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Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect
Successfully navigate the auditions, competitions, and intensives that lead to centre stage!
The fifth book in the Garage Ballet™ series, Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect, is designed to help young dancers prepare for this exciting, fun time in their life!
Dawn C Crouch, a dancer and ballet instructor for over forty years, is a strong proponent of a Ballet Helps Everything! perspective because life doesn’t stop when you step outside of the studio! Ballet training improves a student’s confidence, self-esteem, and ability to adapt to new situations.
Auditions and competitions challenge skills. Intensives focus and offer unique opportunities to rank up to greater strength levels.
In Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect, you’ll discover:
Specific Steps to Improve
Why intensives are valuable to a young dancer
Mindsets for Success
An Added Bonus – Special Tips and Concerns for Ballet Parents!
Real-world advice, insight, and more!
Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect is a supportive handbook to enlighten experiences that offer a glimpse into the life of a dancer and future possibilities!
The fifth book in the Garage Ballet™ series, Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect, is designed to help young dancers prepare for this exciting, fun time in their life!
Dawn C Crouch, a dancer and ballet instructor for over forty years, is a strong proponent of a Ballet Helps Everything! perspective because life doesn’t stop when you step outside of the studio! Ballet training improves a student’s confidence, self-esteem, and ability to adapt to new situations.
Auditions and competitions challenge skills. Intensives focus and offer unique opportunities to rank up to greater strength levels.
In Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect, you’ll discover:
Specific Steps to Improve
Why intensives are valuable to a young dancer
Mindsets for Success
An Added Bonus – Special Tips and Concerns for Ballet Parents!
Real-world advice, insight, and more!
Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect is a supportive handbook to enlighten experiences that offer a glimpse into the life of a dancer and future possibilities!
81 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 21, 2023
2 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
Dawn C. Crouch
7 books43 followersI’m from New Orleans, where ghosts and devils are part of everyday life, so it is only natural to write fiction and nonfiction based on true stories. Most little girls dream of growing up to be a ballet dancer. However, I have always wanted to be a writer, and I am the author of five nonfiction and three fiction books so far…
But I received my early ballet training from Lelia Haller, one of the first Americans to dance in the Paris Opera, before continuing with Houston Ballet under James Clouser and Nicholas Polejenko. I am grateful to have studied with Danilova, Balanchine, Martha Graham, Eric Hawkins, David Howard, and other legendary teachers. I’ve taught at ballet schools throughout the southeast for over forty years.
The Garage Ballet Series is a collaborative mother-daughter effort. My two daughters, Dominique Crisler and Caroline Ruder, assisted with classes and danced through college level at Northern Illinois University and the University of South Carolina. They now advise and edit my nonfiction ballet books.
Garage Ballet aims to mentor students, teachers, and parents through easy-to-understand explanations of ballet techniques and training. I passionately believe the study of ballet yields life skills of proven value for every student, from PreBallet to Preprofessional to Adult. Ballet does Help Everything! Writing included!
I am the mother of two sons as well and have been married to the same Emergency physician through it all. So conversation at my dinner table may range from culinary comparisons to debates on different interpretations of the same role in a ballet performance to pure medical macabre.
But I remember... Life can change in an instant. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina obliterated our home and belongings in the space of a single Monday morning.
I was blown with my two youngest, still at home from Gulfport, MS, to Huntsville, AL. At the same time, my husband, one of nine ER docs in the only Emergency Department operating within a ninety-mile radius, stayed behind. We survived the storm, but the separation and arduous task of rebuilding almost did us in. Lesson learned. Things can always be worse!
My first novel, Against The Wind, a YA coming-of-age catastrophe thriller, is based on our encounter with the storm.
I began work on The Last Plague long before Covid, but the eerie undertone of the prescient tale resonates with the pandemic. The novel is a sci-fi dystopian glance into a near future where medicine runs amok with bioengineered clones, weaponized viruses, and a forbidden love story.
Dead Children’s Playground takes its title from a hidden playground in Huntsville and a Rocket City urban legend. Huntsville is a beautiful and strange place where in the early 60s, rural Appalachia collided with Nazi Germany.
My writing will always be peppered with stories from my convoluted, crazy, and unique life as a daughter, wife, mother, dancer, teacher... person.
Please visit dawncrouch.com for fiction updates and Garageballet.com for new releases, titles, and helpful videos.
But I received my early ballet training from Lelia Haller, one of the first Americans to dance in the Paris Opera, before continuing with Houston Ballet under James Clouser and Nicholas Polejenko. I am grateful to have studied with Danilova, Balanchine, Martha Graham, Eric Hawkins, David Howard, and other legendary teachers. I’ve taught at ballet schools throughout the southeast for over forty years.
The Garage Ballet Series is a collaborative mother-daughter effort. My two daughters, Dominique Crisler and Caroline Ruder, assisted with classes and danced through college level at Northern Illinois University and the University of South Carolina. They now advise and edit my nonfiction ballet books.
Garage Ballet aims to mentor students, teachers, and parents through easy-to-understand explanations of ballet techniques and training. I passionately believe the study of ballet yields life skills of proven value for every student, from PreBallet to Preprofessional to Adult. Ballet does Help Everything! Writing included!
I am the mother of two sons as well and have been married to the same Emergency physician through it all. So conversation at my dinner table may range from culinary comparisons to debates on different interpretations of the same role in a ballet performance to pure medical macabre.
But I remember... Life can change in an instant. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina obliterated our home and belongings in the space of a single Monday morning.
I was blown with my two youngest, still at home from Gulfport, MS, to Huntsville, AL. At the same time, my husband, one of nine ER docs in the only Emergency Department operating within a ninety-mile radius, stayed behind. We survived the storm, but the separation and arduous task of rebuilding almost did us in. Lesson learned. Things can always be worse!
My first novel, Against The Wind, a YA coming-of-age catastrophe thriller, is based on our encounter with the storm.
I began work on The Last Plague long before Covid, but the eerie undertone of the prescient tale resonates with the pandemic. The novel is a sci-fi dystopian glance into a near future where medicine runs amok with bioengineered clones, weaponized viruses, and a forbidden love story.
Dead Children’s Playground takes its title from a hidden playground in Huntsville and a Rocket City urban legend. Huntsville is a beautiful and strange place where in the early 60s, rural Appalachia collided with Nazi Germany.
My writing will always be peppered with stories from my convoluted, crazy, and unique life as a daughter, wife, mother, dancer, teacher... person.
Please visit dawncrouch.com for fiction updates and Garageballet.com for new releases, titles, and helpful videos.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 1, 2023
A Comprehensive Guide that Every Ballet Parent and Dancer Should Read
The book offers a wealth of information and practical advice that is relevant to both parents and dancers.
The author, Dawn C Crouch, has over forty years of experience as a dancer and ballet instructor, and it shows in the book's well-researched and insightful content.
I appreciated how the book is organized into specific sections that cover everything from specific steps to improve to the mindset necessary for success. The book provides concrete techniques and tools to help young dancers successfully prepare and navigate the skills that lead to center stage.
Overall, Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect is a must-read for any parent or young dancer interested in pursuing ballet. The book is informative, persuasive, and educational. It's filled with inspirational quotes and provides valuable lessons that are important for life both on and off stage. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of the world of ballet.
The book offers a wealth of information and practical advice that is relevant to both parents and dancers.
The author, Dawn C Crouch, has over forty years of experience as a dancer and ballet instructor, and it shows in the book's well-researched and insightful content.
I appreciated how the book is organized into specific sections that cover everything from specific steps to improve to the mindset necessary for success. The book provides concrete techniques and tools to help young dancers successfully prepare and navigate the skills that lead to center stage.
Overall, Auditions, Competitions, and Intensives - Why, When, What to Expect is a must-read for any parent or young dancer interested in pursuing ballet. The book is informative, persuasive, and educational. It's filled with inspirational quotes and provides valuable lessons that are important for life both on and off stage. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of the world of ballet.
August 20, 2025
I used to dance. I did tap, jazz, ballet, Irish step. I loved it. I loved all of it. I danced for about 7 or 8 years when I was younger, and then in High School I did a dance intensive for a semester (I loved it).
This book really went over it. The importance of very basic things. I went to competitions and had performances. I wish I had read this when I was younger. I don't dance anymore, and I would like to get back to that, which was why I read this book.
This book really went over it. The importance of very basic things. I went to competitions and had performances. I wish I had read this when I was younger. I don't dance anymore, and I would like to get back to that, which was why I read this book.
June 25, 2025
ballet is for everyone.
I so enjoy her writing and life applications! We all can benefit from ballet. Improve your balance, posture and poise!
I so enjoy her writing and life applications! We all can benefit from ballet. Improve your balance, posture and poise!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews