Organization
Junior Ballet AntwerpCultural Project
BelgiumStarted
01/2025Status
In progressIn its short period of existence, Junior Ballet Antwerp has rapidly made a name internationally, in due partly to the very substantial amount of its dancers who have found work within the ballet industry after their training with JBA.
A high percentage - an average of 80% - of all young artists who passed through JBA during the past 5 years, received contracts and are now dancing professionally in ballet companies such as Dresden SemperOper Ballet, Dortmund Ballet, Estonian National Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet II, Czech National Ballet, Opera Wroclaw, National Ballet of Portugal, National Ballet of Brno, Hungarian National Ballet, Poznan Ballet, State Ballet Munich, State Ballet Karlsrühe, Ballet National de Mulhouse and Les Ballet de Monte Carlo amongst others.
Photo © Filip Van Roe
Junior Ballet Antwerp was founded in 2019 by former Belgian Principal Dancer Alain Honorez, together with Irma Swijnen & Altea Nuñez. It offers talented, graduated dancers the means to develop further during the period between the end of studies and the start of a professional ballet career.
During a course of 2 years these youngsters are guided towards their goals and provided with valuable experience in the form of performances especially tailored to their needs. During the second year of the JBA program they are also assisted in the creation of a professional portfolio in order that they might be able to present themselves with true confidence at auditions.
Year after year JBA is on the lookout for a new generation of graduates who wish to further their technical and artistic capacities after leaving school. Yearly, approximately 350 interested candidates from around the world send in their applications - ultimately only 10 or 12 will be selected to join the troupe.
JBA has no structural subventions from Flanders, which means that an inscription fee to the amount of 8500€/student/year is inevitable in order to provide the base for JBA’s day-to-day running costs as well as its production programmation.
Sometimes however, talented future artists with huge potential are lost to JBA due to the costs attached to the program - not every youngster has the fortune to come from a background with sufficient financial means to provide this training.
"It is for this specific reason that we call on VGP’s support so that we might have the possibility to offer partial or full scholarships to those in need."
Passing through JBA after graduation for those youngsters could determine their direct future with an entry into the professional world.