Mara Ilyina
Chicago · Northline Ballet Academy
Monthly or once. Your support goes directly to Mara.
An illustrative profile. Mara is not a real dancer and no dancers have joined yet.
I am in my third year at Northline, in the studio six mornings a week before most people are awake. Ballet is not something I picked up recently and it is not something I intend to put down.
What I am working toward is a company contract. That means auditions in three cities next spring, and it means arriving at them prepared rather than exhausted from working evenings to pay for the training that got me there.
A patron changes the arithmetic. Not by making it easy — by making it possible to spend the hours on the floor instead of on the shift.
What support makes possible
- A season of pointe shoes
- $1,200
- Summer intensive tuition
- $3,400
- Audition travel, three cities
- $850
Roughly a pair every two weeks through a full training year.
Six weeks of full-time training between academic years.
Transport and two nights' accommodation per audition.
Illustrative figures. Real dancers will state their own.
In the studio
