
From a process that began last fall, the National Ballet School Auditions are winding up in Toronto and the GTA. It’s a chance for dancers from grades 6 to post-secondary levels can try to make that first major leap into a professional career.
Canada’s NBS is the only such facility to offer cutting edge professional level dance training, academic instruction, and residences all on the same campus. Scouts are searching the world for the next gen of top tier ballet talent.
It’s the first round of auditions for the National Ballet School’s new Artistic Director, Margaret Tracey.
Margaret Tracey, Artistic Director
Margaret Tracey was appointed as the NBS’ Artistic Director after an international search. She succeeded Mavis Staines in the role as of July 2024. She comes to the role with decades of experience, including a long tenure as Director of Boston Ballet School, and leads the organization alongside Executive Director John Dalrymple.
Tracey is a native of Pueblo, Colorado, where she began ballet studies with her mother Nancy at the age of six. Margaret went on to study at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet (NYCB). There, she was awarded an Atlantic Richfield Foundation scholarship, and earned a Princess Grace Foundation award.
She joined the NYCB corps de ballet, and remained there until her retirement in 2002. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1991, and was noted for excelling in the Balanchine repertoire. Tracey performed frequently in the company’s core works, including Allegro Brilliante, Serenade, Square Dance, Symphony in C, Who Cares?, and many others. She toured the world with the company, and made appearances on the PBS Live from Lincoln Center series and in the 1993 film of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.
Tracey became a Balanchine Repetiteur, and staged his works on both professional companies and schools. She won a Jerome Robbins Foundation award in 2011 for her work as a Robbins’ dancer.
After her retirement from performance, Tracey turned to the work of a teacher and arts advocate. She was Director of the Boston Ballet School from 2007 until 2021. There, she instituted a wellness program among other initiatives.

Margaret Tracey: The Interview
“As part of the national audition tour, in many ways, we are looking at different mechanisms […] pipelines of dancers, almost on an annual basis,” Tracey begins, explaining the audition process.
The Canadian audition tour began in October, holding tryouts literally from Vancouver to Halifax.
“This past weekend we were in Toronto,” she says. The search will continue beyond the city proper to the Greater Toronto Area, as well as auditions in London, Ontario, and Buffalo, NY. In the latter location, the auditions will be held in a studio owned by parents of former NBS students. “It’s our only spot outside the tour outside of Canada.” But, it’s still close to home, and meant to capture talent from the region.
Naturally, although it’s her first season with NBS, it’s hardly her first rodeo when it comes to auditioning prospective student.
“I’ve been in dance education for almost 20 years,” Tracey says. She appreciates the level of talent she’s found in Canada. “It’s been very inspiring and very refreshing,” she says.
The numbers are healthy, and speak to a growing interest in ballet among younger students in the area of grade six. “Over the last 20 years or so, there’s been a lot of dance on media,” Margaret notes. It’s a development she’s happy to take note of. “Being able to dance is part of the human condition,” she adds. “We respond to music through movement.”
The appreciation of culture is something she recognizes in Canada. “To see media really elevating the art form, specifically ballet […] to see the value of the arts in this country is inspiring.” She points to the level of support at various levels of government, coming in contrast to what she experienced in the US. “We compete for sports, just like in the States, but there is a lot more recognition in this country for the arts.”
Tracey also recognizes that the NBS occupies a special place in the Canadian cultural landscape. “I also think the international attention that NBS has is a source of pride to Canadians.” She points out that potential students come from all over the world. “When you see the world coming to you, you all of a sudden recognize what we have right here in Canada.”
The Auditions
The National Audition Tour is only one of the streams in the search for new students at the NBS. Scouts
Some, more remote students also continue to apply via video submissions.
“We’re seeing these young dancers for the first time in person,” she explains. But, it’s not a one-shot process. Promising candidates are invited to come and stay at the school for a second and more in depth evaluation. “We are not trying to make a decision on full-time participation based on one audition.”
Representatives from the school also travel across the globe to attend ballet competitions. “One is in Mumbai, India now,” Tracey says. Margaret will be making trips of her own to the Prix de Lausanne.
“With all of those different streams and touch points, we end up with about 2,000 applications every year,” she says. “It’s a very, very competitive field.”
Still, there is hope even for those who don’t make the cut first time out. “We also see students that come back and audition again.” Young dancers may not be quite ready, as she points out, while still showing promise. “We always encourage our young dancers, even if they’re not selected the first time around, try again.”
Young dancers can always develop in unexpected ways, as experience has taught her.
“There’s nothing more exciting when a young dancer demonstrates their tenacity and determination, and they develop in ways that are unexpected.”
The scouts look for dancers as young as age 10, when they are still malleable physically, artistically, and cognitively. “They’re just going through adolescence and begin showing strength.”
The National Ballet School
The heart and soul of the NBS is its highly touted professional training program. But, that’s not all the school has to offer.
“Here on the campus, we take a holistic approach to sharing dance,” she says. That may come in a variety of dance classes. “What is special about coming to our campus is to see younger students […] on weekends and after hours, or our older adult programming.” She points out the NBS has dance programs for people with physical disabilities, and also for demential patients.
“There’s this commitment to acknowledging that dance enriches our lives.”
It’s more than performance, in other words. Dance can be an integral part of our lives. She talks of current dance students who want to take their experience and knowledge into kinesiology, or go into politics with an artist’s mindset.
Final Thoughts
“One of the things that drew me to NBS was the commitment to DEI and making it an inclusive space,” Tracey says. “We do live in a racist society, it’s a well known fact.”
Ballet, in its history, has been an art that marginalized dancers with non-European backgrounds in the past. Tracey talks about the NBS’ dedication to representation.
“We are actively pursuing that.”
It includes auditioning with different dance forms other than ballet. “We start the class with a different dance form other than ballet in order to send the message,” she adds. “It enhances you as a ballet dancer to expand the dance you do. It’s important that students see the efforts for inclusion.”
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