BALLET HELP DESK

Summer Intensive Reviews

Programs Reviewed: 231
Total Reviews: 1850

Texas Ballet Theater

Summer Intensive Reviews

General

Dancer age

2
6
4
7
2
4

First time at a summer intensive?

18
7

Year of SI

1
1
10
8
5

Weeks available

1
1
22
1

Weeks attended

1
12
11
1

Reviewer

9
16

Curriculum

Techniques taught

1
12
12
2

Partnering (based on age)

3
2
20

Dedicated men's program?

7
14
4

# of boys in level

1
24

Other dance genres

10
23
1
14
6
22
1
5
23
20
1
1
1

Quality of other classes

Not Helpful
1
2
4
18
Helpful

Injury Prevention

Strength classes?

7
1
1
3
20
1
6
7

PT offered?

1
6
18

Extra fee for PT?

11
14

Injury rate

6
13
6

Teaching

Who taught?

7
17
1

Guest teachers

2
2
21

Year-round teachers taught

6
1
12
6

Attention from teachers

Very Little
3
3
8
11
A Lot

Technique improved?

No
2
1
3
11
8
Yes - Tremendously

Studios

Dance floors

1
2
1
1
1
19
2
1
1
1
1

Studio space

Cramped
1
1
5
8
10
Lots of Space

Studio cleanliness

Dirty
1
1
3
9
11
Spotless

Schedule

Classes per day

18
6
1

Saturday classes

1
24

Saturday class duration

1
23
1

Leveling

Leveling

17
8

Leveling type

22
1
2

Did students move levels?

13
11

Leveling fair?

3
22

Students per class

4
14
3
4

Performance

Performance?

13
9
3

Rehearsals happened

1
14
1

Casting equitability

Uneven
1
1
6
8
Even

Rehearsals detracted from class?

Completely
2
5
1
17
Not At All

Housing - General

Housing provided

2
17
6

# of roommates

14
1
2

Bathrooms

14
3

Coed bathrooms

17

Air conditioning

17

Housing comment

  • Rooms are very small
  • Clark Hall at TCU is a traditional dorm; 2 dancers/room with a sink & mirror; lots of storage including an extra dresser under lofted beds; beautiful campus; located right next door to the dance facility.
  • The dorm was comfortable and clean. I felt like my dancer was safe.
  • Long walk from housing to cafeteria
  • They stayed in the dorms at the beautiful TCU campus
  • There were other groups staying in the dorms on different floors. 13 year olds couldn't leave the dorms without a chaperone, but the dorm common areas had a ping pong table, a pool table, and a portable basketball game, along with a tv for watching movies. Chaperones would walk them to places they wanted to go for alternative food items, or the grocery store.
  • Convenient to walk to grocery store and food places nearby TCU. Dorms were close to the studio on campus but a little far from the dining hall.
  • Housing was pretty nice, standard college dorm room at TCU. The walk to the dining hall was not my favorite but not bad at all. For dancers not at TCU location for classes, wraps or sandwiches were packed, those were not good, but the food in the dining hall was great.
  • Great RAs, in walking distance of Kroger and a few other things.
  • This was a new dorm for the program, with shared suites, independent bedrooms for each student, and en suite bathrooms (previously, students shared a room with a roommate and had community bathrooms). It’s a little more of a walk to the cafeteria and dance studios but not a problem.
  • This year we were in hays hall which everyone got their own bedroom in their suite, and the rooms were nice. Only downside is that there's not that many washers/dryers and the elevator kept breaking down.

Where did they stay?

1
1
6

Housing - Supervision

Curfew

17

Curfew reasonable?

17

Room check

17

How strict were dorms?

10
2
5

Infraction handling

9
7
3

Housing - Cleanliness

Laundry available

17

Laundry free

4
13

Housing cleanliness

Dirty
1
12
4
Spotless

Cleaning required

13
4

Meal Plan

Meal plan

17

Food quality

Gross
1
2
8
5
1
Excellent

Enough food

2
15

Dietary needs?

15
2

Specific needs

1
1

Dietary options

Limited
1
1
Lots

Activities

Weeknight activities

1
16

Weekend outings

2
23

Attended weekend outings

2
13
8

Favorite

  • Water park
  • Water Park
  • Water park
  • Zoo
  • Water park
  • Six Flags
  • Texas Rangers baseball game
  • Water Park (although she got really sunburned)
  • Zoo
  • Six flags!!
  • The water park
  • Water park
  • Six Flags!
  • Waterpark
  • Six flags
  • Six flags and Hawaian Falls Water Park.
  • Water park and zoo
  • Ft Worth Zoo
  • Six flags

Least favorite

  • All were fun!
  • Maybe the water park if you sun burn easily. My dancer was fried!
  • Tcu pool, not worth the cost
  • The Zoo (in July in TX)
  • None
  • N/A
  • They were all great.
  • The tcu pool
  • The zoo and Six Flags were pretty hot, but I still think Six Flags is worth it, zoo might depend on personal preference.
  • None, all of them were great!
  • All were good
  • The pool day. Fun but also intepersed with college students and pretty small pool and area.
  • None! All were awesome! Also offered, zoo and pool day,
  • Baseball game

Logistics

Quality of handbook

Spotty
2
1
10
11
Comprehensive

Program communication

Limited
1
2
3
7
12
Comprehensive

Transportation

1
1
1
16
3
1
1
1

Neighborhood safety

Not Safe
2
4
19
Very Safe

General Comments

Overall recommendation

Definitely Not
1
1
2
2
19
Absolutely

Best aspect

  • Well organized, small, personal.
  • Close attention to detail; experienced faculty; positive, supportive, student-centered instruction; students were very close and encouraged one another
  • Strong technique, interesting teachers, other students were serious dancers but friendly, lots of dancing
  • Getting to experience a potential college
  • My dancer learned so much and had a blast with new friends!
  • The classes
  • Good teachers,
  • My daughter enjoyed making new friends, and experiencing a lot of different dance styles. She liked having different teachers all the time, and really enjoyed the guest instructors, especially Lauren Anderson.
  • Got to practice so many variations
  • Communication, atmosphere, teachers
  • They were very focused on technique
  • The people (staff, chaperones, other dancers, etc.)
  • The teachers were amazing; they were all really fun and I also learned so much from them and their corrections really made sense and paid attention to detail. The dancers were really friendly and nice. I loved how they focused a lot on basic technique and also developing artistry (musicality and epaulement especially).
  • Wonderful training from all of the teachers. I received lots of individual corrections. Overall it was an amazing environment full of support!
  • Close to our home
  • The teachers were really attentive to everyone. I hardly saw favorites being played and they were so helpful. The vibes outside the studio were amazing too!
  • Amazing faculty and environment!! Everyone was so passionate and wanted to help everyone.
  • Program focused on technique while maintaining a positive atmosphere, both faculty to student and student to student.
  • The teachers were very kind and caring towards the students. The variety of dance classes was fun.
  • The teachers were amazing and they very obviously loved teaching and helping students.
  • All of the different styles offered

Least liked about program

  • It was during Covid so no housing or activities but classes were in person.
  • Few male students my dancer's age (13)
  • The only small issue I had was communication with parents. We did get updates on scheduling however there was a watch day at the end of the 3rd week that we didn’t find out about until the week of making it hard for working parents to make.
  • Hard to say: if possible would have liked the ability to set up a private lesson.
  • Communication
  • I think the communication could have been clearer.
  • The cold daily boxed lunches
  • Bug outbreak at one studio location & illness outbreak and no communication about those events/. The end program was not what was presented online
  • My daughter was not a fan of the food. She's pretty picky in general, but thought some of the items were undercooked.
  • level placement
  • That the levels were at multiple locations and made it hard to switch levels.
  • I disliked the studios: when I went they were building new ones as their old ones were flooded and were in a temporary location that was not very nice. Also the boxed lunches were not great.
  • Nothing! It was an incredible experience!
  • Housing options for off campus stay were minitrd
  • Sometimes the leveling could be based a little bit on age, but only for people over 16, so it made it a little bit unfair at times. Also, the studios at the Fort Worth location were not that nice, particularly the smallest studio. Which, would usually go to the lowest level at the location that week.
  • There wasn't as much pointe as I'd hoped.
  • Class size was too big for the studio space. It was to the point of dangerous.
  • The food wasn't the best and the dining hall got so so crowded that it was a nightmare to get any food.
  • The gym floors not being sprung

Suggested changes to program

  • Lack of partnering opportunities for age 13/14
  • More classes at TCU for the younger groups
  • Timely communication
  • I wish the showcase at the end were in a larger venue so more people could attend.
  • Add partnering / better level placements
  • My daughter says more ballet time. It would also be nice if she was able to do partnering. Her level didn't offer it, only the two highest levels had it.
  • not place as much by age
  • Better options for people with good allergies .
  • More fair leveling and a better Latin teacher
  • I would want more pointe time, and more ballet in general maybe. I'd also like partnering for more levels, as there was only any for the two highest. To do that there would probably also need to be more boys as there were very few.
  • More partnering would be great!
  • Nothing
  • Better studio space, and allow for more switching of levels.
  • More pointe and better dorm food??
  • Smaller class size, Limit the amount of down time at breaks and lunch. (20 minute breaks and 1 hour lunch is too long)
  • I would love partnering for all levels instead of the top two.
  • The gym floors

Culture of program

  • Fun and helpful but not stressful.
  • Positive & nurturing: RAs and chaperones were kind and so helpful -- they really set the tone from day 1
  • Wonderful
  • Friendly, great teaching, perfect 1st SI or 2nd after a “young dancer” SI
  • Classes where professional with little to no emotions
  • Very friendly and welcoming!
  • Nurturing
  • Focus on technique
  • Everyone was very kind and helpful, the kids seemed to all get along very well, and my daughter had a great time. (Although Texas is hot!)
  • positive
  • Friendly and focused
  • Very friendly and open
  • Very friendly and fun but professional.
  • Positive, supportive, and everyone truly loved being there. All the teachers really focused on detail and artistry during class time and ensured every dancer could learn and grow! They were also very attentive and understanding when it came to injuries and made sure we were using our technique correctly.
  • Positive
  • Super positive and friendly!
  • Supportive, encouraging
  • Very positive, issues that happened (typical and minor) were handled swiftly, respectfully, and productively.
  • There was an unhealthy culture of gossip among the girls. My daughter was very uncomfortable.
  • Supportive and growth centered.
  • It was one of the best I have attended. Positive environment.

Other comments

  • Families sometimes dismiss TBT because the SI acceptance rate is so high; this is a mistake; our AD recommended it, alongside Bolshoi CT, HARID, and ABT, for its emphasis on classical technique & generous number of hours/day of dance instruction.
  • Great teaching, a variety of interesting classes, friendly kids. Nice studios at TCU and TBT. Hidden gem!
  • There is not the care to get to know your dancer we have had at others. The focus is an artistry not technique. Communication was horrible. Unanswered emails, no notification of dancers getting sick, and a complete lack of communication when it came to post intensive placements. By the time we heard we had made other arrangements and had contacted staff multiple times.
  • Only attend if student is upper level - that is where majority of teaching is placed
  • My daughter had a great experience at this program. It was her first summer intensive away from home, and she had a great time. There was a performance for the kids who did 5-weeks, but 3-weekers had two parent observation days at the end of their program. They were working on the performance stuff in many of the classes (not technique, but other classes), but the 3-weekers were able to participate and practice even though they weren't doing the show.
  • Some dancers in the lower levels are less serious, but the higher levels are really good.
  • I highly recommend it for dancers looking to improve their performance quality and detail during in-between steps! My technique improved so much and I gained a lot of control over my dancing. The teachers, chaperones, and the rest of the faculty were absolutely amazing and I couldn’t recommend this Intensive enough!
  • We liked it
  • Amazing faculty and studios aside from the floors!! I also did an extra week for variations with I would highly reccomend! Lots of personal attention and growth.
  • We were very pleasantly surprised with the quality of this program. It’s not as well known but the dancers attending had very nice technique, worked hard, and had a knowledgeable, supportive faculty to learn from. Mr. O’Keefe’s Broadway Jazz class was an unexpected highlight!
  • There were 5 levels, with the 2 lower levels being at the TBT Ft Worth campus and the upper levels at the TCU campus. My daughter was at the TBT campus, so I can only speak of the culture there. The TCU campus might have been different. TBT Ft Worth was in the middle of a major remodel, which led to loud construction. TBT did not provide tables or chairs for the girls to eat lunch at, so they had to eat lunch on the floors in the hallways. The studio was large, but not large enough for 34 girls! There was a pole in the middle of the studio that the girls had to dodge. A slanted floor near the entrance lead to one girl falling, being injured and leaving early due to the injury. A smaller class size would have been a safer option. Excursion communication was awful. The bus driver forgot to pick up a group of girls for their excursion. While the RA’s and chaperones were kind, respectful and lovely people, the communication was lacking between TBT, Chaperones, parents and the Bus driver. Culture among the girls was one of gossip and unhealthy competition rather than one of building each other up. Staff and instructors were all encouraging, kind, helpful, and overall lovely people.
  • It was so amazing I definitely recommend
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