In addition, 16 prospective dancers began training in musicals at the Musical Factory in Lucerne last fall.

This training offer is based on the knowledge that dancing is an art, but also a profession. “Switzerland is catching up compared to the European education system,” says Caroline Lam, deputy director of the contemporary dance course at CFP arts, to Keystone-SDA. Lam himself trained at the Center National de la Danse in Lyon and in Paris.

«Twenty years ago, the dancer had no status in Switzerland. Certification is now a way of giving status to a profession.” And, Lam continues: “Twenty years ago, an actor who left the conservatory had minimum wage, but a dancer didn’t. It was also about getting recognition for this profession.” Lam continues to dance alongside her teaching and she is creative.

At the CFP arts in Geneva, a course lasts four years and leads to a federal certificate of proficiency or a vocational baccalaureate. The young people between the ages of 16 and 20 dance between 17 and 25 hours a week during their training.

After their time at the CFP arts, the dancers can switch to secondary schools to do a bachelor’s degree, for example in Switzerland to the Zurich University of the Arts or to the Manufacture in Lausanne. Both training courses were introduced in 2014. A master’s degree in choreography and pedagogy in Zurich is also offered afterwards.

For the basic training in contemporary dance in Geneva, the students come from all over Switzerland. The CFP arts chooses around 15 from the applicants every year around 50 young applicants. And so the girls and students step into the middle of the hall in small groups. They move according to the instructions of the choreographer Caroline Lam. A drum sets the beat.

“Contemporary dance feeds on the career of each individual,” explains Lam. If the students have previously practiced hip-hop, circus arts or gymnastics, this will add a special touch to their movements.

For example, 19-year-old Leo was already in the circus as a child. «I see that I understand movement differently than my classmates. Being in the circus probably gave me a special sensitivity». Or his classmate Eva, who at 17 is one of the youngest in the class, says that without this school she “certainly would not have decided to study dance”, although she started dancing at the age of four or five.

Eva can imagine adding a bachelor’s degree at a school in Amsterdam, Salzburg or Brussels to the basic training in Geneva. And Leo already has plans for performances this year.