MISS SUSAN’S NEWSLETTER
Dear JCBA / CYB family,
What a wonderful year it has been here in our new studios in Burlington Park Mall!
My thanks to our wonderful students, parents and friends who have worked hard and helped in so many ways. Thank you for your support and prayers during my husband’s illness.
All my thanks to Traci who is producing and directing our recital this year. With so many of our older dancers involved in CYB productions, we thought we would plan a recital with the younger students in mind. Traci stepped up and designed a program based on the theme of “The Wizard of Oz”, incorporating music from “The Wiz” and “Wicked” musicals. She has spent many, many hours choreographing, staging every number from scratch, teaching, rehearsing and planning. Traci, you are amazing and I couldn’t run this school without you! You’ve done an excellent job, thank you, thank you. (Students, please tell Miss Traci how much you appreciate her and give her a big hug!)
Summer Academy classes will begin on June 9th. Traci will be guest teaching at the Academy and Pat and I will be teaching regular classes. There is one scheduled break while I am away as a guest teacher in other cities, so please check the bulletin boards for the school schedule.
Traci Honeycutt (Miss Traci) will be available for private lessons by appointment. Athough ballet is her first love, Traci teaches tap, jazz and gymnastics as well. She will be teaching ballet classes and jazz and tap classes next fall for the Academy. Traci trained here at my school as well as under many important ballet dancer/teachers including Robert Barnett (Atlanta Ballet) and Lowell Smith (Dance Theatre of Harlem) and many important tap and jazz people. Traci has been teaching and working with me for more than 20 years and also does a great amount of our choreography and production planning.
Pat Holden (Miss Pat) will be available on certain days to teach private lessons by appointment. Pat was trained at the renowned National Ballet of Canada and continues to keep up on NB training methods. She has 40 years of dancing and teaching experience to pass on to students and we are so happy to have her here at the Academy. Call the CYB studio number (423) 423-2195 to schedule private lessons or studio time. (Studio rental is $5. per hour for Academy and CYB students and $10. per hour for non-students.)
Thank you to our City Youth Ballet dancers, parents, board members, patrons and friends for a wonderful season! A special thanks to Kim Kenneson, our president for 2007 and Angie Shaw, our current president, for guiding us and helping shape our new non-profit performing company. We produced two beautiful major productions, two small “Lollipop” performances, and participated in outreach and community programs this year. Our Jr. and Sr. company members performed for the Woman’s Expo and did an exceptional job. (Please read Penny Rutledge’s thank you note on the Academy bulletin board.) We’ve been invited to again perform in downtown Johnson City during the Blue Plum Festival June 7th – this time for pay!
Thank you, Shannon Hunter, soloist with San Diego Ballet and former JCB student for guest teaching this week for us. We are so happy that you came to visit and we wish you all the best in your upcoming wedding plans and move to Richmond!
We have an exciting summer planned for CYB members. Marvin Askew is coming to teach June 6-8. This will be a free workshop for CYB members and will give us a jump start on our summer training program. Marvin will be teaching ballet technique classes as well as Horton modern technique classes (by popular request.) Marvin won scholarships from ABT, NYCB and Alvin Ailey during his training and danced professionally with Pittsburg Ballet Theater and other companies before he took over the directorship of Buffalo City Ballet, Buffalo, NY, founded by his former teacher, Karl Singletary. Marvin has been a guest artist and teacher here for us in Johnson City for over 10 years and we are so happy when we can have him here.
To enhance our summer ballet program, we have guest faculty coming from various universities and ballet schools in July who will be teaching modern dance technique along with ballet technique. I believe that ballet dancers need modern dance classes and other forms to complete their training and I want my students to be exposed to different styles and teachers.
At the end of July and early August our favorite male teachers will be here to conduct weeklong workshops. Norbert Nirewicz will be here July 28 through Aug 1 and Marvin Askew will be back on August 4th to teach a week. These two workshops will be advertised and open to the public as well. CYB and JCBA members will be offered a special discounted price for these two workshops. Please check the bulletin board frequently for announcements and changes.
We are also hoping to again get a Terpsicorps member to again work with us soon. Nathan McGinnis, company member of Terpsicorps and Tulsa Ballet, taught a couple wonderful classes last summer and we were so happy to have Heather Maloy, (artistic director of Terpsicorps) to teach a series of company classes this winter. I got an e-mail from Heather in March and she wrote: “Your students are lovely and very dedicated. It’s rare to go to a school outside of a conservatory setting and get kids with that level of discipline. I really enjoyed teaching them.” I wanted to share that with you - we get compliments from all our guest teachers – thank you, students!
Finally, mark your calendars for August 16th. We will have registration that day and we are planning a Lollipop performance as well as a free class for new students to experience ballet, perhaps for the first time.
Have a happy summer and I hope to see you all in the ballet studio!
I love you all, Susan