school of the minnesota ballet
For Purchase at Student Performance
Robert Gardner—Artistic Director
New School of the
Minnesota Ballet
Spring Newsletter • May 2015
T-Shirts:
starting at $14.
Presentation
Bouquets $6 (NO
pre-orders. Buy
before curtain: only
a limited number
available.)
Creative Movement
Presentation May 3
Available for
Order at the Performance
Professionally-Recorded Performance DVD $24,
Blu-ray $34
As Creative Movement students look
forward to performing on the big
Symphony Hall stage in a few years,
They had their first dance performing experience in a demonstration to
family and friends.
School of the Minnesota Ballet
Robert Gardner, Artistic Director
Lila White, Principal Teacher
Suzie Baer • Linda Carrillo • Nancy Gibson • Laura Goodman • Grace Holden • Paige Kohler
Kelanie Murphy • Reinhard von Rabenau • Erin Wourms • Nikolaus Wourms
Teen/Adult Division
Linda Carrillo • Nancy Gibson • Paige Kohler • Alex Loch • Lisa McKhann • Renee Moe
This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a
Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative
appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
This activity is made possible in part by grants from the McKnight Foundation, Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, Miller-Dwan Foundation, Wildey Mitchell
Family Foundation, and by members of our community.
Equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from the programs of the Minnesota Ballet
is provided to all individuals regardless of race, national origin, color, sexual orientation,
age, religion, or disability in admission, access or employment.
Student Performance Friday, May 15, at Symphony Hall
The School of the Minnesota Ballet presents its 35th annual Student Performance 7 p.m. Friday, May 15, at Symphony Hall (the newly-named DECC Auditorium).
Performing choreography by their class teachers will be
Pre-Ballet and Ballet I-VII levels, Creative Dance for
children with physical/developmental challenges; and
from the Teen/Adult Division Tap/Jazz, Ballet, Athletic
Dance for Young Men and Modern classes.
Ballet VI and VII will perform selections from Don Quixote staged by Suzie Baer. Ballet V, Years 1 and 2 will be
performing Gypsy Dance, choreographed by Lila Ann
Coates White.
Tickets, $14 for adults and $7 for children (age 12 and under), may be purchased at the Ballet office, 8th floor,
Board of Trade Building, 301 W.
First Street, Monday-Thursday 8:30
a.m.-4 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m.-noon.
Tickets may also be purchased
at the DECC ticket office from
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday
and 10 a.m. -2 p.m. Saturday;
Ticketmaster on-line at www.
ticketmaster.com, or Ticketmaster by phone at 800-745-3000.
Student Performance Order
(Subject to change.)
Lila’s Ballet VI & VII
Pre-Ballet IA
Creative Dance I
Pre-Ballet IB
Creative Dance II
Pre-Ballet II
Athletic Dance
Ballet I
Ballet II
Ballet III
Special Tech (Grace)
INTERMISSION
Ballet V combined
Ballet IV, Yr 1
Ballet IV, Yr 2
Adult Ballet
Teen/Adult Modern p.m.
Combo Jazz/Tap
Suzie’s Ballet VI & VII
Rehearsal Schedule for Performance
Performers should arrive at the Symphony Hall backstage door 15 minutes before the start of their rehearsals. Schedule subject to change.
Friday, May 15: Staging Rehearsal (subject to change)
3:00 – 3:10 Lila’s piece: Ballet VI & VII
3:10 – 3:20 Grace’s piece: Ballet V, VI & VII
3:20 – 3:40 Suzie’s piece: Ballet VI & VII
3:40 – 3:55 Ballet V, combined
3:55 – 4:05 Athletic Dance
4:05 – 5:00 Ballet I-IVs (each get approx. 10 mins.)
5:00 – 5:30
5:30 – 6:00
6:00 – 6:30
Creative Dance 1 & 2 and
Pre-Ballets
Modern, Adult Ballet, Tap/Jazz
Warm-up, Ballet V-VII
Student Performance Instructions
• Please arrive promptly. Students should be brought
to the backstage door of the Symphony Hall on
Harbor Drive 15 minutes before the start of their rehearsal. As you face the Symphony Hall from the harbor side,
the backstage door is the farthest to the left, up the loading
dock stairs.
• If dancers do not have time to eat before coming to the
Symphony Hall, please provide them with a bag lunch to
eat before or after staging rehearsal. Dancers are not permitted to eat while in performance skirts or costumes.
• Because rehearsals will be only walk-throughs for the
dancers to learn their positioning on stage, there will not be
full dances for parents to privately videotape. NO videotaping is allowed during the performance.
• For the safety of the dancers NO flash photography is allowed at either the rehearsal or the performance.
• The performance will be professionally taped for a DVD.
These cost $24 each and may be ordered at the information
table in the Symphony Hall lobby. Orders must be in by
the end of the performance and be prepaid. DVD’s will be
mailed as soon as they are available.
• Students performing in only the first half of the performance may come into the audience after intermission if they
have a ticket and are in street clothes.
Makeup and attire for
Student Performance
Pre-Ballet and Ballet I–III students
should arrive in makeup and with
hair done at the Symphony Hall
backstage door.
If there isn’t time to put on makeup
at home, students should bring their
own makeup with them.
Children should use in moderation:
• dark eyebrow pencil
• mascara
• light rose or pink rouge—
no red
• NO eye shadow
For attire, female ballet students
should wear the appropriate classlevel color and style of leotard, pink
tights, and pink technique shoes in
good repair.
Male ballet students should wear
white T-shirts, black tights, and black
technique shoes.
Students in non-ballet classes will
be given special instructions.
Before performance
• Many items are left behind at
the Symphony Hall after the Student Performance. To aid identification, please put your child’s
name on the inside of ballet
shoes and on the label of tights
and leotards.
• All tuition accounts must be
current in order for students to
participate in classes and the Student Performance.
Summer Term June 8 –July 24, 2015
(week of June 29 – July 5 off)
Guest Summer Instructor Karl von Rabenau, danced
with Omaha Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and as a soloist with the Milwaukee Ballet. He teaches at the Milwaukee
Ballet School and is a guest teacher at Point Park University
in Pittsburgh, PA, and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, PA. Karl and his wife, Jennifer, recently collaborated on the second year of a project called “Aurora’s
Dream” that brought visual art and dance together to provide
participants with an expanded understandind of how the arts
are an essential part of our lives.
Guest Summer Instructor Elyse Snider, performed with
Chicago-area 98.6 Degrees Fahrenheit Dance Company.
In Madison, WI, she danced and taught for Kanope Dance
Company and taught for the Madison Ballet.
Guest Instructor Gemma Isaacson, joined Contempo
Physical Dance in 2012. She graduated from the U of M-Twin
Cities, summa cum laude, with a BFA in Dance. While at the
University she performed in works by Helen Tamiris, Donald Byrd, Larry Keigwin, Nora Chipaumire, and Uri Sands.
Gemma has attended summer intensives with American Ballet
Theatre (Tuscaloosa, AL), Minnesota Ballet (Duluth), Ballet
Arts (Minneapolis), Donald Byrd (Seattle, WA) and Velocity Dance Center (Seattle, WA). Other professional credits
include: The Minnesota Ballet Company, Threads Dance
Project, and Dance and Other Behaviors.
For the six-week Summer Term, ballet students remain in
their 2014–15 level. The summer class schedule and Summer
Intensive schedule are posted on the Ballet’s Web site: www.
minnesotaballet/school.
Summer Intensive July 6–24, 2015
To enhance their training at reduced tuition, Level IV, Yr II
–VII students are urged to take the six-week Summer Session including the three-week Summer Intensive.
For the Summer Intensive, Ballet IV, Yr. II and Ballet V,
Yr. 1 students will be placed in Level I, Ballet V, Yr. 2, VI
& VII will be placed in Level II. Level I will have morning
technique classes at the Ballet’s Depot Studio I and most
other classes at the Grain Exchange. Level II will have almost all classes at the Grain Exchange.
We are looking for families interested in hosting out-oftown students for the School of the Minnesota Ballet’s
Summer Intensive July 6–24. Host families will be responsible for providing their guest dance student with meals and
transportation to class; they will receive $200 per week for
providing these services. Call the Ballet office at 529-3742.
Pre-Pointe for
Ballet IV, Year I
Ballet IV, Yr I students must take PrePointe in the Summer Term before going on pointe as Ballet IV, Yr. II students in the fall.
Ballet IV, Yr. I students will have a
chance to obtain their pointe shoes for
the July classes, after they have completed the Pre-Pointe classes in June.
The Ballet is arranging pointe shoe fittings for Ballet IV, Yr. I students:
Grand Jeté
975 Grand Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
651-227-0331
www.grandjete.com
We suggest as many students as are
able to go on June 27.
Please notify the Minnesota Ballet office by June 2 if you plan to go to the
fitting. Carpooling is recommended.
Contemporary Ballet and
Afro-Brazilian Dance
Workshop
We would like to encourage our upperlevel students (Ballet V, Yr 2, Ballet VI
& VII) to sign up for the new Contemporary Ballet class which combines
both classical and modern techniques,
working both en pointe and off, in a
style that is reflected in many choreographers’ works today.
We are also excited to offer an AfroBrazilian Master Class in July, taught
by guest artist, Gemma Isaacson.
Dancers are invited to explore the
Contempo Physical Dance’s unique
movement style and challenge their
physicality. They will become more
fluent in the technique and discover
how the movement manifests itself in
their unique bodies.