On September 15 and 16, 2023, Les Grands Ballets will hold auditions for the children’s roles of The Nutcracker ballet, in partnership with L’École supérieure de ballet du Québec (ESBQ), their affiliated ballet school. Children and teenagers chosen for the various roles will participate in performances of The Nutcracker from December 14 to 30, 2023, at Place des Arts in Montreal.
Starting now, those auditions will only be open to students of the professional training and recreational division of ESBQ as a learning experience complementing their program.
The bonds between the two institutions are strong: created in 1966 by Ludmilla Chiriaeff, founder of Les Grands Ballets, ESBQ has become the company’s affiliated school over the years. A training partner which is also a pool of talents, providing high-level training and a framework allowing the young dancers to obtain the desired requirements and join a company such as Les Grands Ballets.
ESBQ’s students have the opportunity to take part in great productions all year long such as The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, and perform on the stage of Place des Arts.
Since Ivan Cavallari’s nomination as Artistic Director in 2017, already 15 ESBQ students have joined the company, and many other alumni have taken part in various productions as supernumerary dancers.
Information and registration
In order to be able to audition for certain roles (Children Of The Party, Mice, Rats, Angels, Reindeers and White Sheep), it is possible to join the preparatory program of ESBQ’s recreative division. For questions about the Recreative division, write to division.recreative@esbq.ca.
Please note that the auditions for the roles of Black Sheep, Coffee and Matriochkas will be open only to students of the Intermediary and Advanced cycles of ESBQ’s professionnal training.
More information about the auditions (roles, schedule, registration) will be available the week of August 21.
