To see and be seen in Montreal.

It's a unique, intense way to bridge the gap between student and professional life. At The Professional Project, an exclusive summer workshop, young professionals work side by side with career dancers and choreographers.

Each summer, Alexandra Wells, a teacher and student advisor at The Juilliard School in New York, and Susan Alexander, founder-director of Montreal's Ballet Divertimento, invite a handful of advanced students to experience professional life. When they first discussed starting the program, they felt that while summer opportunities abound for younger dancers, few exist for those on the brink of becoming professional. So they decided to launch The Professional Project to give young professionals three weeks of exposure to Montreal companies and independent choreographers.

At the first workshop, in 2002, twenty-eight students attended. The following year, the Project welcomed forty-two: twenty-nine Americans, twelve Canadians, and one Mexican. Many came from Juilliard and New York's Purchase College, and several had already attended the 2002 workshop.

Admission to the Project is by audition in choreography and ballet class, plus an intensive interview. Tuition fees will be $1,200 in 2004.

Juilliard graduate Stephan Laks, 24, who joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal (LGBCM) after the 2003 session, called the workshop "an electric and confidence-building experience. So many summer programs just focus on training. But in this one, art is the focus."

During the Project's first week in 2003, students rotated among five studios to work with members of participating professional companies. Hosting the students were Mark Shaub and Lucie Boissinot of the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, Dominique Port of Systeme D, Helene Blackburn and Yves St-Pierre of Cas Public, Cherice Barton of Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal (BJM), and, representing the only non-Montreal company, Nathalie Buisson of Madrid's Compania Nacional de Danza. This par of the workshop proved so popular that plans are under way to expand it to two weeks in 2004, when Sylvain Emerd Danse will be among the five company hosts.

FOLLOWING THE studio rotation were two weeks spent learning works from company repertoires with BJM and LGBCM providing teachers and studios. Choreographers Margie Gillis and Shawn Hounsell created new works for the students, and, for a second year, Gillis mentored five student choreographers who worked oil their pieces in their spare time. For 2004, choreographer-director Crystal Pite will join LGBCM, BJM, and Gillis to teach repertoire. The Project ends with a full-scale performance.

Results from the 2003 workshop were immediate. The young professionals made impressions on artistic directors, resulting in invitations to audition and even job offers. Laks joined LGBCM, and Randy Castillo, who had planned a year's break from Juilliard, was hired by the Spanish company.

A former dancer with Boston Ballet and Dennis Wayne's Dancers, Project artistic director Wells performed with Ballet National de Nancy in France for thirteen years before spending a year with the Lyon Opera Ballet and working as ballet mistress for Ballet Hispanico. She taught full-time at Montreal's Ecole Superieure de Danse du Quebec for three years before teaching full-time at Juilliard for two years. While in Montreal, she met Alexander, who, with her contacts with companies there, serves as workshop general manager.

An arts administrator who founded Ballet Divertimento in 1991, Alexander sees her role as "keeping both sides happy" by giving young professionals experience, and companies a chance to discover new talent.

Vancouver student Kim DeJong, 19, said the 2003 workshop offered "amazing" networking opportunities. Young professionals and choreographers discovered each other's tastes and styles, laying the groundwork for the future, she explained.

Wells calls Montreal the perfect venue for the Project because it is highly centralized and easy to move between studios. Besides, she claims it is the only city in the world with so many resident companies, then adds, "New York companies don't have permanent rehearsal space."

For more information on the Project, call 514.285.2157.