Regional Dance America is opening doors to the professional dance world and beyond. RDA’s signature Scholarship & Recruitment Process is a cornerstone of our mission and gives young talented dancers opportunities beyond their regional borders. We welcome all professional training programs, company, college, and university recruiters to participate in our Scholarship & Recruitment Process and offer letters of encouragement, letters of acceptance, and scholarships to our dancers!
The RDA Scholarship & Recruitment Process has taken place at our Festivals for years. We brought the process online in 2020. With the tremendous success of the online program, we have decided to move forward in an online format. Continued on-site recruitment is available for those recruiters interested in traveling to our Festivals. We hope you will join us in fostering a network of excellence for the dance artists of tomorrow!
Our goal is to provide all training programs and college and university recruiters with a realistic and personalized approach to the scholarship & recruitment process via virtual audition submissions, as well as the additional option of attending on-site Festivals for continued recruitment purposes.
You will complete the easy-to-use online form, linked above, to tailor participation with RDA to fit the needs of your program. All program scholarships (summer or winter intensives) and recruitment opportunities (year-round programs) must be submitted through this link. You may also reserve artwork space in the 2023 RDA souvenir programs and dedicated email blasts through this link.
Deadline to submit your scholarship or recruitment opportunity: TBD
RDA will collect information from all dancers who wish to be considered for your program. Each dancer has the opportunity to select their top five scholarship choices for which they would like to be considered as well as if they would like to be considered for recruitment.
RDA will collect video links & resumes from each dancer.
The RDA National Scholarship & Recruitment Committee will send you profiles for every dancer that has expressed interest in being considered for your intensive program or year-round recruitment opportunity.
An email of dancers interested in your program will be sent in January.
After reviewing the dancer applications, send your top candidates back to RDA. We will then match the selected candidates with their top choice school or company.*
Deadline to send your candidate selections RDA: TBD
*Summer and winter training program scholarship offers will be matched with the dancers who selected those programs as their top choice.
RDA will put you directly in contact with the dancer(s) who have accepted your scholarship offers or recruitment opportunities for follow-up and attendance purposes.
RDA will send you email communications with the dancer, guardian, and artistic director in February.
The RDA National Scholarship & Recruitment Committee will organize virtual college roundtables for dancers to meet and greet the schools that have offered recruitment opportunities, and the dancers will have the opportunity to ask questions.
For recruiters who are also looking to attend RDA’s in-person Festivals, you will be given the exclusive opportunity to see dancers in classes and performances and to meet with dancers and a guardian or artistic director in accordance with RDA’s On-Site Recruitment Policy. Additionally, name badges with a universal numbering system at every Festival will indicate the school grades of all dancers in attendance for recruitment purposes.
Our online application portal, hosted by Acceptd, is now available! To ensure your application is considered, you must be a dancer with, or alumni of, an RDA Member Company and must be a registered RDA Associate for the 2023 season. Please visit our landing page to learn more and begin your application today. We look forward to receiving your online application!
Thank you to the many professional training programs, companies, colleges & universities who are participating in RDA’s 2023 Scholarship & Recruitment Process!
Adelphi University
Alabama Ballet
Alabama Dance Theatre
Atlanta Ballet
Ballet Academy East
Ballet Academy of Texas
Brenau University
Carolina Ballet
Center of Contemporary Arts
Coker University
Colorado Conservatory of Dance
Commercial Dance Intensive
Cornish College of the Arts
Cosmopolitan Ballet Theatre
DanceWorks Chicago
Delaware Dance Company
Eastern Michigan University
Eisenhower Dance Detroit
Hussian College Los Angeles
Idaho Dance Theatre
Joffrey Ballet School
José Limón Dance Foundation
Kent State University
Louisville Ballet
Mercyhurst University
Milwaukee Ballet
Mobile Ballet
Nashville Ballet
New World School of the Arts
Next Generation Ballet
Nimbus Dance
Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Oakland University
Oklahoma City Ballet
Oklahoma City University
Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University
Raleigh School of Ballet
Saint Louis Ballet
San Francisco Ballet School
Slippery Rock University
Steps on Broadway
Texas A&M University
Texas Ballet Theater
The Ballet Theatre of Maryland
The HARID Conservatory
The Hartt School, University of Hartford
The Joffrey Workshop
The Juilliard School
The Rock School for Dance Education
The Sarasota Ballet School
The University of Alabama
University of Georgia
University of Kansas
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
University of Oklahoma
University of Utah
Valdosta State University
Wright State University
Regional Dance America & the RDA Regions