News: A Pre-Professional Pairing
UNCSA and ABTâs JKO School begin a five-year partnership.
Connections between the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and American Ballet Theatre are strengthening beyond the impressive number of the university’s alumni who have entered the company (principal Gillian Murphy and corps de ballet members Joseph Phillips, Kelley Potter and Isaac Stappas, among them). UNCSA has become ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School’s affiliate school––a partnership that begins with this 2011–12 school year and is set to last five years.
Ethan Stiefel, current ABT principal and former dean of the School of Dance at UNCSA, initiated the idea of linking the schools. Brenda Daniels, assistant dean for contemporary dancers (who currently serves as interim dean while UNCSA looks to replace Stiefel), says that the contract is capped at five years to give time to assess whether the two organizations want the partnership to continue. Both schools hope UNCSA will act as a satellite location to JKO. “The school in New York is wonderful, but this city isn’t the right place for everyone, especially when leaving home for the first time,” says Rachel Moore, executive director of ABT and advisor to UNCSA School of Dance. Moore says that UNCSA is an ideal fit, because the school is already equipped to handle boarding students and has studios, dormitories, an academic school and support services readily available.
Daniels hopes that ABT’s highly esteemed brand will help advertise the school and entice new dancers, since students often look for a training option that feeds into a company. Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie and ABT’s artistic staff will visit the school to watch students develop and consider them for Studio Company positions. “Regardless of whether they continue careers with ABT or not, we want to provide clean and pure technique and, as they get older, expose them to different styles, so that these dancers are prepared to enter a professional company,” says Moore.
The ABT Studio Company and select main company members will guest in UNCSA’s performances, giving students the opportunity to perform classical repertoire alongside professional dancers. For 2012, ABT also plans to launch a North Carolina summer intensive site, in addition to the five existing programs in New York, Michigan, Alabama, Texas and California. (While the new summer program will be held on the UNCSA campus, it will not be directly affiliated with the school, and UNCSA’s intensive will continue.)
All UNCSA ballet instructors will be certified in ABT National Training Curriculum, to be applied to all divisions of the school (UNCSA houses pre-professional and college programs in both ballet and contemporary). Those who teach other dance disciplines are invited to participate as well. JKO School Principal Franco De Vita and ballet faculty Raymond Lukens will train UNCSA staff in a series of modules in the fall and winter.
Several of the UNCSA teachers have already completed a portion of the curriculum, and a new dean will be hired within the next few months to help oversee the transition. Throughout the affiliation, teachers will be monitored by JKO faculty through additional curriculum courses and sitting in on classes, and the two schools plan to discuss the future of the partnership at the end of the five years. DT
For more: http://abt.org; http://uncsa.edu
Photo: ABT principal and UNCSA alum Gillian Murphy with Angel Corella in Swan Lake (by Marty Sohl, courtesy of ABT)
