A Dancer’s Guide to Navigating Your First-Ever Intensive

Summer intensives offer endless opportunities—to fortify your training, to connect with teachers and other dancers, and to prepare for a professional career. But how do you know if you’re ready for your first intensive? And how can you prepare your mind and body for the physical rigor of dancing all day, every day, plus the challenges of living on your own? A successful first-ever summer program experience requires careful planning and thoughtful navigation.

Making the Right Choice

The first step is to determine the right moment to make the summer program leap. That will vary by student, so consult with a trusted teacher. Dawn Rappitt, the director of Elite Danceworx in Ontario, says it has a lot to do with your level of interest. “When dancers start asking questions about what’s next, I know it’s the right time to start guiding them towards that training,” she says.

With so many options available, it can be tough to figure out which summer intensive will best supplement or complement the training you’re getting at home. One way to start the process is to do some research—beyond social media. You’re looking to see if the values of the intensive align with yours, says Nina Flagg, a choreographer, performer, professor, and Black social-dance practitioner who teaches regularly for summer programs. Rather than allowing your perception of an intensive to be skewed by what you’ve heard from others, “do your own due diligence, because your experience is going to be different from anyone else’s,” she says.

For professional-minded dancers, Rappitt runs through a list of questions to guide their decisions, including: What are your career dreams? Which intensive faculties could help you turn that vision into a reality? Choosing programs that align with your career goals can affirm the path you’re taking and show you what choreographers and directors are looking for in a dancer.

Preparing to Take the Leap

The prospect of meeting new people, being in a new space, and learning new information can be overwhelming. But you can reduce some of that stress by reframing the experience. Think of it as an opportunity to introduce your best self. “You get to practice how you show up in the room,” Rappitt says. It’s also helpful to manage your expectations. “It’s not going to go perfectly,” Rappitt adds. “The goal is to discover key takeaways that you can put in your toolbox and bring back into your practice.”

To prepare the body, Kayla Mak—who was invited to join the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company after strengthening her professional connections at the ABT Collegiate Summer Intensive—recommends prioritizing rest before the program begins. “It’s good to give your body a break,” she says. A week or two of downtime can be a good reset; then, “a few weeks before a program starts, I’ll take a ballet class two to three times a week,” Mak says.

It’s also important to develop an understanding of your nutritional needs, Rappitt says, so that you’ll know how to fuel yourself through the long hours of training. If you’re not sure where to begin, ask a parent or guardian to help you make a list of foods and dishes that meet those needs.

If meals aren’t provided as part of your program, check online to see which grocery stores or restaurants are near the dance studio and dorms and plan some possible meals that include foods from your list, based on what will be available to you.

You’ll also want to develop a cleaning routine for your home bedroom so you already know how to keep up your personal space. Practice doing laundry and washing dishes a few weeks before the intensive begins, and if you’ll be bringing any important documents with you, such as health-care information or IDs, brainstorm a few safe places—under the bed or in a closet or drawer—to store them. To ease the anxiety of navigating an unfamiliar studio, contact intensive staff to get a map of the space, and plan out how you’ll get from class to class and back to your room.

Moving Through Potential Obstacles

It’s common for dancers to compare themselves to their peers, but it’s especially prevalent at summer intensives, where insecurities are amplified by so much unfamiliarity. “You’re just thrown into this new environment with all these different people who have different backgrounds, different strengths, so you can’t help but compare yourself,” Mak says. “But I think it’s important to acknowledge you’re with people who have different things to offer. You can take and give as much as you want. Just be open-minded.”

If you find yourself struggling, lean on your community—and not just your community of peers. In distressing situations, “align yourself with one of the instructors, teachers, or admins, someone who can be a guidepost throughout the experience,” Flagg says. “It’s about forging a relationship with someone who can guide and see and give some perspective.” Their outlook may help you look at an otherwise challenging situation differently and move forward.

Flagg also encourages dancers to move through the experience with an open heart. “You’re in close proximity with people you’ve never met before, and they’re going to be very different from you,” she says. “Having to share the space with them and work together—it’s a practice in empathy.”

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