Kingsport Ballet Students Dancing Away
Kingsport, TN – Each year, a number of Kingsport Ballet students audition for competitive summer programs. These ballet students train year-round under artistic director Valeria Sinyavskaya, often taking class four to six days per week. They also receive instruction in modern dance under Erika Ballard, and Jazz under Tonya Harris.
These summer workshops, usually spanning three to six weeks of all-day study, provide talented students an opportunity to receive instruction from top professionals in the field of dance. The experience also gives the dancers a glimpse of how they stack up against peers from around the country.
Major companies conduct audition tours in key U.S. cities from east to west and north to south, allowing dedicated students the opportunity to audition near their home states.
Rising seniors, Anna Barnes and Sinclair Mitchell, both auditioned and got accepted to Alvin Ailey's contemporary intensive in New York. Sinclair also auditioned for North Carolina School of the Arts where she was accepted to the contemporary program, and for Kirov Academy's ballet program in Washington, DC. She has decided to attend Kirov's program.
Madeleine Steiner, a rising high school sophomore, has also been accepted to the Kirov Academy for summer study. Maddie is a rising sophomore at Dobyns Bennett High School and has been a student at Kingsport Ballet for four years.
Raleigh Shelton, 13, will be spending her summer in Texas, studying with Houston Ballet School. Raleigh attended the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC last summer. She will be attending Kingsport Ballet's three-week workshop in June, and after a short break will be spending three more weeks in Houston's program.
Eleven year old Autumn Kilby has auditioned to nine different programs, and was accepted to all of them - in some cases receiving merit scholarships. Autumn has decided to attend the Academy of Russian Classical Ballet in Michigan and Next Generation Ballet at Patel Conservatory in Florida. She was also accepted for summer study at Atlanta Ballet, Bossov Ballet Theatre in Maine, USC Summer Dance Conservatory on a merit scholarship, Ballet Austin, Cary Ballet Conservatory in North Carolina, and Valentina Koslova's Conservatory in New York. Autumn attended Kirov Academy's workshop in 2010 and was invited back for 2011.
Erica Dew, a Kingsport Ballet graduate and rising sophomore at the University of Utah majoring in ballet performance, has been invited to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, and the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Ballet – both in New York City. She will be attending Kirkland following two weeks of study at Kingsport Ballet's workshop.
Kingsport Ballet's own summer workshop provides a three-week, all-day program, bringing in a well-rounded roster of master teachers. The intensive allows students who want to improve their technique during summer an opportunity to expand their horizons closer to home. The workshop also hosts students from around the region and beyond, including Knoxville, TN, Greenville, SC, Montgomery, AL, and Winston-Salem, NC.
This year's intensive will feature Nina Danilova, long-time teacher with the North Carolina School of the Arts, returning ballet instructor Irina Ushakova from the South Carolina Governor's School, Nina Maria Lucas, Dance Chair at Wake Forest University, Vladimir Angelov, contemporary choreographer and dance chair at the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, Tina Yarborough Liggins, adjunct dance professor at Wake Forest, as well as KB's own Valeria Sinyavskaya, Erika Ballard, Adriana Dew, and Jessica Barrett. KB's workshop provides instruction to students of all ages, beginning with dedicated six-year-olds.
Kingsport Ballet is funded for general operations by the Tennessee Arts Commission under an agreement with the National Endowment for the Arts and the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee. KB's outreach programs are funded by the City of Kingsport, the East Tennessee Foundation, and the Massengill De Friece Foundation.
For more information: www.kingsportballet.org 423/378-3967
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Jeff Fleming
Kingsport Blog
