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The Amherst Ballet Theatre Company is a dance school located at 29 Strong Street in Amherst, Massachusetts. [1] It is a non-profit (501(c)3) organization overseen by a volunteer board of directors and administered by an executive director. [2] Though it has a few classes in Contemporary and Jazz dance, the preponderance of its classes teach the Vaganova syllabus of ballet. [3]
Amherst Ballet School was founded in 1971, by Therese Brady Donohue, as a private, for-profit business. Classes were based on the syllabus of London's Royal Academy of Dancing. [4] In 1976 Donohue founded the non-profit Amherst Ballet Theatre Company to provide for a greater range of performance opportunities for the students and the community. The for-profit Amherst Ballet School and the non-profit Amherst Ballet Theater Company existed as separate entities until 2000 when they were merged into a single non-profit organization. [5]
Between 2003 and 2011 the executive director was Catherine Fair. In 2012, Sueann Townsend was hired as executive director.
Amherst Ballet works to engage with the artistic community. It collaborated with local artists—the Arabic musical ensemble, Layali; the Pioneer Valley Symphony, conducted by Paul Phillips; Rebecca Guay and Jane Yolen to produce a ballet based on their book The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories [6] ; and Jane Wald, director of the Emily Dickinson Museum to produce a ballet based on the life of Emily Dickinson, called Emily of Amherst [7]
Amherst Ballet works engage with the community at large. It believes that ballet is not just for those who might make it a profession. Amherst Ballet believes that ballet is for everybody, regardless of age, body type, or ability. It has developed classes for adults, whether absolute beginners, or people who gave up dance long ago and wished they hadn't. [8]
Amherst Ballet also brings in internationally regarded master teachers to work with all students, regardless of a student's expertise. It brought Ilya Kuznetsov, master teacher of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet Academy, to work with students from the cities of Springfield, Holyoke, and Greenfield—students who might not otherwise get the opportunity to study with such masters. Amherst Ballet believes that ballet education is not just for those who might excel at ballet in the future; ballet education is for anybody who wants to enjoy the beauty of dance. As the artistic director of Amherst Ballet, Sueann Townsend, said, "Everybody deserves to have a participatory aesthetic in their life." [9]
Paige Turco - actress in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, The Guiding Light, American Gothic, NYPD Blue, and NCIS.
The Cecchetti method is variously defined as a style of ballet and as a ballet training method devised by the Italian ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928). The training method seeks to develop essential skills in dancers as well as strength and elasticity. Cecchetti-trained dancers are commonly found in ballet and other dance companies throughout the world.
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it came to international prominence as Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. The Bolshoi has been recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in the world. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Ballet Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.
The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is a UK-based examination board specialising in dance education and training, with an emphasis on classical ballet. The RAD was founded in London, England in 1920 as the Association of Teachers of Operatic Dancing, and was granted a Royal Charter in 1935. Queen Elizabeth II was patron of the RAD and Darcey Bussell was elected to serve as president in 2012, succeedingPresident Antoinette Sibley who served for 21 years.
A ballet master is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In modern times, ballet masters are generally charged with teaching the daily company ballet class and rehearsing the dancers for both new and established ballets in the company's repertoire. The artistic director of a ballet company, whether a male or female, may also be called its ballet master. Historic use of gender marking in job titles in ballet is being supplanted by gender-neutral language job titles regardless of an employee's gender.
Sulamith Mikhailovna Messerer, OBE was a Russian ballerina and choreographer who laid the foundations for the classical ballet in Japan.
Nina Ananiashvili is a Georgian ballerina and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia. She has been described by the Daily Telegraph as one of the twelve greatest ballerinas of all time, and in 2002 was named Best Ballerina of the Year by the US Dance Magazine. Ananiashvili has been a prominent fixture of the Soviet, Russian and Georgian ballet scene for decades. Shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain, in 1987 a New York Magazine critic praised her as "the best thing about the Bolshoi's Giselle whether she appeared in the title role or as the queen of the wilis." In 2014, a film of her 1991 performance in Giselle with the Bolshoi ballet was released.
Mansur Kamaletdinov was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, teacher, ballet master and choreographer of classical ballet and classical character dance.
Nikolay Maximovich Tsiskaridze PAR is a Georgian-Russian ballet dancer who had been a member of the Bolshoi Ballet for 21 years (1992–2013).
Rostislav Vladimirovich Zakharov was a Soviet and Russian choreographer, ballet dancer and opera director. He was a professor at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow (1946–1983). Rostislav Zakharov was awarded the Stalin Prize twice and designated the People's Artist of the USSR (1969).
Igor Yebra Iglesias is a Spanish freelance ballet dancer.
Māris Rūdolfs Liepa was a Soviet Latvian ballet dancer. He graduated from Riga Choreography School where he was taught by Valentin Blinov. He performed in Moscow for the first time in 1950. At the height of career, Liepa was considered one of the finest male dancers in the world and one of the most versatile, at home in a wide range of roles.
Ballet Theatre of Maryland is Maryland's premier professional [Ballet company] and is based in Annapolis, Maryland. Originally established as The Ballet Theatre of Annapolis, the organization was founded in November 1978 as a private non-profit corporation governed by a twelve-person Board of Trustees, with Danny Diamond as the first Artistic Director, and established residency at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis. In 1996, the company achieved professional status. In 2000, the organization’s name was changed to Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Inc. (BTM) to fulfill a new mission of serving the State of Maryland. Dianna Cuatto joined BTM as Artistic Director at the start of the 2003-2004 season and has since won numerous awards for her choreography with BTM. Dianna Cuatto is now honored with the title of Artistic Director Emeritus. The current Artistic Director, Nicole Kelsch, was appointed for the 2020-2021 season after being a Principal Dancer, School Principal, and Ballet Mistress for 14 years.
Olga Vasilyevna Lepeshinskaya was a Soviet ballerina. She was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1951.
Nikolai Borisovich Fadeyechev was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer and teacher. He was awarded People's Artist of the USSR in 1976.
British ballet is most recognised for two leading methods, those of the Royal Ballet School and the Royal Academy of Dance. The identifying characteristic of British ballet is the focus on clean, precise technique and purity of line that is free of exaggeration and mannerisms. The training of dancers in Britain is noted for its slow progression, with a great deal of attention paid to basic technique. British ballet methods operate on the principle that establishing correct technique and strength slowly makes it much easier for the student to adapt to more difficult vocabulary and techniques later on.
Greensboro Ballet is a professional ballet company in North Carolina. It is the only ballet company in the Piedmont Triad. It is one of the few non-profit ballet companies in North Carolina. Greensboro Ballet has presented works by George Balanchine. The company also has performed a number of works made especially for the Greensboro Ballet by Rick McCullough, Jill Eathorne Bahr, Leslie Jane Pessemier, Elissa Minet Fuchs, and Emery LeCrone. Maryhelen Mayfield, who served as artistic and executive director of Greensboro Ballet from 1980 to 2019, choreographed over twenty-five works for the company.
Paul Boos is an American dancer, ballet master, archivist, and répétiteur. He danced with New York City Ballet from 1977 until 1990 before becoming a guest teacher for the Royal Danish Ballet. In addition to teaching internationally, he is part of a select group of répétiteurs sanctioned by the Balanchine Trust to set the ballets of George Balanchine. Having previously served as Project Associate since 2016, in 2021, Boos was appointed to Director of the Video Archives for the George Balanchine Foundation.
Oleg Mikhailovich Vinogradov is a Russian former dancer, choreographer and ballet director. He graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet under Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin and went on to become a choreographer, working with some of the Soviet Union's most important ballet companies, including the Kirov Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. In the early 1970s he was artistic director and chief choreographer at the Maly Theatre Ballet, and became artistic director of the Kirov Ballet in 1977. During this period, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States grew warmer, and the Kirov Ballet embarked on several US tours for the first time in decades. Vinogradov became the first Soviet ballet master to invite Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit to stage works for the Kirov, and also helped to bring authorized productions of George Balanchine's ballets to Russia for the first time. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1983.
ndrey Eduardovich Klemm is a Russian born ballet dancer, ballet teacher, author and choreographer.
Nureyev is a ballet choreographed by Kirill Serebrennikov and Yuri Posokhov with a score by Ilya Demutsky. The premiere of Nureyev took place at the Historical Scene of the Bolshoi Theatre on 9 December 2017.