School's Out for Summer

BalletMet's professional dancers typically end their season after the final performance in the spring. However, this year, 14 dancers were selected to tour Russia. Some of the selected dancers are Adrienne Benz, Emily Gotschall, Dustin James, Bethany Lee, Andrew Notarile, Jimmy Orrante, and Emily Ramirez. These dancers performed in Moscow and in St.Petersburg in the Moscow International Contemporary Dance Festival. We'll have an overview of the trip for you soon.

So what else will our dancers be doing this summer?

Jimmy Orrante will be teaching dance at Blue Lake, a summer fine arts camp in Michigan. The Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a summer camp that offers fine arts education to more than 5,300 gifted elementary, junior high, and high school students. Jimmy and his wife have been teaching dance classes at Blue Lake for several years and really enjoy it!

After returning from Russia, Adrienne Benz and Emily Ramirez will be dancing for the National Choreographers Initiative in California. The National Choreographers Initiative was developed to promote the creation and production of professional dance. It is a workshop setting where choreographers can initiate new work as well as experiment and develop their craft. This is an opportunity to develop and produce dance in support of the national dance community by inviting choreographers of note to participate in this project. Adrienne has been dancing for the National Choreographers Initiative for several years, but this will be Emily’s first year.

David Tlaiye is traveling this summer to visit friends and family. Many of the dancers like to take their summers to travel and relax until next season!

BalletMet hopes all the dancers have a great summer and we'll see them when they return in August for the 2010-2011 season!