A recent acquaintance told me her son, who just graduated from an American ballet school, has been accepted at New York City Ballet. but since they pay only $300 a week and the family cannot subsidize him, he could not afford to accept the offer. As a ballet fan (and an easy mark) I want to start passing the hat here in Toronto to support this kid, but wonder if this could be a scam. Before I make a total fool of myself, I thought I might throw this out for comments.

as a company member? that's not true; they make union-determined salaries and although they aren't rich, they can do all right. as a student? even if a student is given a stipend, i doubt it's as much as 300 a week. especially a student might often also be offered housing in the school's dormitory. i think you should find out a lot more and get proof of it all before anything else. IMHO

I agree with Pmeja.

I think there may be some scamming here. Unless salaries have changed since 98/99.<P>Below is a salary comparison between the National Ballet of Canada and the New York City Ballet (All salaries converted to Canadian dollars) as of 98/99. <P>Please note: salaries for NBoC dancers with 1 to 5 years experience have been extrapolated to 45 weeks. All New York City Ballet salaries are based on 40 weeks (38 week union guarantee plus an average of 2 weeks touring). NYCB dancer classifications differ from the NBoC. For instance, their principal dancers perform character artist roles.<P>The National Ballet of Canada <P>Corps de Ballet Weekly Salary Yearly Salary <BR>1st year $544.61 $24,507.45 <BR>2nd year $570.40 $25,668.00 <BR>3rd year $584.58 $26,306.10 <BR>4th year $598.76 $26,944.20 <BR>5th year $612.95 $27,582.75 <BR>6th year $628.41 $32,677.32 <BR>7th year $643.89 $33,482.28 <BR>8th year $660.64 $34,353.28 <BR>9th year $677.42 $35,225.84 <BR>10th year $694.18 $36,097.36 <BR>10 and up $707.82 $36,806.64 <BR> <BR>2nd Soloist <BR>1st year $660.64 $34,353.28 <BR>2nd year $677.42 $35,225.84 <BR>3rd year $694.18 $36,097.36 <BR>3 and up $707.82 $36,806.64 <BR> <BR>1st Soloist <BR>1st year $770.23 $40,051.96 <BR>2nd year $796.02 $41,393.04 <BR>3rd year $821.79 $42,733.08 <BR>4th year $847.59 $44,074.68 <BR>5th year $873.37 $45,415.24 <BR>6th year $899.16 $46,756.32 <BR>7 and up $916.83 $47,675.16 <BR> <BR>Principal Character Artist $921.09 $47,896.68 <BR>PrincipalDancer $957.18 $49,773.36 <P>New York City Ballet<P>Corps de Ballet Weekly Salary Yearly Salary <BR>A $1,255.90 $50,235.90 <BR>B $1,507.08 $60,283.08 <BR>C $1,796.31 $71,852.56 <BR>D $2,093.16 $83,726.50 <BR> <BR>Soloist <BR>Soloist $2,435.68 $97,427.20 <BR> <BR>Principal Dancer $3,044.60 $121,784.00 <BR> <BR><P>------------------<BR>

Could they be referring to an apprenticeship program? <P>------------------<BR>

maybe, marius, but it might be unusual for nycb to take in an apprentice who hadn't spent at least a short amount of time in the school, but regardless our correspondent should probably get the facts straight with this person first (and check again with the pundits?) <P>actually the thought occurred to me, they could be speaking of abt's junior company, which does get paid something like that. well, either way let us know!<p>[This message has been edited by pmeja (edited March 03, 2001).]

Thanks for the responses...I now feel I have some intelligent questions to ask my acquaintance. For example about all the various entry levels her son could have been accepted at...up till now I assumed it was "the company" but I will get clarification. What started me examining this story more closely was a (naive?) belief that if a young dancer was good enough to be accepted into any company that company would have some way of providing the bare essentials in their city. To be continued...

Schneider -<P>It's extraordinarily rare for NYCB to take entry level dancers from anywhere but their own school (the School of American Ballet). They also pay more than $300 weekly to apprentices. If the young man was accepted into the school rather than the company that stipend might very well be on top of housing and board, which the school can provide. I think you should ask your friend to clarify.

Once again I thank each of you who responded to my dilemma. To answer my original question, "Am I bening conned?" the answer is "probably!" After the input from this forum I spoke to my acquaintance and said I had contacted some ballet friends and they were wondering about various aspects such as was it the company or the school or? Without going into details let me just say the stories kept changing until I heard something about needing money for a flight to SanFransico to audition there. So I do feel like a fool but it could have been worse. Let's put this one to bed...my apologies and my thanks.