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Dance Teacher Magazine September, 2000 Article

Page 1 - Dance Magazine April 1999

Page 2 - Dance Magazine May, 2000

Page 3 - Dance Teacher Magazine September, 2000

Page 4 - Antenna Arts Magazine November, 1997

by Nina Alovert
Dance Teacher Magazine
September, 2000

The winning combination of a strong director and a diverse faculty is the key to success at Cincinnati's Ballet Tech. By Nina Alovert Issue: September 2000 It doesn't take long to see why classes at Cincinnati's Ballet Tech school in Maineville, OH, run so smoothly and produce such high-caliber dancers - the faculty.

Founded by Claudia Rudolph Barrett in 1993, the Ballet Tech school was followed by The Ballet Tech Performing Arts Association in 1997. Founder and Artistic Director Barrett studied dance at the College Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati as well as at the School of American Ballet. She performed as a soloist with Cincinnati Ballet for 12 years and was a ballet mistress there for 14. A major factor of the school's success, Barrett's incredible creative energy is applied directly toward creating future ballerinas. She is aware of the smallest details of each movement and pays the same amount of attention to all of her students - from the most gifted to those who, most likely, will never grace a professional stage.

All Ballet Tech students become well-rounded dancers. The school has an ambitious program: Each year Barrett invites seven to eight guest teachers to the school for a one-year stay. Anna Reznik and Alexei Kremnov, who formerly danced in Moscow and are currently principal dancers with Cincinnati Ballet, came to the school three years ago, answering Barrett's call for Russian teachers. This past summer, they taught classical ballet, character dance and the art of acting, as well as dance history and classes for aspiring choreographers at the school. Barrett has also invited Russian teachers who use the Vaganova method, because she believes that when it comes to working with the torso and the arms, the Russian school is unparalleled. "Dancers have to be very versatile and have clean, unaffected movement," says Barrett. "I have teachers who know how to teach Vaganova's trademark upper back and arms, and also those who can teach different styles. To provide students with training ranging from classical to modern, Barrett invited Terence Greene, who teaches the modern Horton/Alvin Ailey technique, and Kenneth Oberly, an instructor of the Bournonville technique, to be guest faculty.

The students' intensive training was highlighted at Ballet Tech's "Crossroads of the Dance" gala on May 21. "At some point, ballet should be fun, not just hard work," explains Barrett. The two-act program featured students performing excerpts from various works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including ballets created by Marius Petipa, August Bournonville and Leonid Lavrosky as well as Terence Greene's jazz ballet Child's Play and Barrett's own Celtic ballet, A Stone's Throw.

In Act I, the classical section of the show, the students demonstrated the results of Resnik and Kremnev's careful and thorough coaching in their clean, expressive and beautiful performances. The students proved their mastery of the ABCs of classical movement, rising to pointe beautifully and executing clean pirouettes.

In Act II the students showed that they also have the ability to perform modern choreography. In the jazz ballet, each girl had an original solo. Hannah Spiegel and Kristen Phelps, two students who work in class with great tenacity, are talents to watch. Leigh Lijoi, Epiphany Davis, Holly Shaw, Christine LeCompte and others had equal determination. In Barrett's Celtic ballet, based on a combination of traditional Celtic dance with classical ballet, the entire school seemed to take pleasure dancing in the "God and Goddess," group dances and in "King Arthur's Court." The music and lyrics, an original composition by Ian Barrett, were performed onstage, adding to the show's charm.

Resnik and Kremnev performed the grand pas de deux from Don Quixote and Three Preludes, choreographed by Kazian Goliezovsky with music by Aleksandr Scriabin. The addition of professional dancers is used as a teaching tool: Watching Kremnev dance the Prince and Resnik dance Cinderella inspires students to come back to class and strive to emulate their teacher's style. With such a talented and well-versed faculty, the students are sure to reach great heights.

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