Professional Training Scholarship Division (PTSD) A Professional Training Scholarship Division is being established at GCBA for our 2005-2006 school year. This is upon the advice of the famous ballerina, Laura Alonso and Barbara Pontecorvo a colleague of mine, and fellow Regional Dance America member, where her program has been in existence for the past three years. When Ms. Alonso was guest teaching at GCBA, she said to me that there was potential of even better and stronger dancers at Geiger Ballet who could become professional dancers, but needed a class every day to realize their potential. She said that daily class is the only way to mold the body and create the proper muscle memory that makes a beautiful dancer. Ms. Alonso said that I needed to choose these dancers very carefully, looking for desire, physical attributes necessary for classical ballet and quickness of mind. GCBA will be selecting students in Levels 2-5. These young dancers will be required to attend additional classes such as Yoga and Modern and specially designated scholarship classes. To be eligible, a student must register and pay for all of the required ballet classes for his or her level. The extra PTSD classes will be provided at no charge. The Michigan Classic Ballet Company (MCBC) and the Geiger Classic Ballet Academy are sponsoring the PTSD dancer. In order to ensure that each PTSD member values these extra classes and commits to attending them, there will be a charge if the member skips a class. It works like this: there is a $200 participation fee for all PTSD members. If the member attends all PTSD classes with no unexcused absences, the $200 participation fee will be returned in total at the end of the season. However for each PTSD missed class, $20.00 will be deducted from the participation fee. If 10 classes overall are missed, the member will be removed from the division. Because of their promise, the PTSD dancer is also the student that the rest of the school looks up too. PTSD students must also receive good grades (B- and above) on the bi-annual GCBA exams and have excellent attendance. These dancers need to be the timeliest, the neatest and the most focused. PTSD students must also audition for the Michigan Classic Ballet Company (MCBC) and represent the company well at all times. They will be expected to attend outside summer programs when appropriate in addition to GCBA’s Intensive Program. Up to 20 dancers are being invited to participate for the 2005/2006 school year, 15 participated in 2004/2005. This page last updated: Friday, July 8, 2005. Back to Info. page...