The junges
Ensemble (young ensemble)

The children in our Young Ensemble receive semi-professional stage training in dance, acting and singing. The dance training is compulsory; additional specialist courses in acting and singing are offered from the fourth year of training. The training is geared towards the needs of our Young Shows, which are performed annually in the autumn and winter.

Membership of the Friedrichstadt-Palast’s Young Ensemble is also a wonderfully enriching experience that will enable you to develop important skills, such as the ability to work as part of a team, a sense of responsibility and self-confidence as well as to make countless friends. While there’s no certificate at the end of your time here at the Palast, you’ll receive a recommendation for their future development – perhaps on stage again or in film or television.

Children can join the Young Ensemble’s ballet group from the age of six (school-age children). Membership of the Young Ensemble ends when you reach the age of 17 at the latest. It is alternatively possible to join the Young Ensemble from the age of nine as a lateral entrant.

Training and rehearsals take place from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. two to three times per week. Each training session lasts 1–1.5 hours. During the performance season from mid-November to the end of January, our Young Shows already start at 4 p.m.

We charge an annual fee of €240 for the Young Ensemble training as well as a one-off admission fee of €30.

Auditions are held to get an impression of your dancing and physical talents as well as your singing and acting abilities. These take place in two different age groups:

Every February, we hold open auditions for all children aged 6–7 years (school years 1 and 2). This is exclusively a ballet audition. There’s no need to submit a written application in advance. We announce the dates for the open audition on our website every autumn.

Every January/February, we hold auditions for all children aged 9–15 years in dance, acting and singing. The dance audition is compulsory; the acting and singing auditions are open to those with a particular interest and aptitude. As the children will be integrated into our existing groups as lateral entrants, experience in these fields is definitely an advantage. A written application must be submitted in advance. Once we’ve reviewed all of the applications, we’ll decide who we’d like to invite to the auditions.

There’s no need to register in advance for the open ballet auditions. All interested children can simply come to the Friedrichstadt-Palast on the audition day and introduce themselves. There’s no need to prepare anything in advance. We pay particular attention to the physical requirements, movement and musicality of our youngest dancers. The audition is held in larger groups in our ballet hall; parents are able to wait in the foyer during the audition.

The auditions for children aged 9–15 years are by invitation only. In the dance component, one of our dance teachers will work with you to prepare a short choreography, which must then be performed in small groups. So there’s no need to prepare anything in advance. Should you be interested in participating in the singing and/or acting auditions, you’ll have the opportunity to do so afterwards. We’ll provide a short improv text, which we’ll also work on together beforehand. For the singing component, we ask that you prepare two songs of your choice (one ballad and one up-tempo song).

At least one of the two songs should be in German.

All auditions comprise two rounds. Your overall suitability is assessed in the first round; after the second round (admission procedure), we’ll decide who we’d like to offer a spot in the Young Ensemble. This will then be followed by a three-month rehearsal period.

We ask that all children bring dance clothes or sportswear and appropriate footwear (slippers if available) with them to auditions.