{"id":4324,"date":"2012-09-13T20:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T20:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/breaking-ballet-local-dancer-gets-professional-contract-2\/"},"modified":"2012-09-13T20:45:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T20:45:16","slug":"breaking-ballet-local-dancer-gets-professional-contract-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/breaking-ballet-local-dancer-gets-professional-contract-2","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Ballet: Local Dancer Gets Professional Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"skylarburson\"<\/p>\n

Skylar performs in the South Bay Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Michael Khoury<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Skylar Kolby Burson exemplifies the American Dream: success through hard work, perseverance, determination and a little bit of luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, maybe a lot of luck,\u201d Burson says.<\/p>\n

This Long Beach native, at just 21 years-old, broke into the ballet business a few months ago with a professional contract from the Utah Regional Ballet Company. Now, Burson has moved from his South Bay Ballet\u2014where he had been training the last seven years\u2014and heading to a city just south of Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind is blown that I\u2019ve even obtained this first step. Seeing this new chapter in my life, it has been a milestone in my dance goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Burson will be joining the URBC as a Company Member, which is a step below Soloist and Principal, but he\u2019s okay with that (\u201cTechnically I get more stage time,\u201d he jokes).<\/p>\n

Burson has been doing ballet for the last 11 years, but it wasn\u2019t until he found South Bay Ballet that he found his niche. \u201cWhen I joined South Bay I found that I fell in love with ballet,\u201d he says. South Bay Ballet has been Burson\u2019s springboard for this opportunity. \u201cSouth Bay is more like a school or training grounds where you learn the basics and perfect the basics and then where I am now, my job per se, I use the foundation and techniques I learned at South Bay to help me perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Skylarburson2\"<\/p>\n

He\u2019s now moved from less training to more of a rehearsal and performance schedule, similar to ones seen in reality shows such as CW\u2019s Breaking Pointe<\/em>, which follows dancers at Salt Lake City\u2019s Ballet West.<\/p>\n

Breaking Pointe<\/em> has brought national attention to contemporary ballet in the same way shows such as Glee have increased interest in singing groups. But even though ballet is going through a media renaissance, Burson hasn\u2019t really noticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ballet world is constantly changing, maybe not at a skyrocketing rate, but it\u2019s definitely changing here and there,\u201d he says. \u201cSome years there will be a lot of people in class, sometimes there will be a lot of people in productions, other years it\u2019s smaller. I\u2019d hope to see an increase in people because of the media. If the benefits of putting dance in the media are that we get more in class, that\u2019s a plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his move to Utah, Burson has definitely had to acclimate to the new environment and a new rigorous schedule which\u2014for six days a week\u2014includes an hour and a half of morning warm ups followed by three to four hours of rehearsal. Sometimes, there are also night rehearsals and Burson doesn\u2019t get home until 9PM.<\/p>\n

Even though he has a brutal schedule, Burson has been able to make connections outside of the studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have 3 roommates and they are not dancers, I didn\u2019t even know them when I moved out here. It\u2019s weird when you aren\u2019t going to the ballet studio, but on the other side you do want to mingle and introduce yourself to the non-dancing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he\u2019s a little apprehensive about Utah winters, \u201cI\u2019m excited to start anew,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"skylarburson<\/p>\n

Skylar Burson, a 21 year-old Long Beach native, broke into the ballet business a few months ago with a professional contract from the Utah Regional Ballet Company. Now, Burson has moved from his South Bay Ballet\u2014where he had been training the last seven years\u2014and heading to a city just south of Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":69481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}