BALLET

My work with ballet extends beyond the studio into contemporary performance, examining its historical ties to professionalism and instrumentality. I integrate a deeply self-reflected practice with ballet to students who practice with me. I view ballet as a tool that empowers dancers in a variety of contexts.

As an educator, I strive to inspire students to take healthy, scalable risks that help them break free from inhibitions, fears, and habits that hinder their progress. My ambition is to contribute my expertise to a broader educational ecosystem that encompasses choreography, contemporary discourse, diverse techniques, and curatorial practices.

In my classes, which include students with diverse demographics and technical backgrounds, I demystify the cultural image of ballet as overly competitive and invulnerable. Instead, I encourage students to view ballet as a lifelong journey, promoting competence, readiness for professional work, and a willingness to embrace experimental processes.

Teaching ballet in the 21st century demands a heightened sensitivity to power imbalances. In these times, I challenge the conventional notions of ballet and explore how it can become a profound resource for students to examine their personal ethics while connecting with the world through their bodies.

I am passionate about empowering dancers to become the authors of their own body narratives. Rather than fixate on generalized aesthetics, I emphasize the importance of how dancers feel in their own bodies and work collaboratively to help students find function inside their work with ballet. My coaching integrates feeling as a valuable means to map reliable pathways within the body, a capacity ballet technique excels at when embraced in its full complexity.

I draw inspiration from my training in George Balanchine Technique™ and Merce Cunningham Technique™ as well as being a performer positioned within the postmodern dance lineage of New York City. In addition to somatic modalities such as Susan Klein Technique™, my teaching is highly informed by the legacy of my mentor, Janet Panetta, who I assisted internationally for ten years, from 2013 to 2023. I extend Panetta’s pedagogy and encourage dancers to explore ballet as a mode of investigation, aiming to empower them as they personalize techniques of classical ballet while gaining from its rhythmic vernacular, playful physicality, and clarity of direction in space.

Teaching involves intimate negotiations with students, and I approach these exchanges with the sensitivity essential for nurturing sustainable interpersonal relationships. My goal is to instill confidence in students, encouraging them to view ballet as a place of possibility rather than restriction.