Segerstrom Center for the Arts has announced the faculty for its American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School that begins its full 36-week school year on September 14, 2015 and runs through June 11, 2016.
The Center has added classes to accommodate the growing enrollment. During this inaugural year, classes have been scheduled for children ages 3 and older. The next placement classes for potential new students who will be placed in Levels 2, 3 and 4 will be held at the Center on Sundays June 21 and July 12. Classes will be 10-11:30 a.m. for students 8 – 10 and 11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. for students 11 years of age and older.
All ABT Gillespie School classes from PrePrimary through Level 4 will utilize the renowned ABT National Training Curriculum.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts is pleased to offer a limited number of scholarships to ensure that the ABT Gillespie School is reflective of Orange County’s diverse dance community. Funding will be awarded to candidates aged 3 – 10 who have demonstrated financial need as well as a commitment to the requirements of the training program.
The scholarship process is designed to shape each class while recognizing the achievements and interest of applicants. The deadline for scholarship applications is Sunday, June 14, 2015. Segerstrom Center President Terrence W. Dwyer said, “We are very pleased that enrollment in the Center’s ABT Gillespie School is filling every class, and, in some cases, we have found it necessary to add classes to some levels.
We have also established a scholarship program that will enable us to offer assistance based on financial need to any student who wishes to study with our teachers using the highly respected ABT National Training Curriculum.” Dwyer added, “We look forward to welcoming as many students as possible to the ABT Gillespie School and to providing each one with experiences and exclusive opportunities that the Center is in a unique position to offer.”
In addition to professional training, ABT Gillespie School students will be offered many additional opportunities to enrich their ballet studies and experiences, including priority consideration to audition to appear in ABT performances at the Center, such as the December 2015 Center premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, participation in future ABT Summer Intensives, master classes conducted by ballet masters and dancers from all of the companies appearing in the Center’s International Dance Series, meet-and-greets with visiting companies and artists, backstage tours and special ticket offers for dance performances at the Center.
Alaine Haubert, principal of the ABT Gillespie School at the Center, said, “Since the start of my training at age 3, my passion has been ballet.
The years as a professional dancer with both American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet placed me in contact with the greatest artists, teachers and choreographers of our time.
I have been teaching and sharing this incredible art form for more than 50 years, and am both delighted and honored to be in a position to continue to do so with this unique partnership of American Ballet Theatre and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.”
Haubert added, “The ABT Gillespie School is patterned after the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School training program in New York. Our faculty has been carefully selected by JKO personnel and myself, not only for their knowledge of the ABT National Training Curriculum, but also for their attention to technical detail and their ability to communicate with young dancers.
I am very pleased with this group of dedicated instructors and know that, together, we are creating a world class team which combines finest possible instruction with the joy of movement and reverence for our art form.” FACULTY Alaine Haubert Principal, American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School at Segerstrom Center for the Arts Alaine Haubert is the principal of the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie Dance School at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Haubert was a consultant in the development of the ABT National Training Curriculum and continues as an advisor. In 1965, she joined American Ballet Theatre, where she performed corps de ballet, soloist and principal roles. She was also a Principal Dancer with The Joffrey Ballet for ten years.
In addition to dancing classical roles, she was coached by such diverse and exciting contemporary choreographers as Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Birgit Culberg, Harald Lander and Glen Tetley as well as Robert Joffrey, Leonid Massine and Kurt Jooss. Haubert has taught and coached dance in the United States, Japan, Canada and the Caribbean.
She was a member of the dance faculty of the University of Hawaii for seven years. In 1993, Haubert was invited by American Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie to return to New York as ballet mistress. Haubert served on the dance faculty of California State University, Long Beach for six years. She is a frequent adjudicator and guest master teacher for Regional Dance America.
Shannon Humphries Shannon Humphries began dancing at the age of 4 as part of her recovery from a debilitating muscle disease. She started her classical ballet training at Long Beach Ballet Arts Center and continued at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. She has performed roles in ballets such as Swan Lake, Coppelia, and The Nutcracker, as well as Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, Western Symphony and Raymonda. Shannon has choreographed at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, with high school dance teams, solos for the national Young Americans Grand Prix [YAGP] dance competition as well as pieces appearing at Regional Dance America. ABT Gillespie School
Humphries appeared as Principal Dancer and was assistant choreographer for The Glory of Christmas and The Glory of Easter. She is certified in the ABT National Training Curriculum. She has been a teaching and inspiring young dancers in schools throughout Southern California for more than 10 years.
Carrie Jensen Carrie Jensen began her classical ballet training at the age of 5 with the Helena Baron School of Ballet. From the age of seven, she studied under full scholarship with Helena Baron, Paul Sutherland, Brunilda Ruiz, Ralph DiRienzo and Olga Dvorovenko. Jensen joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in January 1999. In 2000, she joined American Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Kevin McKenzie, as a member of the corps de ballet.
During her career, she danced with ABT in a variety of classical and contemporary ballets, working with renowned dancers and choreographers such as Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, Alexei Ratmansky and Twyla Tharp. She performed in the filmings of ABT’s The Dream (taped at Segerstrom Center for the Arts) and Swan Lake. Jensen retired from the company in 2010.
Jensen is certified in the ABT National Training Curriculum and has taught at the Cleveland Ballet Conservatory and at the School of International Ballet in Redlands, CA. Lorin Johnson Lorin Johnson performed with the San Francisco Ballet before joining American Ballet Theatre under the directorship of Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1987, working with choreographers such as Agnes De Mille, Ulysses Dove, Kenneth MacMillan, Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, and Clark Tippet.
Johnson is an associate professor in the Department of Dance at California State University, Long Beach and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Southern California. Johnson’s choreography has been presented internationally at The Garage Museum in Moscow and at the Fabbrica Europa Dance Festival in Florence. Nationally, his work has been commissioned by Pacific Symphony for performance in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Skidmore College in New York, the Los Angeles Dance Invitational at the Ford Amphitheater and with LA Grand Ensemble at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
Johnson conducts master classes and lectures in the U.S. and abroad. In 2013, he taught at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia (formerly the conservatory of George Balanchine) and lectured at art institutions in St. Petersburg as a participant of the Diaghilev P.S. Arts Festival. A certified teacher of the ABT National Training Curriculum, Johnson has served on the faculty of the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive Program since 2004. Johnson has been a pre-performance speaker for Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ International Dance Series and for the Music Center in Los Angeles.
His writings on dance have been published in Dance International and Dance Teacher magazines, as well as academic journals. Sarah Jones Sarah Jones began her dance training under the direction of Heidy Balance, and later moved on to the California Ballet School. During her training, she was accepted to prestigious summer programs, including Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Westside Academy of Dance, where she studied on full scholarship.
At the age of 16, Jones began her apprenticeship with the California Ballet Company and was promoted to the corps de ballet within two seasons. Her repertoire there included roles in The Nutcracker, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Coppélia and Suite Vivaldi.
Jones performed a featured role in Wayne Davis’ Souvenir de Florence and was hired as a Guest Artist to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Juneau Dance Unlimited’s The Nutcracker. In ABT Gillespie School her farewell performance, after nearly a decade as a professional dancer, she performed the Pas de Trois with guest artist Raydel Caceres in Thor Sutowski’s Swan Lake.
Since leaving the stage, Jones has devoted more time to her true passions: teaching and choreography. She is certified in the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum. In 2011, she choreographed and directed a full length The Nutcracker, followed by many award winning contemporary ballet pieces. Jones is a graduate of New York University’s [NYU] prestigious dance program with a Master of Arts in Dance Education. She has taught at the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and was the Children’s Ballet Mistress for The Nutcracker in 2013.
Vladimir Kolesnikov Vladimir Kolesnikov is the Character teacher for the ABT Gillespie School. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and trained at the renowned Vaganova Ballet Academy. After joining the Kirov Ballet, Kolesnikov was promoted to Principal Dancer, touring with the company throughout the world. In 1986, he received a Master’s degree in ballet pedagogy from the Vaganova Academy and embarked on a teaching career while continuing to perform with the Kirov Ballet.
In 1992, Kolesnikov was invited to join the faculty of the Universal Ballet Academy in Washington, DC and later to Boston Ballet, where he taught graduate level classical and character dance. He was on the faculty of Debbie Allen Dance Academy from 2001-2008 and is currently the Artistic Director of the Pacific Coast Academy of Dance in San Clemente.
In addition to teaching, Kolesnikov has participated in staging many projects around the U.S., including working as an assistant choreographer to American Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. Kelly Leonardi-Uygan Kelly Leonardi-Uygan began dancing at the age of 6. She trained with scholarships to The Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West.
She was a Principal Dancer at Hartford Ballet under the direction of Kirk Peterson and worked with Raymond Lukens and Franco De Vita, co-creators of the ABT National Training Curriculum. She performed leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppelia and Le Corsaire staged by Alla Osipenko, as well as many works by George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Choo San Goh, Nijinsky and Martha Grahm. Several roles were created for her by choreographers Kirk Peterson, Jean Grand Maitre, Colin Conner, Robert Sund and Graham Lustig.
Leonardi-Uygan has also been a Principal Dancer with Ballet Pacifica, under Lila Zali and Molly Lynch. She is also a ballet mistress and director, staging such ballets as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. Leonardi-Uygan has been a Guest Artist in ballets, competitions, musicals and operas in the United States and abroad. She received the third place medal for the National Foundation on the Arts competition and danced in a tribute to Tchaikovsky at the Hollywood Bowl.
Leonardi-Uygan is certified in the ABT National Training Curriculum. She has been a certified Pilates instructor for 26 years and is co-owner of Konnect Pilates. She is on the faculty of Balanced Body Education, and her studio is an official training site for teacher-training courses with all 8 Pilates Modules plus Anatomy. She holds certificates with resistance flexibility and strength training with the Ki-Hara technique used by Dara Torres as part of her Olympic training and is a master teacher of the entire BodyCode system.
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