Summer News Briefs

July 30, 2013


Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Ballet
will offer 32-week paid contracts to 12 dancers in its Studio Company starting this September. The company will be comprised of professional dancers, who will perform with trainees from the Gelsey Kirkland Ballet Academy and guest artists at select performances. The company (established earlier this spring, under the direction of Kirkland and Michael Chernov) is slated to perform three NYC seasons throughout the year, beginning with The Nutcracker in December. See www.gelseykirklandballet.org.

Year-round Miami City Ballet School advanced students will have the opportunity to work with French ballet teacher Olivier Pardina, who joined the faculty earlier this summer. Pardina comes to MCB after a 20-year career as an instructor at the Harid Conservatory and a former director and principal teacher at the Nice Opera Ballet School in France. See www.miamicityballet.org.

New York City’s Harlem School of the Arts
announced that it will adopt American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum. HSA has a longer history with New York City Ballet—former principal Arthur Mitchell joined the faculty in 1966, though the program is not affiliated with Dance Theatre of Harlem, the company he co-founded. Aubrey Lynch II, a former Ailey dancer, took the reins of HSA’s dance and musical theater department in 2011, and beginning this fall, HSA dance faculty will begin ABT’s certification process. Curriculum co-designer and ABT’s JKO School principal Franco De Vita will lead master classes and serve as an advisor to HSA teachers throughout the year. See www.hsanyc.org.