Pro Track Information

What is Pro Track?

The mission of the SMASH Pro Track program is to provide dancers with the technical, physical and mental preparation to reach a level of proficiency in dance that will allow them to explore professional or collegiate dance options after high school. Technical preparation is achieved through dancers taking the specific class schedules as set for their technical level – classes include Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Leaps & Turns and Style & Performance. Physical preparation includes body alignment, coordination, strength and flexibility achieved through classes. Mental preparation means helping dancers navigate their dance experiences and emotional landscapes with care and support. Through the Pro Track program, dancers develop a sense of team membership with their peers, a love for the art of dance, and strong individual character.

Who is Pro Track for?

If your dancer has a passion for movement and dance, a desire to progress their abilities at a fast pace in order to reach a high level, and the commitment to spend more time at the studio, Pro Track is for you! Our Pro Track program begins at Level 3, which is typically 10-12 year olds, but dancers can join the program at any age.

Pre Pro Track: For Level 3 dancers who aren’t ready to commit to the full Pro Track schedule, we offer a Pre Pro Track 3 route. For our Level 2 dancers that are eager to join Pro Track, we offer a Pre Pro Track 2 route. Look for the purple text in the sections below for more details about Pre Pro Track!

What are the requirements?

Our Pro Track season is a full year commitment, beginning with summer session and going into the

regular school season (June 2023 - May 2024).

During the summer session:

Dancers take a specified class schedule based on their Pro Track level placement. Weekly summer class hours are significantly less than weekly hours during the regular season. All classes take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Dancers participate in our SMASH Summer Intensive, which is a full week of amazing classes from local guest artists. This year’s Intensive will be June 27-30, 2023.
Dancers have the option to participate in our Pro Track Showcase and learn new choreography throughout the summer (solos/duets/trios, small groups, large groups) to be performed in our Pro Track Showcase concert in the fall. Showcase pieces are also eligible to be taken to a convention/competition that we attend later in the year.
Pre Pro Track dancers are only required to take ballet and jazz once a week, however additional classes and camps are highly recommended to keep dancers progressing and prepare them for a great year! The Pro Track Showcase is for full Pro Track students only.

During the regular school session:

Dancers take a specified class schedule based on their Pro Track level placement.
Dancers participate in our ballet production of Clara and the Nutcracker, with weekly Saturday morning rehearsals from September-December.
Dancers attend IMPACT Dance Collective, which is a two-day convention in the fall in Salt Lake City hosted by SMASH and two other Salt Lake based dance studios. Dancers take classes with the professional guest artists brought in and participate in great Pro Track team bonding.
Pro Track will attend one other nationally touring dance convention and competition. Dancers take classes with the guest teachers brought in by the convention, and Pro Track Showcase choreography is presented at the competition for adjudication.
Dancers participate in the SMASH Spring Recital with all of their participating classes.
We will have a Pro Track photo shoot with a professional photographer where we will get individual, small group, and large group photos of all Pro Track dancers.
Pro Track dancers will have a designated SMASH faculty member assigned as their mentor. We will hold scheduled Mentor Meetings as a time to check in. Mentors are also available and invested in the dancers, able to answer questions, handle concerns or issues, and help guide students in their goal setting.
Pre Pro Track dancers have a smaller amount of required weekly class hours compared to full Pro Track. Pre Pro Track 3 dancers will take a few set classes and a few elective classes. Participation in Clara and the Nutcracker is optional. Pre Pro Track dancers will be invited to attend the conventions if space is available. Pre Pro Track dancers will participate in the SMASH Spring Recital with all of their participating classes. The photo shoot will be optional. Pre Pro Track students will not take part in individual mentorships.

What are the costs?

We want to make paying for Pro Track as simple as possible – we combine all the payments that you would make throughout the entire Pro Track year and divide them up into 12 equal payments, beginning June 2023. Then you will set up automatic monthly withdrawals for that amount so you won’t have to worry about completing payments or getting hit with late fees!

Below are the basic Pro Track tuition rates. This includes class tuition for the summer and regular season, convention and camp fees, Nutcracker and Spring Recital costumes and fees, plus the photo shoot and Pro Track swag! Your cost will increase if you choose to add additional classes to your schedule. We are happy to provide a breakdown of costs upon request.

Pro Track 3 – $434/month

Pro Track 4 – $444/month

Pro Track 5 – $477/month

Pro Track 6 – $506/month

Pro Track 7 – $541/month

Please note: Fees for Pro Track Showcase and the convention performances of the Showcase pieces will be billed separately. Spring Show soloists fees will also be billed separately, if applicable.

Pre Pro Track Tuition

A few optional opportunities can be added in from the get go if you know you will want to participate. We will confirm these things as we finalize your registration.
*This is the minimum Pre Pro Track 3 tuition. This may increase depending on the elective class hours chosen

Pre Pro Track 2 – $173/month

Pre Pro Track 3 – $195/month*

Pro Track families will set up automatic withdrawals to cover the year of payments. Alternatively, you may choose to pay the entire lump sum up front and receive a 5% discount off the Pro Track tuition.

*Note: Pro Track tuition will not be eligible for the sibling discount, however siblings of the Pro Track dancer will still receive the 10% sibling discount.

Prorate Your Pro Track Payment with Service Hours!

We understand that all the amazing opportunities and requirements of Pro Track adds up to a big expense financially. In order to help alleviate some of that burden, we offer a process for Pro Track dancers to pay for a portion of their monthly payments through serving in the community. Dancers can petition for sponsors to donate money for their service hours – for example, a grandparent could pledge to pay $5 per service hour, and a family friend might pledge to pay another $2 per service hour. On top of that, any dancer that has at least one non-parent sponsor will receive a $20/hour pledge from SMASH Dance Academy! Dancers then find ways to serve at any 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, get their hours approved by someone at the organization, submit their hours to SMASH, and we will discount their monthly tuition based on their service.

If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please reach out as soon as possible so we can provide you with more details and information and you can get set up to begin right away in June.

Interested in Pro Track?

Here's what to do and expect next.

Confirm commitment and prepare for registration

The upcoming Pro Track season is from May 30, 2023 to May 24, 2024. Pro Track dancers must be registered by April 30, 2023. Please read through and discuss the items listed below with your Pro Track dancer before registering. Each of the items below will be part of your registration.

Level Placements

We take the proper placement of each Pro Track dancer at SMASH very seriously. Each year is different and each year presents new factors for us to consider and solve as we look at the studio as a whole all the way down to each individual dancer. This year, we need to confirm who is committed to participation in Pro Track for the upcoming season and from there we will be able to make proper level placements. All dancers should plan on attending summer classes of the same level they are currently placed in. Any changes that need to be made to a dancer’s level placement will be made individually on a case by case basis.

If your dancer is new or returning to Pro Track after a leave of absence, completing your Pro Track registration will begin the placement process. We will reach out with a variety of classes that we would like your dancer to attend in the month of May in order to be placed for summer classes.Once we have sufficient teacher feedback, we will let you know what Pro Track level your dancer will be in.

One important note: Due to the number of hours that the Pro Track dancers take each week, a Pro Track Level 4 class is not necessarily the same technical level as a non Pro Track Level 4 class. Because of this, any dancer new to Pro Track will be evaluated and placed based on where they fall technically in relation to the Pro Track groups.

What does this mean for Pro Track dancers?

The potential for changes to happen in August means that we are expecting dancers to commit to Pro Track now, regardless of any changes that may occur with level placement for themselves or their classmates. This is a sign of commitment to their own personal progression in dance without comparison to or reliance on others. The friendships that we witness being built between the dancers at SMASH are immensely important to us and we do not take “splitting” groups or moving dancers lightly. We hope Pro Track dancers can always have some classes with old friends as well as opportunities to make new friends. We know the value of safety and support in classes with old friends, and also the motivation of being in a class with new dancers. All this to say, please know that we put a lot of intentional thought into where we place dancers. We are always happy to answer questions, listen to emotions, and make goals and plans for a dancers’ progression. We hope we have earned the respect and trust of our dancers and their families to warrant your support and understanding for our professional decisions.

What does this mean for Pro Track parents?

If your dancer is recommended for a change in Level, this will affect their schedule and tuition costs. As necessary, we will detail the changes in weekly class hours, tuition changes, and how that will affect your monthly payments.

Request a Pro Track Mentor

This season, we would like to offer Pro Track students the ability to request a specific mentor for the year from our amazing group of Pro Track mentors: Mrs Ashley, Mrs Hattie, Mrs Jenna, Mrs Rachel, Mrs Shanae and Mrs Sydnee. We will assign mentors upon request starting from your oldest dancers and working down. Each mentor has a specific number of mentee “spots” for the year, so if your requested mentors are full, we will assign an available mentor. It is totally fine if your dancer has no preference.

Here are some things to consider with your dancer before making a request:
- Is there one of the mentors that you feel more comfortable talking with and confiding in?
- Did you make goals or progress with your mentor from this past year that you would like to continue working on with that same person?
- Is there one of the mentors that has background, experiences, or connections that you feel would be especially helpful to your goals for this year or the future?

Indicate Your Interest in the Pro Track Showcase

Upon registration, we would like to know if you are interested in participating in the Pro Track

Showcase. If you are interested, you will be provided with more details and specifics in a few

weeks. At that point, you will fully commit to participating or let us know you won’t be involved this

year. If you are unsure right now, select that you are interested in the registration and you can

decide later! If you already know that you are not interested or available to participate this year, you

can let us know on the Pro Track registration.

Here are some things to consider with your dancer before indicating your interest at this point:
- The Pro Track Showcase concert will be Saturday, September 23, 2023. All dancers must be available the entire day in order to participate and perform in the Showcase. In addition, we will have a mandatory In-Studio run through on Friday, September 22, 2023.
- Showcase AUDITIONS will be held on Friday, May 13th, 2023. All dancers interested in participating in the Showcase must attend the audition. If you are unavailable on May 13th, dancers will need to send in video footage in order to participate.
- Showcase pieces will be choreographed, taught and rehearsed over the summer, and additional rehearsals will be necessary in September before the concert. We always do what we can over the summer to work around individual schedules. If your family is planning to be gone quite a bit over the summer, it may be very challenging for you to find time to rehearse with a group. Please seriously consider your availability, and we will likely ask for more specifics at the time of Showcase sign ups.
- On the registration, we will ask specifically for any conflicts you have in the month of June. Check out your calendars and be prepared for this on the Pro Track registration.
- Participation requires dancers to develop responsibility! They may be in charge of scheduling rehearsals with their group mates, requesting studio time to rehearse, practicing their dance/s on their own and with their group/s without the choreographer, communicating with choreographers and more. It’s a great opportunity to learn some amazing dance (and life!) skills.
- We will be taking all of the Pro Track Showcase pieces to a convention/competition later in the year. Dancers will not be allowed to drop out of pieces between the Showcase and the convention performance. Participation in the Showcase requires a commitment to participation in the convention/competition. We will provide as many concrete details as we can about the convention/competition at the time of Showcase sign ups.

When you are ready, at any point before April 30, 2023, complete the Pro Track registration survey below

to register your dancer for the Pro Track season. Complete a new survey for each Pro Track dancer in

your family.

If you are new or returning to Pro Track after a leave of absence, the sooner you can register and start the

placement process, the better!