![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251108-CNBS-Audition-AT-0066-copy.jpg\")
Dancers audition for Canada\u2019s National Ballet School at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary on Saturday, November 8, 2025. ARYN TOOMBS \/ FOR LIVEWIRE CALGARY<\/p>\nNovember is the time of year when Canada\u2019s National Ballet School goes coast to coast to find the top ballet dancers in the nation, to recruit them into their comprehensive training program.<\/p>\n
Graduates from the school have gone on to prestigious international careers, including that of Siphe November who is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, Emma Hawes who is the lead principal dancer of the English National Ballet, and Neve Campbell of television and screen fame.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 8, the school auditioned 30 promising young dancers at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks as part of their national recruitment tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaunching here in Calgary, we\u2019ll travel to 11 cities to find just those young people who have a spark and a passion for movement and really want to use ballet as their primary way of telling their stories,\u201d said Ashley Powell, director of teacher training and community programs at Canada\u2019s National Ballet School.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really love to meet all of our students and auditioners as individuals, get to know a little bit about them, and then they\u2019ll do what they love to do best, which is move and jump and communicate through dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that the school will evaluate the skill levels of the dancers depending on their age level, as the school was auditioning students anywhere from Grade 6 through to post-secondary, before inviting the best of those auditioners to a second audition in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cBallet is about communication. It\u2019s a storytelling art form. It\u2019s a way of telling a bit about who we are, sharing our emotions. So the very first thing we\u2019re looking for is someone who is at home telling things about themselves through movement,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking for coordination and creativity and flexibility, of all of those characteristics that that we that we know have the potential to develop someone into a lifelong career as a ballet dancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell said the hope was that for the younger students, she would have see a passion for movement and desire to explore the potential of ballet.<\/p>\n
Older students would be expected to have some ballet classes from the great ballet teachers in Calgary, and are ready to make a commitment to take their training to the next level and approach the school as a full-time rigorous commitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen somebody goes through that first and second stage audition process and eventually makes the choice, which is, of course, an individual choice, a family choice, that they want to move to Toronto and take this on. They really know that ballet is their language, and they\u2019re really excited about the opportunity,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough these audition processes, we\u2019ve learned about their passion, their commitment to rigor, their creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dancers audition for Canada\u2019s National Ballet School at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary on Saturday, November 8, 2025. ARYN TOOMBS \/ FOR LIVEWIRE CALGARY<\/p>\n
Excitement among dancers for Canada\u2019s National Ballet School audition<\/p>\n
One of the young audtioners on Saturday was Elodie Phillipson, who said that she had a passion for ballet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very excited,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Phillopson said that she had a boost in interest after her sister was accepted to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School\u2014the only other provider of national level full-time professional ballet for students as a school in Canada.<\/p>\n
Dani Phillipson, Elodie Phillipson\u2019s mother, said that her daughter was happiest when she was dancing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s always done great work in ballet and dance. She loves it, and she\u2019s just thrilled to be involved\u2026 it\u2019s great to see her find such a great direction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Whether Elodie Phillipson made it into the next round of Canada\u2019s National Ballet School auditions, Dani Phillipson said that the audition in Calgary was always going to further fuel her ambitions in dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just one audition, and it\u2019s a great experience to learn what auditions are like and see the kind of class and training that\u2019s on offer,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Whether a student was accepted or not, Powell said that it was important to see the overall development of ballet dancers across the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see Canadian talent. We want to see young people in rural communities and small communities and big communities, we know that there are tons of great teachers who are working hard to develop Canadian talent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For any Calgarians who missed the audtions, Powell said that they could still send a video audition to Canada\u2019s National Ballet School for consideration.<\/p>\n
For more details, see www.nbs-enb.ca\/train-develop\/professional-ballet-program\/professional-ballet-academic-program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Liked it? Take a second to support Aryn Toombs on Patreon!<\/p>\n
![\"Become](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/become_a_patron_button.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"November is the time of year when Canada\u2019s National Ballet School goes coast to coast to find the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,46325,49,2798,48,549,60,44],"class_list":["post-273106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-arts","tag-ballet","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-education","tag-featured","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}