What will I do on my summer vacation?

The flakes from The Nutcracker's snow scene have barely been swept away, when Dance Magazine's January issue arrives, thick with an enticing number of summer programs. The possibilities seem limitless, no matter what style you want to study or where in the country t or out of it, for that matter) you might like to be. The initial task: comb through these pages and keep your eye on the bulletin boards at your school or studio.

Much depends, on what you want to do, so clarify your goals for the summer. What do you hope to gain from the experience? Do you want to intensify your study in a specific style or, expanding your horizons. explore areas of dance with which you are unfamiliar? Check the age limitations in each program. How many people participate? What is the average class size? Are you prepared to be part of a large crowd or do you prefer something more intimate? How rigorous is the schedule? Are you eager to work with a particular teacher? Make sure you know exactly when and for how long that teacher is committed to teaching in that program. What is the weather like? You may love the way heat makes it easier to warm up, or you may languish in 85 percent humidity or high altitude. Would you like to be in an environment that offers performances by a variety of artists? Do you want to be with friends or to meet new people? Economic concerns may influence artistic ones. How much can you or your parents afford, if you do not get a scholarship? Will you be able to afford the cost of travel even if you do get a tuition break? All of these are questions that must be answered.

Once you have selected programs that interest you, speak to your dance teachers. They are wise in their knowledge of you as a dancer, and their suggestions are invaluable. Weigh their advice in consultation with your parents, who know you best. Parental counsel may extend beyond your dancing to your growth as a human being. Fellow dancers may have recommendations, too, but don't assume that your experiences will be identical. The festival that your best friend hated last summer could, in fact, be ideal for you. Try to figure out what made an experience positive or negative for someone else, and then evaluate how those issues would affect you.

The next step is applying. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, apply to several places. Pay attention to deadlines on written applications and requirements for photographs and/or videos. If an audition is necessary, make preparations to be there well beforehand so you can sign up, pay your fee, get your number (attaching it so that it can be seen), and warm up. For those programs with an emphasis on modem dance, there may be an opportunity to show your own choreography in a solo. Don't forget your cassette, cued to play. For ballet auditions, don't forget your pointe shoes. Never depend on someone else to get you to an audition unless you can count on their reliability. You do not want to walk in late and flustered.

What to wear? Less is more. You are expecting someone to evaluate you on the basis of your dancing. In order to do that it seems logical that they should be able to see your body and not be distracted by hair, jewelry, cleavage, or tape unraveling from your shoes. At most 1996 ballet program auditions, that message seems to have gotten across. At auditions for Jacob's Pillow and the American Dance Festival, which primarily attract modem dancers, baggy shirts and voluminous sweat pants occasionally appeared.

For most dancers, black appears to be the color of choice. However, it may be to your advantage to wear a color. It certainly helps to identify you.

If the auditions observed in the winter and spring of 1996 were any indication, it is clear that those in charge do everything possible to make the dancers feel comfortable with the process. Each audition was a full class with no surprises and no cuts - everyone who began a class finished it. Katherine Kersten, producing director of the Vail International Summer of Dance, took great pains to explain her school's program as well as how the audition would progress. At the audition's conclusion, she invited the students to create their own reverence. The Vail audition divided students into eleven- to fourteen-year-old and fifteen- to nineteen-year-old groups as did the Houston Ballet Academy audition.

Clara Cravey, director of the Houston academy, and Steve Brule, a senior teacher there, taught rather than gave a class so that the students had something valuable to take home from the audition. Cravey's barre was fairly short as she can "tell more in the center." Her explanation of the program came at the audition's end.

Dennis Nahat, artistic director of the Cleveland Ballet, led the School of the Cleveland Ballet audition. His was also similar to a regular class but his attention to one particular student, who had attended the school's previous summer session, was inappropriate. Would the other students present want to attend this program?

At both modem auditions, administrator explained the audition process to the dancers. Jolea Maffei led the vigorous Pillow class which emphasized strength, line, balance, and musicality. Lyrical dancers would have had to reveal that dimension of their dancing in their solos. Conversely, the class Doug Elkins taught for the American Dance Festival focused more on the tensionless continuity of motion rather than on defined shape or line. The influence of contact improvisation and martial arts appeared to feed his invention. Like Maffei, he also added some complex rhythmic work for an additional challenge. Elkins's humor kept the atmosphere congenial.

At each audition there will be dancers who look spectacular throughout. While some falter when they leave the barre, others will blossom when they can tear up the space. Don't "dis" yourself if you make a mistake. Keep going. While you are at the side, learn from those still dancing, but don't watch someone else while you are dancing. Focus on the task at hand, listen to what you are being asked to do, even if it varies from what you normally do, and then perform with all the intelligence, passion, and good humor you have. And, by the way, have a great summer.