Artistic Director Douglas Martin (left) teaching a Summer Intensive 2014 class. Photo Credit: Leighton Chen.
On June 29, ballet students from around the world started their first day of training at Princeton Ballet School at the school’s studios in the Princeton Shopping Center. This is Princeton Ballet School’s 33rd year of offering summer intensive courses, making it one of the oldest programs in the United States.
The 2015 summer intensive welcomes over 100 students from all over the United States including dancers from Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. In addition, PBS also attracts many international students including dancers from Australia, Columbia, Italy and Switzerland.
Dancers live on the Princeton University campus for five weeks, training every day at an advanced level at PBS. The intensive training will be predominantly made up of ballet class, but will be augmented with other classes including partnering, variations, body mechanics, pointe and men’s class.
American Repertory Ballet’s Artistic Director, Douglas Martin, is one of the main teachers. His wife Mary Barton will also teach extensively in the program as will Kathleen Moore, a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and now ARB company teacher and PBS faculty member.
Maria Youskevitch, also formerly a soloist with ABT, an accomplished master teacher throughout the United States and the ballet master of ARB Workshop will also be an integral faculty member at PBS.
Body Mechanics will be taught by Director of PBS Mary Pat Robertson. The program will teach students about maintaining a healthy dancer’s body. The program will feature guest teachers including Kirk Peterson, ARB choreographer and former ABT dancer and Trinette Singleton, ARB choreographer and former Joffrey Ballet dancer.
PBS’s summer intensive is an important formative experience for its many students. Students will not only be able to develop their ballet technique, but will also develop skills in injury prevention as well as creativity, leadership and discipline, through the expertise of the teachers and variety of classes provided including a choreography workshop.
