From the Top of the School to the Bottom of the Company
Jee-Eun Petitqueux trained at the Royal Ballet School Antwerp, danced professionally for Universal Ballet, and is now back at the school that trained her, teaching the next generation. We sat down with her on the podcast to talk about the challenges young dancers face when they step out of school and into the professional world. And she said something that stuck with me.
She was talking about the gap between school and company life. In school, you have this dream. You picture yourself performing solos, dancing lead roles. Then you get accepted into a company, and the reality hits: you start at the bottom. You work your way up. And for a lot of young dancers, that feels like failure.
"I cannot do a solo yet. Therefore, I've failed."
That was the mindset she described. And she's right that we need to talk about it more openly. Because getting into the company is the achievement. The rest is just how companies work.
We talked about this and more in our conversation with her, from the self-doubt to eventually finding her way back to the school that trained her.
"From the top of the school to the bottom of the company"
Yasmine Naghdi said almost the exact same thing. In a 2011 Telegraph feature, when she was 19 and in the corps de ballet at The Royal Ballet, she put it plainly: "It's difficult because you come from the top of the school to the bottom of the company. You don't dance as much as you're used to, you're only really covering things."
She's now a Principal of The Royal Ballet and the rest is history, like they say. And yet she started at the bottom of the rung like everyone else.
In the same article, Yasmine described what actually changes when you make that jump: "The main difference between being a student and being in the corps is how independent you feel. You're used to being told what to do, but in a company you have to decide how to pace yourself and when to push yourself."
That's the real shift. School has a reassuring structure. Someone tells you where to be, what to work on, how to improve. Even though as a student, one might long for more freedom. In a company, no one is going to manage your development for you. You have to keep your eyes open, observe, and learn as you go.
We've seen this closer to home
When Milan arrived at the Royal Ballet School, he was excited and grateful to be there. But within the first few days, a house parent wrote to us: "Milan seems to be a very conscientious boy and he seems to be very responsible; however, he's very quiet."
Coming from Belgium, everything was new for him. Living in a boarding school and English not being his native language. He was observing everything and watching how teachers conducted classes.
We saw the same thing at the YAGP finals in New York. He walked in as the Belgian and European champion. But there he was surrounded by 50 very talented boys, every one of them capable, dancing like Duracell bunnies. That shifted his mindset. He hadn't expected a level playing field.
At our own studio, we had a girl who was invited to join the main company team when she was about 12. The other dancers were between 15 and 16. She was more talented than most of them, but the moment she stepped in, she went quiet. She took on a more reserved role and actually started performing worse. Everyone was confused. What's going on here? But she was busy reading the room. She knew she couldn't walk in and overshadow dancers who'd been there for years. She had to earn her place. Everything turned out fine eventually, yet the transition was hard to miss.
This isn't just dance
I remember this from my own life, long before starting Ndigo. When I was studying, I took a weekend job at a bar to pay the bills. My first few shifts were moving tables and chairs outside to create a dance floor, then moving them back at 5am in the morning. Nobody asked my opinion on anything.
But after a few shifts, I went to the manager and said, "Is there anything else I can help with?" He looked at me with a slightly perplexed look. A week later, I overheard the manager telling another staff member, "Justin's brand new and he's the first person who's asked me if there was anything more to do." Pretty soon I was standing behind the bar, dealing with customers one on one, pouring them drinks.
Others were doing as much as was expected. I just got stuck in.
The pattern is the same whether you're joining The Royal Ballet or starting a weekend job. You arrive, you observe, you earn trust, and you work your way up. That's how it works everywhere.
What to tell your child
If your dancer has just made it into a company and feels like they've gone backwards, the most useful thing you can say is: the dynamics have changed. School was a safe and structured environment where someone always told you what to do next. A company is different. No one is going to tell you how to conduct yourself. You have to figure that out by watching, listening, and being present.
That's where the real career starts.
We put a lot of time and care into making this content. If it was useful to you, the one thing we'd ask is this: subscribe to The Justin & Ineke Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen. It's free, it costs you nothing, and it helps us keep making episodes like this one. If you know a dance parent or student who needs to hear this, share it with them. And if you have your own experience of starting at the bottom, leave a comment. We read every one.
Dream it. Do it. Give it.