Quinby Kasch
A small-town ballerina is accepted to one of the country’s most prestigious summer dance programs in New York and now must find a way to pay for the school’s tuition.
Quinby, a 13-year-old Camarillo resident, recently learned she was one of 56 dancers from California to be accepted to the summer program of New York City’s School of American Ballet.
For the ballerina and her single mother, the real challenge will be raising the nearly $7,500 it will cost Quinby in airfare, room and board, and tuition to dance alongside some of the best dancers in America.
“It would be a dream come true,” said Quinby, who practices more than 30 hours a week at the California Dance Theatre in Agoura Hills. “Since I was little I wanted to go to that ballet company and dance with them.”
Amy Bordy, director of public relations for the School of American Ballet, said that in California 313 dancers auditioned in Irvine, Los Angeles and San Francisco in hopes of being accepted to one of the largest ballet academies in the United States.
Of the 2,000 hopefuls that auditioned nationwide, only 200 dancers ages 12 to 18 were accepted, Bordy said.
“It’s a very big deal,” she said. “We train a very select group of students.”
The summer session runs from June 28 to July 30.
Bordy said that, although scholarships are available, the school offers very few and it is typically up to the students to finance the costs of attending the school.
“We’re certainly aware there have been cases where students have had to draw (for tuition) outside their families,” Bordy said.
Quinby has trained in New York before. She earned acceptance into the American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive in the young dancer program for two summers and spent five weeks with the Joffrey Ballet School’s summer intensive in the performance track this past summer.
Jody Kasch, Quinby’s mother, said that in years past, although it was never easy finding the money to pay for tuition, she always managed to pay for her daughter’s summer training programs.
Kasch, a freelance photographer, said the recession has meant far less work this past year and now tuition has become too expensive for her.
The mother of four said she knew paying for the summer ballet school would be tough but said the opportunity was too good to give up.
“It’s the Yale or Harvard of dance schools in the country,” Kasch said. “I figured I’d find a way to make it happen somehow.”
The school was founded in 1934 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, often noted as two of American ballet’s most influential figures in the 20th century.
The two would eventually establish the New York City Ballet, the largest ballet company in the United States and considered one of the top 10 companies in the world.
Bordy said the summer session often serves as a monthlong audition for the New York City Ballet and is a big first step on the road to becoming a professional ballet dancer.
“I enjoy dance,” said Quinby, “but I definitely would love to be in a ballet company and be a professional dancer when I’m older.”