Nadine and Uwe Quedenbaum have a decision to make.
Should they allow their 14-year-old son Benedict to attend a special school program for gifted dancers?
Dance has been a large part of Benedict’s life ever since his mother took him to his first dance class, a Moms and Kids dance class, when he was only 18-months old.
If the answer is yes it will mean Benedict, in his Grade 10 year, would have to leave their Barrhead area farm next September for Calgary to spend the school year at the School of Alberta Ballet.
The school is part of the development program for the Alberta Ballet, which is Canada’s second-largest ballet company and is known around the world for its contemporary and classical productions.
Last winter, Benedict successfully auditioned for a role in the company’s annual production of the Nutcracker in Edmonton.
“It is going to be a tough decision for us as parents having him gone all that time, but I know Benedict wants to go,” Nadine said.
“If he has any plans or aspirations of ever becoming a professional dancer, this program is something we need to consider,” Uwe added.
Benedict received the offer to attend the school in mid-July while attending the school’s three-week Summer Intensive program, which is specifically designed to help aid serious dancers looking to take their training to the next level.
To qualify for the camp he had to go to an open audition at the school’s Edmonton branch in November.
“There are not a lot of spots available,” Nadine said, adding the school holds auditions for its summer programs all across Canada, as well as Australia and England.
At Benedict’s audition in Edmonton, three instructors put about 40 dancers in his age group through their paces during a two-hour video taped dance class.
“We were asked to do a few different styles, such as contemporary and jazz, but everything we did related to ballet,” Benedict said.
Even though Benedict had been accepted to the camp, his parents were unsure if they were going to send him, with one of the reasons being expense. Between camp tuition and room and board the bill approached $5,000. A month after the audition, Benedict received a scholarship for the camp which helped offset the costs.
“I was nervous. He is only 14, living on a small farm, going to a big city by himself for three weeks,” Nadine said.
In the end, his parents allowed him to go to the camp and Benedict is glad they did.
“It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much, not only from the instructors, but the other dancers,” Benedict said, adding while he enjoyed his time, it was also a lot of work.
Benedict’s day would start at 6 a.m. at the Mount Royal University dorms, before leaving for Alberta Ballet’s downtown dance studio to begin classes at 8 a.m., starting out with two to three hours of ballet instruction.
“After that it was contemporary, character, jazz that kind of stuff. It was always different,” he said.
After about six and a half hours of instruction, the dancers would head back to the dorm for supper and team building activities, such as a dorm room door-decorating contest.
In their spare time, Benedict said they would either go to a nearby 7-11 or Starbucks to just hangout.
“We weren’t allowed to have any junk food in the dorms so they were pretty popular places,” he said.
It was during the first week of classes when Benedict was first approached by one of his ballet instructors saying he should audition for the full-year school program.
“He was really happy that his instructors thought he was doing so well he should audition for the full-year program, but at the time we told him no,” Nadine said.
A week later, Nadine received phone call from the head of the junior division of the school, saying how much they would like to have Benedict join their full-year program, offering him a $5,000 scholarship, which would only cover a fraction of the estimated $30,000 needed for tuition and housing.
However, at the end of the camp, Nadine and Uwe met with school administration and they suggested more scholarships could be available for the 2018-2019 school year.
“The other concern we have is academics. Benedict is doing very well in school and we want to make sure that continues,” Uwe said. “But apparently the school is quite good and scores quite high in the Provincial Achievement Tests.”
Although they haven’t made their final decision, the family as a whole is leaning towards saying yes.
“I think I would really like to try the full year, because it [Summer Intensive] was really nice to be around other dancers and although it was hard, it was good to be able to challenge myself to be able to get better,” Benedict said.
Nadine agreed, saying Benedict might have learned as much as he could locally.
“While Irene [Widdup] and Footworks is a great studio, she can’t offer him what they [Alberta School of Ballet] can. Two hours after school doesn’t compare to six and a half hours at school dedicated to dance.”
And while Uwe said the family would miss Benedict around the house if he were to go to the Alberta School of Ballet they might actually be able to see him more.
“Right now he spends all his spare time at the studio [Footworks Dance Academy]. After school he goes there for two or three hours, comes home and showers, eats and goes to bed. On the weekend he goes to the studio as well, so if he takes this program, at least we will see him when he comes home on the weekend,” Uwe joked.
