Initially, students engage
in studio workshops, where they may dance excerpts from repertory or their
own choreographic etudes created in or outside their composition classes
as independent projects.
Staged workshops, open to a larger public, are presented with minimum
costuming and lights. Throughout the year, many students work on independent
projects that, if approved by the faculty, are presented along with
new or old works by student and faculty choreographers and others. With
live music provided by the Juilliard Orchestra, a series of public dance
concerts is given in the spring, featuring works of well-known choreographers.
Each spring, a "Composers and Choreographers" concert presents
the results of collaboration of six Juilliard student choreographers
with six Juilliard student composers. A high point of the year is senior
production week, held in late April. Eight selected senior choreographers
create new ballets for six performances that are danced by the entire
student body, with all the technical work and other behind-the-scenes
matters in the hands of the third-year stagecraft class and the fourth-year
production class. These are fully designed works, exhibiting the full
creative challenges these young artists have received and dealt with
as they are about to embark on their careers.
In the late spring, a final series of concerts is held in the Juilliard
Theater. These repeat the most successful works of the past year and,
once again, generally find most of the division dancing. The final graduation
performance is composed of solos, duets, and group works designed to
show off the particular skills of the seniors before an audience filled
with large numbers of professional choreographers, artistic directors,
and other dancers.
