mandatory warm-up class.
• Students will be placed in audition classes. Classes will run between 8 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
  • The supervising teacher will be informed of audition times and audition numbers of each student prior to the festival.
  • If you are planning to send students to these auditions, please make appropriate travel plans to ensure arrival in time for your scheduled audition time.
  • Please do not request specific audition times.
  • If any student has not been contacted regarding your audition time by February 15, 2024, lead teacher please contact Carisa Armstrong: carisa-armstrong@tamu.edu 
• Students will participate in classes consisting of ballet and modern techniques, and there may be a brief improvisational element at the end of the modern segment.
• A mandatory 45-minute warm-up class will begin an hour prior to each audition class.
• Each audition class is 90 minutes in length.

IMPORTANT:  Students will report to (TBD) for audition check-in and warm-up.  A teacher must accompany students to pick up their audition numbers.  Then students will move to the warm-up area.

Selection and Notification

• Some students will receive acceptance into a program that may or may not be accompanied by a scholarship.
• Recruiters will either contact auditioning students via the audition call board (notice board) or notify the head teacher if a recruitment conference is necessary.
• All conferences should be completed by 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, 2024.
• Scholarships will be awarded based on the stated criteria from each institution.
• Recipients will be selected either by a representative from the institution awarding the scholarship or by their designee.

Scholarship Auditions Schedule (subject to change) We apologize for the necessity to start so early in the morning.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

7:30 am – open for audition check-in

8:00 am – 8:45 am Mandatory Warm-ups A and B 

9:00 am – 10:30 am- Audition 1

9:15 am – 10:45 am Mandatory Warm-ups C and D

11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Audition 2

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm – Lunch

12:15 pm – 1:00 pm – Mandatory Warm-ups E and F

1:15 pm – 2:45 pm- Audition 3

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm Mandatory Warm-ups G and H

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm -Audition 4