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Flourish Online Magazine | Fall 2009 |
Atlanta Ballet and KSU Dance marry arts and education
By Jarmea L. Boone
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KSU Dance students Alexis Whitehead and Shawn Evangelista Photographs by Robert Pack |
Two dancers wait in the wings of the stage, ready to pirouette into the spotlight where they will be greeted warmly. Their movements are exquisite. Their love is transparent. They are a rare and fragile thing, a great ballet partnership.
The Kennesaw State University Program in Dance has formed an educational partnership with Atlanta Ballet. This partnership allows students and performers to gain valuable experiences in both the professional and academic realms of dance. Headed by KSU Program in Dance Director Ivan Pulinkala, John McFall, artistic director of Atlanta Ballet, and Sharon Story, dean of Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education, this collaboration seeks to provide exclusive opportunities for the dance students at KSU and the professional dancers and students at Atlanta Ballet.
Founded in 1996, Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance. The Centre has become one of the top 10 dance education facilities in the country and continues to set a high standard for excellence in dance education.
Under the joint venture, Atlanta Ballet company members and students at the Centre for Dance Education will be able to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in dance at KSU. Company and fellowship dancers will also be able to apply for advanced professional credit towards their degrees. Undergraduate KSU dance students will receive special discounts and concessions to Atlanta Ballet performances, classes and events. Advanced level KSU students will be admitted to audition for supernumerary roles with Atlanta Ballet to gain professional performance experience. Atlanta Ballet will also provide internships for KSU dance majors at the Centre for Dance Education, giving KSU students professional administrative experience.
“The partnership is such a great opportunity for us,” says KSU dance major A.J. Paug. “KSU dancers receive audition opportunities and are able to perform and work with a professional company. It’s such an honor, and I’m so excited.”
The decision to work with Atlanta Ballet was a logical and enthusiastic one for Pulinkala. “Atlanta Ballet is the premier ballet company in our region,” he says. “John McFall approached the dean of the College of the Arts, Joseph Meeks, after attending our February 2009 concert and expressed a strong desire to develop this partnership.” The timing was perfect—KSU had just launched the B.A. in dance degree program in January.
The dance major at KSU allows students the option of developing a concentration in modern, ballet or jazz, giving them the ability to intensify training in a specialized area of interest. Guest choreographers and master classes complement the program and introduce students to professionals in the field. Students also have the opportunity to audition for musical theater productions and gain practical experience in stage and theater management, as well as scene and costume design.
Already, KSU dancers are benefiting from the new partnership. Six students were invited to perform in Atlanta Ballet’s May production of “Don Quixote.” Paug describes the experience. “Prof. Pulinkala contacted everyone with the news that Atlanta Ballet needed dancers in ‘Don Quixote’ as villagers,” Paug says. “I was thrilled to be able to perform. The villagers were able to stay onstage for the entire ballet. We were able to watch the dancers perform and watch how everything worked from the best seats in the house. It was an amazing honor.”
Pulinkala is proud that the collaboration has helped to spotlight KSU dance while, at the same time, provide benefits for Atlanta Ballet and its dancers. “This partnership gives regional and national recognition through our affiliation with one of the premier ballet companies in the nation,” says Pulinkala. “Atlanta Ballet is able to raise its national profile through their affiliation with a leading university dance program. Atlanta Ballet’s interest in the program in dance at KSU is an affirmation of the quality of artistry and education that has been the reason for our program’s success.”
Pulinkala also notes that the partnership will enable Atlanta Ballet dancers to pursue both a professional and an academic career. So, as KSU dance majors return to the classroom this fall, they are shoulder to shoulder with some of the best professional dancers working today.