Genevieve Menard was one of more than 200 dance students to come to the New York audition this year for The Juilliard School's Summer Dance Intensive. Like the other applicants, she was feeling anxious and excited. But, unlike most of the other young dancers, she had traveled from a little town outside Montreal, where French is her first language.

Summer Dance Intensive students rehearsing Stephen Pier’s work One/Another for the end-of-session performance. Photo by Emily Walsh

"I can't understand how I got here. This was the first big audition in my life. I came in the big studio, and there were so many people. But luckily, it was a good day, and I was comfortable and I felt like I was really dancing," said Menard, who started dancing only three years ago. "I danced a bit before that, but it only for fun; it wasn't a good school."

The program has been receiving an overwhelming number of applicants; this year, the students were divided into two audition classes, and teachers had to pass back and forth between the two to evaluate everyone. (The New York audition has been an option for two years now; in years past, all applicants had applied by video.) "What's happened is that people have gone home and talked about the program with their friends and their teachers. Word gets out about us," says Stephen Pier, who teaches ballet and partnering.

Also increasing is the international interest. This year, the program was host to Canadian, Israeli, and Dutch students. Two of these students were returning from last year—including Moran Cardon, from Israel, who found last summer "scary."

"First of all," she said, "it's a big city. There are so many buildings. I was a bit nervous all of the time, like I had to prove myself." This year, both she and her parents were less nervous: "They told me it will be okay; you did it already."

Created in 1997 by the late Dance Division director, Benjamin Harkarvy and late faculty member Maria Grandy, the Juilliard Summer Dance Intensive was designed to provide an introduction to contemporary dance training to students whose experience was mostly in classical dance. The courses offered have not changed a great deal in the seven years that it has been in existence. Students take classes in ballet, pointe, Taylor-based modern dance, classical and contemporary partnering, ballroom dance, and music—in addition to rehearsing with choreographers in the evenings. This schedule is fairly reminiscent of that of the college-level dance students.

"We receive letters every year from the kids, saying things like 'Now that I am back at home, I really realize how much I have learned,'" says summer school director, Andra Corvino. "A lot of the students go elsewhere for the summer as well, and they are pretty savvy about summer schools. Our curriculum is unique; not a lot of places offer things like ballroom or music classes."

Juilliard's summer dance program is also unusual in its small size: With approximately 50 students divided between the two levels offered, young dancers get more personal attention. This means progressing at a faster rate, and being able to ask more questions. "We can offer more corrections and pay attention to every student," notes Pier. "Some people come back the following year, and will have kept hold of information that they have learned… which is especially hard to do once you get back to your home environment."

"We receive letters from kids, saying things like 'Now that I am back at home, I realize how much I have learned.'"

The summer students also get to interact with students from Juilliard's College Division, some of whom take morning classes, supervise outings, serve as rehearsal assistants for the choreographers, and run the performance at the end of the program. Robert Robinson, a college-level student on staff for the Intensive this year, was originally a summer student himself. In many ways, he notes, it was a good intermediate step and provided some preparation for Juilliard, "though the school year is more intense than the summer session and there was still a large amount of adjustment I needed to make this year."

With an ever increasing number of College Division applicants coming from the summer program, the Intensive serves as an opportunity for faculty members to begin evaluating possible candidates for the school year, while students get a taste of what Juilliard is like.

"We get to see the dancer over a longer period of time, and they get to 'audition' us at the same time," explains Corvino—who adds that, although summer students know the school and some of its faculty better than other applicants for the College Division, it does not necessarily mean that they are more advantaged. The summer school faculty is, after all, only a small portion of the year-round faculty, and the entire staff evaluates possible candidates. "I can't deny that it helps if we've met and worked with you already," she says. "But we try not to show favoritism. While the faculty is concerned with who is right for Juilliard, the dancers know what they're looking for, as well. We try to counsel kids who want to keep dancing as to the best places to go. We are not the only school in the world."

Since the majority of the international students apply by videotape, their English skills must be judged on the basis of their written applications, as well as the occasional phone call. So far no problems have occurred with communication. All of the international students this year say that many of their dance classes at home were taught in English, and that they were more concerned about their dancing than their language skills.

Going abroad for the summer helped many of the dancers work on an aspect of their art they don't always get to focus on: artistry. "At a lot of schools, they really stress technique. Here, that's not the only important point," said Dutch student Feline Van Dijken. "We come from a very strict school," she noted. "Here, I felt it was more like 'just try'—and they wouldn't get angry with you if you couldn't do something. So I felt free. There was no fear or pressure."

Cardon and Menard are two of the students planning on auditioning for the College Division next year. The young dancers agree that the balance between modern and classical training—which applies to both the summer and year-round program at Juilliard—makes the curriculum interesting and seems to be what keeps students coming back. "It's really different here; that's why I was really lost the first week," admits Menard. "I thought 'Oh my gosh! It's too much.'" But the session progressed and she found her footing. "Everyone in the world knows Juilliard—after the movies, even people not in the dance world know about it. But now I realize, it's not just a school. Everybody is different. The way you are moving, it is amazing. They see the person, not just technique."