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Brooklyn Ballet hosts first International Summer Intensive featuring Cuban Ballet Master Joaquin Banegas
2/10
Brooklyn Ballet hosts first International Summer Intensive featuring Cuban Ballet Master Joaquin Banegas
Brooklyn Ballet is thrilled to host its first International Summer Intensive July 5 through July 23 in the company’s newly inaugurated studio space at The Schermerhorn and at St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn. The intensive will be the first ballet workshop of its kind in the New York area. The featured instructor is Cuban Ballet Master Joaquin Banegas, and the workshop includes Technique, Pointe, Variations, Choreography and Yoga.
BROOKLYN BALLET’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL SUMMER INTENSIVE FEATURES CUBAN BALLET MASTER JOAQUIN BANEGAS
About the Workshop
Brooklyn Ballet is thrilled to host its first International Summer Intensive July 5 through July 23 in the company’s newly inaugurated studio space at The Schermerhorn and at St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn. The intensive will be the first ballet workshop of its kind in the New York area. The featured instructor is Cuban Ballet Master Joaquin Banegas, and the workshop includes Technique, Pointe, Variations, Choreography and Yoga.
Joaquin Banegas, a founding teacher of the Cuban methodology, performed as a principal dancer for the National Ballet of Cuba and has taught worldwide. His esteemed students include Jose Carreño of American Ballet Theatre, Carlos Acosta of England's Royal Ballet, and Jorge Esquivel, former partner of Alicia Alonso, now master teacher at the San Francisco Ballet School, among others.
The Summer Intensive has evolved as Founding Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson and Brooklyn Ballet Conservatory Director Caridad Martinez envisioned a program with the capacity to expand Brooklyn’s presence in the international dance scene while offering exclusive professional training to students in the borough and beyond. Students ages 8 to 18 will study technique with esteemed professionals, engaging in an amalgam of unique opportunities in the form of master classes, performances and other artistic collaborations.
Caridad Martinez, also a former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Cuba, will teach at the summer workshop as well. Martinez and Banegas will be joined by special guest faculty from a variety of dance backgrounds. In addition to professional level technique classes led by world-renowned instructors, offerings will include pre-professional workshops, open rehearsals in Downtown Brooklyn storefronts and public performances at St Francis, The Schermerhorn and other venues in the borough. There will be a culminating performance by workshop participants on Friday, July 23.
Levels and Workshop Schedule
Students will be placed in class levels by audition and discussion with Brooklyn Ballet school directors. The most advanced students will register for Levels I and II and will take 4.5+ hours of dance class per day. The number of hours of class available per day then decreases according to level of experience with the youngest students taking 2.5 hours of class per day. Tuition and class offerings are detailed by level below:
Level I/Level II: 4.5 hours per day, includes technique, pointe, men's classes, variations and choreography
3 weeks $900
3 weeks $900
Level III: 3.5 hours per day, includes technique, variations and choreography
3 weeks $750
3 weeks $750
Level IV (ages 10+): 2.5 hours per day, includes technique and variations
3 weeks $500
3 weeks $500
Level V (ages 8+): 2.5 hours per day, includes technique and choreography
3 weeks $500
3 weeks $500
For lodging, add $700 per person for three weeks (includes breakfast)
Making Ballet Accessible
The cost of the intensive is low, $900 for three weeks of incredible teaching by world-renowned faculty. In addition, hosting the Cuban summer workshop will aid in Brooklyn Ballet’s mission to highlight Brooklyn’s place on the international stage and contribute to cultural tourism in the borough. The program will also provide opportunities for further community outreach, chiefly through free outdoor performances of classical and neo-classical repertory learned during the intensive. Public performance is an essential component in Brooklyn Ballet’s intimate relationship with the community. The summer workshop will feature a culminating performance which will include prestigious repertory by George Balanchine and the classics.
To ensure that the summer intensive adheres to the company’s stringent commitment to making dance accessible to all, Brooklyn Ballet will provide scholarship opportunities for talented students who demonstrate financial need in order to curtail the costs of attending the workshop. Professional dancers can take the workshop for 50 percent of the tuition cost.
For more information about the upcoming summer intensive or to reserve your space now, call (718) 246-0146 or send an e-mail to Abigail Alegria Diaz at brooklynballetintern@gmail.com.
The Directors
Lynn Parkerson, Brooklyn Ballet’s Artistic Director, began her career as a choreographer while living in Germany. Her ballet studies began as a child with Barbara Bounds in Chapel Hill, NC. She later danced with the Boston and Chicago Ballets, performing many Nutcrackers and Balanchine ballets. In New York City, she was a trainee at the Harkness House for Ballet Arts and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham School where she studied technique and learned repertory. In addition, she trained in the Limón Technique with Libby Nye and ballet with the Corvinos.
Lynn Parkerson’s choreography has been presented at many prominent international events and venues, including the Munich Theater Festival, Frankfurt’s Theatre am Turm, the Florence International Festival of Dance, Moers New Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Baden-Baden and An Appalachian Summer Arts Festival in Boone, NC, among others. In New York City, she presented annual dance programs—notably the popular ballet series To the Pointe—as Director of Dance at Holy Trinity from 1991-2001. Her work has been supported by grants from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation and Con Edison. She also served as the Assistant Director of the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center from 1996-1999. Ms. Parkerson has taught dance to children and adults in New York and abroad.
In recognition of her exceptional leadership contributions to Brooklyn’s cultural community, Ms. Parkerson received the Betty Smith Arts Award as part of the Women’s “Herstory” Induction Ceremony and Reception on March 22, 2007. Each year, the awards, named after some of the most outstanding women in Brooklyn “herstory,” are given to six outstanding Brooklyn women. In November 2006 she received the Paul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence and Community Service.
Caridad Martinez, Brooklyn Ballet School Director/Elevate Faculty, is a graduate of the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba, where she studied with Alicia & Fernando Alonso. As a principal dancer of the National Ballet of Cuba she performed in the most important theaters in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Ms. Martinez was Artistic Director of the Cuban-Mexico Ballet School for 13 years and Artistic Director and choreographer of The Havana Ballet Theater. In the 1980s, The Havana Ballet Theater was the creative concept that transformed the performing arts in Cuba, and Ms. Martinez is considered one of the leading figures of the performing arts in that country. She has choreographed for the Hispanic Heritage Awards and for the acclaimed Julian Schnabel film Before Night Falls. She has obtained numerous awards for her choreographic work for dance and theater.
Brooklyn Ballet is a professional, not-for-profit dance company dedicated to artistic excellence, education and serving Brooklyn’s diverse communities. The company was founded in February 2002 by Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson, the first of its kind in Brooklyn in more than 40 years. Brooklyn Ballet brings a contemporary vision to the treasured art form of ballet, with repertory and programs that revitalize and re-imagine the classical form. The Ballet presents an annual performance season in Brooklyn and serves the community through educational outreach projects—specifically, Take Ballet to the Streets, an outdoor performance series, Elevate and Brooklyn Ballet in the Houses, in-school dance residencies—as well as through its professional dance school located at The Schermerhorn in Downtown Brooklyn. Brooklyn Ballet produced two highly successful seasons at Fort Greene's Kumble Theater and in October 2006 the Company performed in four cities in Mexico by invitation of the Cultural Consulate of Chiapas.
Brooklyn Ballet’s dedication to the community is wide-ranging. The Company continues to create and perform new repertory bringing Brooklyn audiences the artistic excellence they’ve come to expect, and through our Education and Community programs, Brooklyn Ballet creates opportunities for new audiences to experience an aspect of culture which they may otherwise never have had access to.
As of March 2010, major support for Brooklyn Ballet has been provided by: The Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, The New York City Council - Council Members David Yassky, Lew Fidler and Letitia James, The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Carnegie Foundation, Corcoran Cares, Blackman Foundation, NYC Department of Education, Harkness Foundation, Curtis McGraw Foundation, Concordia Foundation, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development and Stop & Stor, as well as contributions from board members and individuals.
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