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Below are excerpts from the MFAB Student Handbook. To purchase a copy of the complete handbook, which includes photographs and much more information, please send an email to the webmail contact on the top of this webpage.

STUDENT HANDBOOK

The Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet teaches classical theatrical dancing to the highest standards worldwide. Fonteyn’s art, by the end of her life, based on her experience as the most celebrated ballerina of all time, and her long experience dancing on stages around the world, was regarded as the ultimate in dance performance. The Academy upholds her standard of excellence and instills this in its students through rigorous training in classical ballet technique, but ballet technique is not sufficient to produce artists. Therefore, the Academy also teaches music, design, history, personal grooming for the ballet stage (hair, costume, shoe maintenance and makeup) and knowledge of other art forms.

Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias envisioned an international fine arts institution in which all of the arts would be studied under one roof. Her belief was that young artists of divergent fields of expression would enter into conversations about the core issues of art (expression, interpretation, focus, et cetera), and would consequently develop a deeper understanding of the artistic purpose of their endeavors. She and Ken Ludden worked together to develop this concept for the last twelve years of her life, but died before the institution could be built.

Academy students must learn basic acting skills to advance to each next level in their studies. Acting, along with music, is essential for ballet dancers, particularly in the modern era when they must perform a wide variety of choreographic styles. Their acting training prepares them for a life on stage, and is also preparation for work on film and television.

The Fonteyn Academy offers a full curriculum of classical dance technique. In addition, other movement techniques a professional dancer is required to know (modern dance, character, ethnic, improvisational, etc.) are taught as well. The students have a full regimen of technique classes they must learn.

Dancers are also taught the fundamental principles of movement through a series of workshops in Body Mechanics. These workshops illustrate the ways in which various muscle sets and joints are designed, the variety of ways they can be used, and the methods to maximize the efficiency of energy use while minimizing the stress on any one set of muscles.

"The Choreographer is never wrong." This statement, upon which the Academy's approach to technique is based, requires that students be prepared to dance any choreography, in any style, by any method of learning required. In professional dance companies, the lines of stylistic demarcation have been blurred by the wide variety of stylistic offerings in repertoire presented in public performances. Academy graduates are required to demonstrate the skill to learn and perform any type of work at all. But this includes the classical ballets in their pure form, as well. Using classical theatrical dancing as the base, students will be taught how to approach any sort of movement vocabulary and become fluent enough in it to interpret every role they are asked to learn.

At the end of the 20th century, the effect of the Ballet Boom years shifted the emphasis to technique alone in many cases. At the Academy, the highest standard of technique is demanded from each student, but it is never to be at the expense of artistic expression. Students will learn how to give a brilliant technical performance that also meets the highest artistic standards of performance.

Academy vs. Dance School

MFAB graduates will not only be trained with the highest standards of classical theatrical dance, but also will be schooled in other aspects of the arts. A professional ballet dancer must know how to maintain their body as a tool, have proper hygiene, adhere to a healthy diet, know how to sew shoes, know proper conduct in both the studio and the theater, be able to work in union and non-union companies, coordinate well with others in a company, be able to adeptly deal with members of the press, etc. A successful career is much more than simply doing the technique.

At a typical dance school, students are taught technique and are often given choreography to perform and rehearse. This is good, and can often become the basis of professional careers. But among the ranks of dancers in professional companies, focus on the artistic delivery of choreography often is side tracked by the process of learning how to do all of these other skills. Academy graduates will be prepared in advance for these aspects of dance and will therefore have more energy to focus on the ballet as they progress through the ranks of a company.

To learn classical technique piece-meal is possible, but often produces dancers who do not have an in depth understanding of their art form, or even their technique. Academy dancers are educated in a tradition, brought up along the way to understand and perform with wisdom in their bodies, which is far different from just being able to do the steps. Having been so schooled, Academy student will be ahead of others in the field, and empowered to achieve their goals. Ambition without clear vision of the future is reckless. But when a student is properly and thoroughly trained, ambition becomes another tool with which to build a career.

The career span of a classical dancer is very short, particularly if they have bad habits in their technical or hygienic routines. The field is very competitive, and every sort of choreographic style is performed even in large classical ballet companies. Dancers must be able to deliver whatever the choreographers, directors and teachers require, but also must have a healthy and balanced outlook on life.

Preparation for a career on the stage is important, but in the view of the Academy, that preparation must also give an eye to what happens when dancing stops. Will you teach? Will you direct? Will you do public relations? Will you do something else all together? Academy students will be prepared, as much as possible, for these inevitabilities.

History of Ballet Academies

Below is a summary of the greatest academies in the history of classical ballet. These histories were well known to Fonteyn as she plotted the blueprint for her own vision of this type of institution. She understood that she would be starting something new, and felt strongly that it had to start after the new century began. The Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet is a humble beginning that perhaps will some day grow into an institution like these historic ones, while also pushing the bar higher and raising standards for breadth of education for the ballet dancer.

Royal Ballet School - London

The founding of the school came in 1926, when Dame Ninette de Valois opened her Academy of Choreographic Art. Inspired to create a repertory ballet company and school, she collaborated with Lilian Baylis, lessee and Manager of the Old Vic Theatre. When Lilian Baylis acquired the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, de Valois moved the School there in 1931 and it became The Vic-Wells Ballet School feeding dancers into The Vic-Wells Ballet Company. In 1939 the school was re-named The Sadler’s Wells Ballet School and the Company became The Sadler’s Wells Ballet.

In 1946 The Sadler’s Wells ballet moved to a permanent home at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. A second company was formed, The Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. In 1947 the School moved from Sadler’s Wells Theatre to Barons Court and general education was, at last, combined with vocational ballet training.

The Lower School moved to White Lodge, Richmond Park in 1955/56 and became residential, combining general education and vocational ballet training. The Upper School remained at Barons Court.

The Royal Charter was granted in October 1956 and the School and companies were renamed The Royal Ballet School, The Royal Ballet and the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (later renamed Birmingham Royal Ballet following its move there in 1990).

From that time the School has become both the leading classical ballet school in the United Kingdom earning government support and an international institution which attracts the very best ballet students worldwide. The calibre of students graduating from the school is self-evident. Previous Royal Ballet School students include: Dame Margot Fonteyn, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Sir Peter Wright, Dame Antoinette Sibley, Sir Anthony Dowell, Dame Merle Park, Monica Mason OBE, Lynn Seymour, Marcia Haydee, Jiri Kylian, David Wall, Lesley Collier CBE, Wayne Eagling, Stephen Jefferies, Marion Tait CBE, David Bintley CBE, Leanne Benjamin, Darcey Bussell OBE, Alina Cojocaru, Miyako Yoshida, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Cope CBE, Christopher Hampson, Kevin O’Hare, Ivan Putrov and Christopher Wheeldon.

In January 2003 the Upper School moved to new premises in Floral Street, alongside London’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The state of the art studios are linked to The Royal Ballet by the award winning Bridge of Aspiration thus fulfilling Madam’s dream to have Company and School side by side in the centre of London.

MFAB Location

< p>The Academy provides a world class education for serious and talented young ballet dancers just like the other major ballet academies of the world, but is located in Peekskill, not in a foreign country. Parents in the local area will have their children at home. The advantages of this are not to be underestimated. Other major institutions of ballet training (Royal Ballet School in London, Paris Opera School in France, and Kirov Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia) offer training to Americans, but only the Kirov Academy has a campus in the United States (located in Washington, DC), so that American students must travel internationally and live in dormitories far from home. But even this is, as all of the others, located in an extremely large metropolitan area, inside of the city.

The Margot Fonteyn Academy does not currently have a dormitory, but inevitably will have one in the future to accommodate students not lucky enough to live in the area. But even at that time, the students will live in the beauty and safety of the Hudson River Valley, again freeing them to focus on their work. Today's Academy students, who are able to live at home, have all the benefits of world class education while also having the support of their families and the serenity of the geographic area.

Placing the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet in Peekskill, New York allows for easy access to the cultural center in New York City, and subsequent access to some of the most important artists and institutions in dance in the world, while offering a location free of stress and lush with natural beauty. Since ballet is an art form that requires very young children to begin their study, it is important that the atmosphere around the studio is one of relative safety so that students, and parents, can feel secure to work without distraction or concern. Peekskill is unique due to its dedication to artists. Arts flourish in Europe where being an artist is an esteemed profession, and likewise in Peekskill, the young students will have the unspoken support of that esteemed view of their enterprise. Dance is perhaps the most demanding and arduous of art forms to master, and is done when a person is extremely young and has millions of other things competing for their attention. To be held in high esteem during this training will give them confidence in general, and will help to propel them through the more difficult times of their training.

Organizational Structure

MFAB is the educational program of the National Arts Group, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization. The Academy itself is directed by Ken Ludden, founder and Artistic Director of the school, who works closely with Joy Williams Brown, his artistic advisor, is the General Artistic Director. MFAB has its own Board of Directors, who directly oversees the running of MFAB in administrative, financial, and fund raising matters. Ludden, advised by Williams Brown, directs the artistic, educational and curriculum of MFAB.

An Artistic Advisory Committee made up of esteemed artists, historians, specialists and teachers works with Ludden and Williams Brown to guide the overall progress of the educational program. They are available to the Artistic Director for consultation at any time. In particular the AAC has members well established in the areas of expertise required in the General Arts Program (drama, art, music and scholarly arts) who are qualified to help in the selection of department heads for the General Arts areas, and to review curriculum development in these areas.

The Artistic Director is in charge of hiring faculty and staff, setting the curriculum, establishing and maintaining standards and personally overseeing the development and education of students.

Students are selected by a Review Committee, to which the Artistic Director defers, in a public audition process that includes ballet class, written examination and physical exam by a doctor who is specifically trained in structural anatomy as well as a specialty in foot and spine development and ailments.

Within MFAB there are divisions of the curriculum to fulfill the General Arts requirements. Directors of each General Arts discipline are selected by the Artistic Director, and their work is reviewed annually.

Faculty for ballet and other dance-related disciplines are selected by the Artistic Director. Dance faculty must study under the Artistic Director to assure they teach in accordance with the program set forth by Dame Fonteyn.

FOUNDERS BIOGRAPHIES

Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias

Dame Margot Fonteyn, (1919-1991), was born in Reigate, Surrey, England, and named Margaret Hookham. After marriage and recognition by the Crown for her important role in modern British ballet, her full name eventually became Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias. She studied in London with the Russian teacher and dancer Seraphima Astafieva. In 1934 she became a member of the Vic-Wells Ballet (later the Sadler's Wells Ballet, then the Royal Ballet); in the following year she succeeded to many roles formerly danced by the famed British ballet dancer Alicia Markova. By 1940 Fonteyn was prima ballerina of the Sadler's Wells Company.

Fonteyn's dancing was characterized by technical proficiency and musical sensitivity. Her most famous role was Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. She also created roles in many ballets by the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton. In 1954 she became president of the Royal Academy of Dancing, and in 1956 was made Dame of the British Empire. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Fonteyn performed regularly with Soviet-born dancer Rudolf Nureyev during his tenure with the Royal Ballet. In 1979 the Royal Ballet granted Fonteyn the rare title prima ballerina assoluta.

Fonteyn's name dominated British ballet for more than 40 years. One of the truly great dancers of our time, she was the most famous ballerina of the second half of the century, Ashton's muse, the perfect exemplar of the English style - and all of that even before the wonderful Indian summer of her partnership with Nureyev. For anyone who saw her, she is still the one against whom all others are measured.

Margot Fonteyn was born in England in 1919 - her real name was Peggy Hookham - and spent some of her childhood in China. When she was 14 her family returned to England and she auditioned successfully for the Vic-Wells ballet, making her debut in 1934 as a snowflake in Nutcracker; her first solo role was the Young Treginnis in de Valois's The Haunted Ballroom. When Markova, the company's first ballerina, left in 1935, Fonteyn worried with the rest of the dancers, and most of the audience, about who could ever replace her: over the next 3 years it became apparent that it would be she herself. By the time she was 16 her promise was unmistakable, and this is not just hindsight: it seems as if everyone who ever went to the ballet in the 30s wrote a book about it, and accounts published even before she had tackled any of the great classic roles forecast greatness for her.

By the time the war broke out in 1939 Fonteyn had danced Aurora, Giselle, and Odette/Odile, and - perhaps more importantly - had already created half a dozen roles for Ashton. After a stormy start caused by mutual incomprehension, she and the choreographer established a happy relationship which over the next 25 years produced most of her greatest roles and his greatest ballets. The company's nomadic wartime existence ended with the invitation take up residence at Covent Garden, and their opening night performance of Sleeping Beauty showed how far Fonteyn, still only 26, had traveled on the path to prima ballerina. Symphonic Variations and Cinderella followed, and the seal on her progress from national treasure to international star was set by her triumph in New York on the company's historic opening night in 1949. The 50s saw her taking on Karsavina's role in Firebird, and creating Ondine and Chloe - the part in which Ashton said he most missed her when she gave up dancing. In 1956 she married Roberto de Arias, a diplomat from Panama, and for a time had to juggle her commitments as both ballerina and ambassador's wife. By about 1960, though, talk of possible retirement had begun to creep into reviews and interviews.

Then in 1961 Nureyev made his famous leap to freedom in Paris, and de Valois, with her usual perception, invited him to London to dance Giselle with Fonteyn. Their first performance was a revelation, and the most famous partnership in the history of ballet was born. The tension arising from the 20 year gap in their ages, their opposing temperaments and their totally diverse backgrounds seemed to generate an electricity in the atmosphere whenever they appeared together, and Fonteyn - far from being overshadowed by her young Tartar - seemed rejuvenated: even her technique seemed to improve. Certainly her career was extended by at least 15 years, and we saw her in many new ballets, usually created to explore the dynamics of the partnership - the most famous probably being being Ashton's Marguerite and Armand.

Fonteyn gave her final performance in the early 70s, and retired to Panama to live with her husband, who had been paralysed in a shooting incident. She died of cancer in 1991. Her musicality and her understated eloquence and elegance made her the perfect embodiment of what we have come to think of as the English style, whilst her modesty and dignity set the tone for the whole company in its developing years. If this makes her sound too 'ladylike', though, remember that not only has she been described as 'the most passionate of dancers', she was also arrested probably more often than the average prima ballerina assoluta. (Once in the States with Nureyev and once in Panama.) Much of the existing film of her was made too late in her career to do justice to her technique, but fortunately she seems to have inspired photographers as well as choreographers and there are hundreds of ravishing photographs to witness to her quality. For a time the fame of her partnership with Nureyev rather overshadowed the rest of her career, but even had she retired in the early 60s without ever having danced with him, she would still be remembered as the greatest dancer we ever had.

Ken Ludden

Born August 2 of 1952, Ludden began Dancing at the age of 3, taking a neighborhood movement class in Montgomery County, Maryland. In the late 1950’s Ludden appeared as an extra on many television shows including Ranger Hal, Kaptain Kangaroo, Bozo the Clown, and others.

In 1962, the family moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania when Ludden was 10 years old. Ken saw audition notices for a Senior High production of Brigadoon in the Cumberland Valley High School. Not realizing he was much too young he went to try out for the audition. Despite his age Ludden was cast as the lead dancer, Harry Beaton. At the first rehearsal it was clear he was too young for the production, and that his training in dance was only creative movement and not technique classes. The choreographer, Richard Wilson, took Ken aside and explained the problems. But, added the stipulation that if he was willing to study ballet, he could be in the production. Wilson then contacted Marcia Dale Weary and a scholarship was arranged. This began Ken Ludden’s path to a prominent ballet career. Wilson told Ludden that if he stayed in ballet throughout high school, then he could dance in his semi-professional jazz company (the Richard Wilson Dancers). Ludden stayed in ballet and did dance with the Richard Wilson Dancers, eventually performing in an extended run of Sweet Charity, and as a dancer for the Pete Womback Show out of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

In 1968 at the age of 15, Ludden met Margot Fonteyn for the first time in a ceremony where she was to present diplomas at the National Ballet School, he wasn’t a student there, and he was just going along with teacher Eddie Meyers so he could see the famous ballerina, whom he had heard about. During the ceremony, Fonteyn interrupted the proceedings and singled Ken out of all the children and asked why he wasn’t getting a diploma, his teacher explained he was a student for another school. She went up to Ken and asked him several questions. Fonteyn was concerned to learn Ludden was the only boy in his class. She took a liking to Ken and went off to arrange for him to take classes at the Royal Ballet School in London, and live with her mother, Hilda Hookham also known as “BQ”.

Ludden’s ballet studies became very serious when he took Fonteyn’s offer and started by going to the Lycee in Vichy, France as a foreign student for a summer session in 1969 at age 16, after which he went to London to study. For the next six years he returned to London off and on to study while still finishing high school in the U.S. Ludden also took classes in Maryland with Danny Diamond, and took classes with Margaret Craske whenever he was in New York.

In 1970 Ken entered Colgate University. Putting dancing on hold, Ludden became depressed. He decided he wanted to continue Ballet, so he called Syracuse Ballet Theater and got a job dancing in their Nutcracker Ballet. This led Ken to start the Earlville-Sherburne Ballet School with studios at the Earlville Opera House and Hamilton, NY. Ludden taught Ballet there and to this day it is a fully fledged dance department. Ludden put together an evening of dance called “Beginning to Beyond” marking the first choreography of his career.

At the end of two years at Colgate, 1972, Ludden received two letters. One was that his financial aid was denied, and the other was a letter from Paul Sanasardo, inviting Ludden to come to Saratoga Performing Arts Center for the summer school of modern dance on full scholarship, and dance in the Sanasardo Dance Company. Ludden took the offer by Sanasardo, left Colgate University and went to Saratoga, staying with family who lived nearby, in Schenectady, New York. At this time Ludden also took NYCB company class, which Balanchine periodically taught.

In March of 1973 Ken performed in the production of “Peter and the Wolf” at The Arlington Dance Theatre, another performance for The Arlington Dance Theatre Ken performed was “Purge” in June of 73’ choreographed by Pat Sorrell. Later that month, Ken went to New York for an audition and was given a contract with the New York City Classical Ballet Ensemble for their upcoming European tour. Ludden unfortunately was taken to the Emergency room with massive Kidney Stones; he had extensive surgery, and faced an extended time without being able to dance. Ludden went to New York to recover from the surgery, and worked as wardrobe assistant for the Circle in the Square Theater School, costuming their productions of “La Ronde” directed by Madeline Sherwood in September of 1973. Ludden began teaching morning company ballet class to the actors, and began getting into shape himself by taking classes with Margaret Craske and Paul Sanasardo.

Two months later in November, Pat Sorrell and Eddie Myers invited Ludden to return to Washington and take up his scholarship with the Washington Ballet School, he worked in the wardrobe department, the plan was that when he is fully recovered and his dancing was strong enough he might become an apprentice with the National Ballet Company. However, in the summer of 1974 the National Ballet closed forever.

Ludden continued to study in London off and on; he briefly danced with the Irish National Ballet but did not stay due to the low pay and difficult conditions for the dancers. He returned to America and danced with several companies: Maryland Ballet Company, Virginia Ballet Company, Arlington Dance Theater, McLean Ballet, and others. By 1974, Ludden began working with a small amateur company directed by Cheryl Van Metre, and returned every year for the next fifteen years. This little company grew to become the Appalachian Ballet Company of Knoxville, Tennessee.

For the next few years Ludden’s career blossomed. He danced with Sallie Wilson, Rebecca Wright, Andrea Price, Libby Wade, Ruth Mayer, Janet Panetta and others. He was in many performances including “War and Peace” a Wolf Trap Theatre Production in August of 1974 directed by Sarah Caldwell. Ken is also is credited for his many performances in “Giselle,” “Nutcracker” and “Gaite Parisienne” with the Marcia Dale Ballet Company and the Virginia Ballet Company. Ludden also guest taught at the Huntsville Ballet in September of 74’. On April 4, 1975, Ken was a guest dancer along with Andrea Price for the Maryville-Alcoa Civic Ballet program in the performance of “Hill Heritage Suite.” A month later he performed as a guest artist in “Coppelia” presented by the Oak Ridge Civic Ballet which led to a lot of immense reviews in many newspaper reports. In 1976, Ludden narrated and danced for the French National Television a tribute to the American Bicentennial. Ken Performed in the premiere of “Danse Pastorale” in the Arlington Dance Theatre choreographed by Pat Sorrell on December 10 of 1976. On January 6, 1977 Ken performed in the Arlington Dance Theatre production of “Elegie” partnering with Libby Wade and choreographed by Ben Stevenson. Ludden returned to Colgate University in 1977 for a summer to pick up more credits toward his undergraduate degree in Art History. While there he formed a non-profit called Summergate Dance Theater, and produced an evening of ballet at Colgate’s Dana Arts Center directed by Silvana Mangione. On March 24, 1978, Ken performed the leading role of the toreador Escamillo in the Maryville-Alcoa Civic Ballet’s production of “Carmen” partnering with English dancer Anne McCarthy who is a dancer of MACB, this marked the first time a guest artist was brought in to partner a dancer from the MACB in a leading role. On the 13th of October, 1978 Ken performed in Sallie Wilson’s first choreographed ballet “Liederspeil.” In December of 1978, Ken performed the part of Kokolin in the Maryland Youth Ballet production of “The Enchanted Clock” choreographed by Tensia and Peter Fonseca.

In June of 1979, Arlington Dance Theatre folded when the Stuttgart Ballet was performing at the Kennedy Center with Ludden as a guest dancer. Stuttgart director Marcia Haydee then arranged for Ludden to become principal dancer and assistant director of the Lucerne State Ballet in Switzerland, before leaving for Switzerland, on July 22, 1979, the Summergate Dance Theatre presented its Kennedy Center Debut of various works by Ludden.

While dancing and directing the Lucerne Company, Ludden also traveled around Europe as a guest artist and teacher, including appearances in Zurich with American Ballerina Rebecca Wright. In 1980, Ken returned to America to become Ballet coordinator for the Washington Opera Company and danced as an international solo artist booked three years in advance. Shortly after Ludden was offered the lead role in Paul Sanasardo’s “Fatal Birds”, a role up to then only danced by Sanasardo himself. Sanasardo taught him the role in a single six-hour rehearsal. While still doing his scheduled performances, Ludden was offered to dance in Poughkeepsie with director Gilbert Reed where Sallie Wilson asked Ludden to become her partner there, and the pair danced together in several ballets.

While at the Washington Opera, Ludden had performed in Dominick Argento’s opera “Postcard from Moracco” in 1981. After which in February of 1982 Argento approached Ludden and asked him to choreograph a piece of music he had specially written for ballet: Royal Invitation: Homage to the Queen of Tonga. Ludden accepted, and hired the Poughkeepsie Ballet Theatre with guest artist Sallie Wilson in the lead role.

In March of 1982, during a televised gala for Margaret Craske’s 90th birthday in New York, Ludden’s Achilles tendon severed and brought an end to his dancing career. 11 operations kept Ludden in a wheelchair and on crutches for nearly three years. During this time Ludden continued to choreograph and teach. He attended Boston University at this time and coached some of the principal dancers, including prima ballerina Laura Young, Ludden also did choreography for the Appalachian Ballet Company. His productions were produced by his non-profit company (Summergate Dance Theatre), which changed name to become the National Arts Group. On January 29, 1984, Ken created the ballet “Don Juan Variations” which was premiered American Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.

In 1985 Ludden Graduated from Boston University with a degree in Art History. For two years he served as a dance critic covering Boston for Dance News. In September of 1986, Ludden returned to Washington, DC and opened Washington Classical Dance at the Eighth Street Studio. While continuing National Arts Group productions, in 1989 Ludden was invited by Vadim Pisarev to travel to Donetsk, USSR to become the first American to choreograph original works in the Soviet Union, and the first cultural exchange under the new policies of Glasnost and Perystoyka.

Ludden’s dance school became impossible to keep opened due to his trip to USSR resulting in thirteen more invitations to travel to Eastern Europe both before and after the Soviet Union fell, he and Fonteyn decided to take this opportunity to study firsthand the different institutions of dance and arts around the world and begin to discuss in earnest the formation of a foundation for a performing arts school. Ludden continued working on choreography, while taking on private students and coaching principal dancers in various companies, he became an all-around ambassador of dance. Then Fonteyn fell ill and died before their school could open. Ludden put Margot’s vision on hold.

In 1997 Ken moved with his partner and daughters to the west coast, and for nine years wrote for the newspaper (San Francisco Spectrum), was the senior correspondent of a television news magazine (QTV Newsmagazine), performed vocally to raise money for AIDS Orphans around the world. He published the first of a nine-book science fiction series (Second Pass), formed a video production company, wrote, published and directed several plays and a television pilot, all the while continued always to coach and teach privately.

Fonteyn told Ken he would know the right time to start building the school and when a number of professional dancers began contacting him in California and ask him to return to the east coast and create a place for them to study and dance, it was clear the time was right. The dancers were discontented with the kinds of works they were asked to perform and felt they were lacking in technique and a strong foundation. Ludden has now formed the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet in Peekskill, New York, opened in 2006 to the public for professional company classes, and for Academy students in 2007. With General Artistic Director to the Fonteyn Academy, Joy Williams Brown, known as the voice of Fonteyn, and many other famous ballet dancers in America, Ken is getting much support, for all see that Fonteyn’s vision is true.

< p> School Directors

< p>Ken Ludden is the director of the school, and is advised by Joy Williams Brown, one of Margot's best friends and a prominent dancer and teacher in her own right, has agreed to become the General Artistic Director of the Fonteyn Academy. She was the voice of Fonteyn as Director, in America, of the Royal Academy of Dancing, where, starting in 1954, Fonteyn served as President for many decades.

Joy Brown presides over the Défilée at the start of each school year, and works closely with Ludden throughout the year. She advises Ludden on all major decisions, and reviews MFAB activities and offerings to assure they uphold the vision of Dame Margot and pay proper tribute to her legacy.

National Arts Group

Founded in 1977, the National Arts Group has conducted Salons throughout its history. These are evenings in which ticket holders attend a performance, and then afterward meet the artists who have performed at an informal dinner. The salons are traditionally hosted by individuals involved with and supportive of ongoing arts programming, provided their homes have sufficient space to host such an event. Individuals have sometimes rented a hall in which to hold the salon when the popularity of the event draws more people than can fit easily into their home. It is important, however, that the atmosphere is relaxed and informal. After performing, artists are tired, hungry and just want to sit down, take off their shoes and relax.

Due to Mr. Ludden’s long, international career he has many contacts in the world of the performing arts, and is able to have notable guests at the salons. It is very important that the events remain respectful of the guests. They are willing to add a public appearance to a tiring performance day in order to help raise funds for the ongoing operation of the Academy, but are also needing to feel relaxed and at ease. Therefore, autographs will not be signed at the salons. Should patrons desire autographs, the items to be signed, along with instructions for what it should say, will be collected by the Academy representative and a time and place will be set up for this purpose, just not at the salon.

Dame Margot Fonteyn was presented at three Salons, and the Royal Ballet was the subject of two additional ones. These evenings, ticketed attendees were able to sit in the comfort of homes and listen to the stories Fonteyn shared about her experiences on stage and off. The humor of notables like Leslie Edwards, Michael Somes, Gary Grant and others was always a hit when the Royal Salons were held. In addition, Fonteyn herself kicked off an entire season of Salons (1976) on the subject of Swan Lake. She was able to share the extraordinary struggle that ballet had presented in her career, the challenge of it technically, and the dramatic interpretations she developed through the years.

In another Salon with Ballet as a focus, Marcia Haydee of the Stutgart Ballet shared her journey from dancer to director. At that particular Salon, the entire company attended, and a fleet of 28 automobiles, each driven by an attendee, drove the dancers to and from the Salon. To this day, some of the friendships that were formed that night have continued to flourish. Miss Haydee shared her particular concerns for her dancers, and some very intimate discussions between her and individual dancers took place. Over the years, the Salons became a cherished institution in the cultural life of Washington, DC and New York City. Now they will be moved to Peekskill as well.

As a result of these salons, the National Arts Group has been able fund 25 productions in 7 Countries and 6 States of the USA. Events include: US representation in International Ballroom Dance Competitions (USSR, Italy, Switzerland, Estonia), Production and direction of the Rudolf Nureyev Tribute (Kennedy Center, American Film Institute Theater, Washington, DC), Dame Margot Fonteyn Memorial Services (Saint Matthew's Cathedral, Washington, DC and New York Public Library for the Arts at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts); educational exchange program between US and Ukraine elementary schools; audience educational events with Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, Washington Opera, Opera Milano alla Scala, Philip Glass, and others. This long tradition now comes to Peekskill to support the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet.

Artistic Advisory Group

The Artistic Advisory Group is made up of artists in many fields who represent excellence in art, each in their own field. Just as Dame Margot embodied artistic excellence in classical ballet, so do these artists represent excellence in their art, and reflect the vast array of the artistic spectrum.

In the field of dance, the number of accomplished and acclaimed dancers speaks to the fact that each and every artist's interpretation is unique and of great value. The American ballerinas represented on the Artistic Advisory Group show how the boom of dance in America has given the world a great treasure. These artists will guide the students, review their work, teach master classes, and advise artistic programming.

Founding Members

Eleaine Bonazzi - The American mezzo-soprano, Eleaine Bonazzi, is Batchelor of Music of the Eastman School of Music.

Elaine Bonazzi's appearances in opera, oratorio, and recitals have been acclaimed in North America and Europe for their profound characerizations and superlative vocalism. She has appeared with many leading opera companies, orchestras, and music festivals in the USA. and abroad, including the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Netherlands Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Spoleto, Venice, Wolf Trap, and Mostly Mozart festivals, working with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Boulez, Leopold Stokowski and Lorin Maazel. Elaine Bonazzi has presented more operatic premieres than any other living American singer; she has been personally selected by eminent composers, including Stravinsky, Copland, Carter, Sondheim, Argento, Chavez, Menotti, Rorem and Thomson to perform their works.

Elaine Bonazzi is now Performing Artist in Residence, and teaches Voice, Vocal Repertory, Acting for Singers at th Department of Music, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Before coming to Stony Brook, Ms. Bonazzi taught at Peabody Institute of Music, and she has presented master classes all over the world.

Elaine Bonazzi can be heard on more than 25 recordings on the Columbia, CRI, Vox Candide, Vanguard and Nonesuch labels.

Eleanore D’Antuono - Eleanor D'Antuono was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and studied dance with Maria Papporello and E. Virginia Williams who later founded the Boston Ballet. At age 14, she began her professional career with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Within two years, she was performing solo roles in the Company's full repertoire and on a world tour. After dancing a season with the Robert Joffrey Ballet, Ms. D'Antuono joined American Ballet Theatre as a soloist in 1961. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1963. In 20 years as a professional dancer with ABT she received accolades from public and press alike. "Eleanor D'Antuono has long been one of the glories of American Ballet Theatre. She has a style and beauty that are all her own... her technique is stunning," said the New York Times. Her leading roles have included Coppelia, Giselle, Raymonda, the Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Tales Of Hoffman, and La Fille Mal Gardee. Inspired by her fiery virtuosity and her unique lyricism, many leading choreographers created original roles for Ms. D'Antuono in ballets such as Alvin Ailey's The River, Brahms Quartet, Elektra, Balladen de Lieber, Kinderzanen and Lorenzo Monreal's Romeo and Juliet. Other ballets in Ms. D'Antuono's repertoire included La Bayadere, Etudes, Jardin Aux Lilas, Corsaire, Diane and Acteon and Don Quixote.

Ms. D'Antuono has been invited to perform all over the world. She appeared at the International Ballet Festival in Havana for several years. She was the first American ballerina to appear as a guest artist with legendary Kirov Ballet in Leningrad and the first American ballerina to appear as a guest artist with Chinese Companies. Since her retirement from active performing Ms. D'Antuono has been Artistic Director to Festival Dance Theatre and Artistic Advisor to New Jersey Ballet, also Resident Coach and Artistic Advisor for the Nutmeg Ballet.

She is highly in demand to coach professional and regional ballet companies nationwide and has staged many classical ballets. Her affiliations include serving on the board for Harkness Ballet Foundation and the New York Council on the Arts.

George Jackson - George Jackson is a dance critic and historian as well as biologist. He has reviewed for general publications (Washington Star, Washington Post, Times of London), dance magazines on three continents, and the broadcast media.

As historian, he has focused on dance in Central Europe, and edited Jack Anderson's and Kathrine Sorley Walker's books on the Ballet Russe. Parasites are his specialty in biology, and he has taught and done research at U. of Chicago, Rockefeller U. and the US Food & Drug Administration.

Sallie Wilson - Sallie Wilson was principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre for many years, and became a legendary dramatic ballerina in the works of Anthony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, and others. Clive Barnes of the New York Times named her the dramatic American ballerina of the 20th century. Today, she travels the world setting the ballets she helped make famous. She teaches in Manhattan. Miss Wilson and Mr. Ludden were partners for four years on stage.

Ms. Wilson’s strong stage presence made her every role vivid, whether in classics or in modern ballets by Antony Tudor, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins or Alvin Ailey. In 1979, Jennifer Dunning, writing in The New York Times, said that Ms. Wilson had “etched herself indelibly on the consciousness of the New York balletgoing public.”

She was especially praised in the works of Antony Tudor, the great British choreographer of dramatic ballets who came to New York in 1940 and was long associated with Ballet Theater, now American Ballet Theater.

Ms. Wilson made history in a Tudor masterpiece on Jan. 20, 1966, when she portrayed the leading role of Hagar in Tudor’s “Pillar of Fire,” becoming the first dancer with Ballet Theater to do so since the role was created in 1942 by Nora Kaye.

Choreographed for Ballet Theater that year, “Pillar,” a brooding drama about a repressed young woman, had not been performed by the company for more than a decade. Ms. Kaye, who had retired by 1966, was so famous in the role that the dance historian Grace Robert wrote in her Borzoi Book of Ballets in 1946 that “the imagination quails at the task of recasting it.”

Ms. Wilson was competing with a legend but she achieved enormous success as Hagar, and as her interpretation deepened over the years, it became “extraordinarily powerful,” as Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The Times in 1971.

Ms. Wilson won praise in other Tudor ballets, including “Jardin aux Lilas,” “Dim Lustre” and “Dark Elegies,” and she again successfully competed with memories in another ballet associated with Ms. Kaye, Agnes de Mille’s “Fall River Legend,” which was inspired by the story of Lizzie Borden.

Over the years, Ms. Wilson staged Tudor ballets for various American and foreign troupes, and in February she supervised revivals of Tudor’s “Jardin aux Lilas,” “Little Improvisations” and “Judgment of Paris” for the New York Theater Ballet. She also taught at its training school, Ballet School NY.

Born in Forth Worth on April 18, 1932, Ms. Wilson, whose father was an architect, studied ballet with local teachers, went on to study dance in New York and joined Ballet Theater in 1949. Shy and lacking in stage experience, she was soon dismissed. Yet she had attracted the attention of Tudor, who was in charge of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, which was affiliated with Ballet Theater at the time. Although initially terrified of this notoriously demanding disciplinarian, Ms. Wilson danced at the Met from 1950 to 1955.

Tudor persuaded Ballet Theater to rehire her in 1956. But when financial problems forced the company to disband temporarily in 1958, she joined New York City Ballet, where she won praise in “Episodes,” a two-part production to music of Webern choreographed by Martha Graham and George Balanchine.

Whereas Balanchine’s contribution to “Episodes” was plotless, Graham devised a dramatic piece about the rivalry between Mary Stuart (played by Graham) and Queen Elizabeth I (Ms. Wilson), pitting the two against each other in a mimed tennis game.

Ms. Wilson returned to Ballet Theater after it was reorganized in 1960; she gave her last regular performance with it in 1980. She occasionally choreographed for regional troupes and in 1980 created an elaborate production in Venice of Benjamin Britten’s “Prince of the Pagodas,” starring the Italian ballerina Carla Fracci. She also danced from time to time with other companies.

Wilson choreographed several ballets for the Arlington Dance Theater, under the direction of Carmen Mathe. In each of her works she chose Ken Ludden to dance the lead male role, as the two of them shared artistic vision about dance and spoke a similar dance language as fellow students of Margaret Craske. Ludden selected Wilson to star in the world premier of his work “Royal Invitation: Homage to the Queen of Tonga” at the Kennedy Center.

Wilson eventually selected Ludden as her partner for several ballets choreographed specifically for the pair and they toured these ballets extensively until Ludden’s retirement on March 4, 1982 due to an on-stage accident during the live televised gala for Margaret Craske’s 90th birthday. After that date Wilson appeared on stage only once. In 1983, she was dazzling as Queen Anne in the Capricorn Theater’s production of “The Vision of Delight,” a Ben Jonson masque of 1617.

Ms. Wilson married the dancer Ali Pourfarrokh in 1960; the marriage ended in divorce. She is survived by a sister, Octavia Labarthe, who lives in England.

Although usually quiet in manner offstage, Ms. Wilson made news in 1976 with a public display of anger directed at Clive Barnes, then the chief dance critic at The Times. He had written about Ballet Theater’s “Fall River Legend,” in which Marcia Haydée of the Stuttgart Ballet appeared as a guest artist. Ms. Wilson thought that Mr. Barnes had insufficiently recognized her own interpretative achievements in the work. Several newspaper at the time reported that Ms. Wilson threw a glass of Scotch at him.

Ms. Wilson always believed in total involvement in roles, even if the part was as an extra in a Wagner opera. “At the Met, I once had to stand still for 45 minutes as Tannhäuser’s page,” she once said.

“As far as I’m concerned, if you’re on stage in a ballet, you’re doing dancing,” she said on another occasion. “Any movement or non-movement on stage is dance.”

Wilson and Ludden returned to the New York stage as choreographers in 1986 at the Riverside Dance Festival, in which the two created a full evening of works. As plans for the Academy were being formulated throughout the late 1970s and beyond, Ludden relied on Wilson’s advice and council. She was the first major ballerina to agree to serve on the AAC, and was scheduled to teach master class series and to teach and coach students at MFAB. Sallie Wilson died suddenly at the end of the Academy’s first school year, just before the Grande Défilée, over which she was scheduled to preside.

Stephan - The graceful art deco images that decorate so many Art Deco Society of California publications (including many Sophisticate covers and our note cards and pin) are the work of Stephan, our Artist-in-Residence since ADSC's founding in 1984.

Growing up in Southern California, Stephan dreamed of being a cartoon animator. He saw his first major Broadway show, Follies, at age 21 and from that moment on his goal was to affect people through his art, through stage and costumes and drama. He began an intense study of the 1920s, '30s and '40s at a time when it was considered kitsch, and eventually discovered the art of Erte.

Stephan found out as much as he could about this unique artist, whose career spanned most of the 20th century, and wrote to him in Paris. They eventually met, and continued to correspond until Erte's death. One of Stephan's greatest honors was going to New York in 1985 to present Erte with a lifetime achievement award from the Art Deco Society.

In addition to his work for the Art Deco Society, Stephan has designed posters, logos, pins, stage sets for many Bay Area organizations, and has held several exhibits of his art. He has given lectures on Erte at several international art deco meetings and the Martin Lawrence Gallery.

Stephan's illustrations have also graced many of our Preservation Ball invitations and posters, like the Platinum Ball in 2001.

To view Stephan's artworks online, go to http://www.artdecosociety.org/stephan where you will find several galleries of his work.

Tai Jimenez - Tai Jimenez, a native of Jamaica, New York, began her dance training with Joan Millen Mesh and went on to study at the School of American Ballet, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and with Madame Gabriella Darvash. She was a member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem School Ensemble before joining DTH, where she spent 12 years.

Her repertory includes many works by George Balanchine, as well as ballets by Glen Tetley, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Sir Frederick Ashton, Bronislava Nijinska, Alvin Ailey, Robert Garland and John Alleyne, among many others. She has appeared as a guest artist with companies across the United States, and made her Broadway debut as Ivy Smith (Miss Turnstiles) in the 1998 revival of On the Town, directed by George C. Wolfe. The versatile Jimenez is also a teacher and choreographer. She has taught dance at the DTH School, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, and other institutions. Her choreography has been performed at the International Blacks in Dance Conference, New York City Center, and Dance Theatre of Harlem�s Open House series, among other venues.

In April, her work will be seen at Aaron Davis Hall in New York City as part of the E-Moves series for emerging choreographers. Jimenez has been featured on the cover of Pointe magazine, and her writing has appeared in both Pointe and Dance Magazine.

Tri Ngo - Tri Ngo graduated from both Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, Arizona, and Full Sail Academy in Winter Park, Florida. His music has been featured on recordings, by Sony in Los Angeles, in Converse commercials, feature films, Namco and Atari video games and other venues. He is a free lance music composer for Taxi.com as well. He composes in a variety of musical styles and is known around the world for his versatility and creativity.

He is the Sound Editor for Black Tie Entertainment, as well as for "Reaching up! Radio" a radio broadcast in Milan and South Africa. To hear samples of his music on the web, go to http://www.soundclick.com/trilliontriage where you will find many examples of his wide range of music offerings.

Review Committee

Academy students will have to perform before a Review Committee panel to be able to matriculate to the next level. These panels will be formed at the time of the review cycle, and will draw from the Academy's Artistic Advisory Group, Mr. Ludden's personal contacts in the world of the arts, and other invited experts.

Mentors

MFAB Upper School students will each be selected by a mentor from the Artistic Advisory Committee members or one of the Review Committee participants. These personal mentors will then follow the student’s development and eventual career in dance.

When MFAB Lower School students begin Level 4 they are assigned an advisor, and this advisor may well become the student’s mentor, though it is not necessarily the cast. The mentorship decision is made exclusively by the mentor his or herself. Throughout the years of development of MFAB students when they are in the Lower School, they are known to all members of the Artistic Advisory Committee and Review Committees. The relationship between students and these artists then become the basis of the mentor’s selection.

MFAB EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

General Arts Studies

In the professional world of dance, the most valued company members are the ones who understand the context of the work they are doing, and are able to understand the choreographic movements beyond the mere steps they are given. The more fluent the dancers is in composition, stage craft, music, and other elements of dance performance, the more valuable they are to the choreographer, and the more fulfilling their experience of dancing is. Most students only begin to learn about these peripheral, though fundamental, aspects of art after they become professionals. And even then, it often isn’t until they become a soloist or higher in the company’s ranks, when such knowledge becomes mandatory for survival and progression in their career path.

Many times, a professional dancer is first exposed to sophisticated or historically significant pieces of music when they first hear it while learning the choreography. The more sophisticated the musical form, the more difficult it is to understand and interpret with dance steps. They are doing this while they are struggling to find their interpretation and to fine tune it for public performance. Thus, it is only after the fact, when the ballet is finished, that they begin to understand the significance of the music, or the musical forms it uses, which will in turn strongly effect their interpretation. Academy students will know this before hearing the music, or, in the case of a new type of music, will have the tools and references to understand it quickly.

A stressed student cannot perform well in academics or dancing. Academy students are also high school students, with progressive demands on them as they near graduation. The Academy recognizes this, and while introducing the general arts curriculum and requirements, the presentation and experience of these general arts studies is more geared to education than testing or the stress of a ranking system. To progress to the next level in the Academy, the student must meet the requirements. If this cannot fit into their normal academic life without causing excessive stress, the Academy will work with the student, to present general arts work during break times from their academic schedules, and fit with their home life as well.

The Academy views the entire future of all students, not only the portion of life that will represent the dance career. By providing basic education and skills needed to branch out into other careers, the Academy ensures students will have the best possible chance to fulfill their life’s energy. While each field of expertise requires its specific training and credentials, knowledge of the basic skills will inform the individual of the true level of interest and/or suitability they have for a specific field other than dance.

A well balanced program of general arts studies is one of the many things that sets the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet apart. When Fonteyn developed her plan for the Academy, her idea of balancing ballet training with education in other arts came from her own view that she would have been a much better dancer had she known more about music, art and philosophy. At the Academy, these related subjects make up the course offerings in General Arts Studies.

Course Descriptions

A well balanced program of general arts studies is one of the many things that sets the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet apart. When Fonteyn developed her plan for the Academy, her idea of balancing ballet training with education in other arts came from her own view that she would have been a much better dancer had she known more about music, art and philosophy. At the Academy, these related subjects make up the course offerings in General Arts Studies.

Below is a list of courses offered in the General Arts curiculum across Lower and Upper School, and Public Ballet, programs.

Anatomy

Professionals will be brought in to teach basic human anatomy, with particular emphasis on how it impacts dance, sport, movement and health. The course will go beyond the mechanical. Skeletal, fluid body, and include neurological systems, viral and bacterial infection, and integration of systems.

Art History

Study of the history of art is the study of human civilization and cultural development throughout recorded time. Beginning with cave paintings and primitive art, students will be brought through each different era of the development of art, including Byzantine, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Early European, Renaissance, Council of Trent, Barroque, Mannerist, Rococco, Architecture, Realist, Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Armory Exhibit of 1912, Early American, American Academy, Modern, Post-modern, etc. Lecturers will be brought in from the surrounding area, New York City and beyond to augment these studies. There will also be museum trips associated with these studies.

Basic design

Elements of design in art are universal, and must be understood. Students will begin with basic concepts of light/dark, line, balance, and guiding the eye around the area of the work. From there, they will expand their view to consider color, hue, saturation, perspective, and value. They will study works of fine art, poster art, graphic design for business, fashion, and other areas. All will be viewed from the standpoint of design.

Body Mechanics

Students will explore the mechanical systems of the body as applied to gravity and friction. Working in a basic, elemental way, they will begin to see how the body works to achieve different types of movement, the connection between intention and execution in movement, and how the various laws of physics play out in the body. Examples in this study will include different sports, lifetime activities, as well as popular dance.

Business in Dance

Students will conceive, design, implement and direct a business plan in dance. This may be a student-produced evening of dance, a fundraising drive for a specific dance-related event, use of dance in other charitable fundraising, creating a dance-based product and preparing it for launch, etc. Where possible this will be done in a real-life situation. Professionals will be brought in to lecture on the different aspects of a project’s life, and will be sought out as consultants for the particular enterprise the students are involved in. Emphasis will be placed on networking, business relationships in the community, form and function of a Board of Directors, marketing, public relations, demographic identification, and reaching your demographic.

Choreographic Versatility

Professional dancers will be brought in to conduct a series of lecture/demonstration/participation workshops on how the contemporary dancer must be versatile to work in a professional company today. They will be asked to perform different styles of choreography, and to dance a passage in a variety of stylistic ways.

Choreography

Students will begin with Doris Humphrey’s “The Art of Making Dances” as a textbook, and then learn the different choreographic skills. They will make their own dances, critique the dances of other students, and view films and video clips of a variety of dance pieces to examine the elements of choreography used.

Color theory

In understanding design, color theory is one of the essentials that demands separate, specific study. They will be taught what makes some colors advance and others recede, and how juxtaposition affects these principles. They will be taught to see what colors are actually there, and how the eye assimilates color and translates it into information beyond simply the way it appears to the eye with normal eyesight.

Composition

Every work of art uses composition, whether it is music, poetry, painting, sculpture, drama, or dance. The basics of composition are as elemental as design and color theory. Students will analyse a variety of compositions and learn how to make a balanced composition without it becoming static. They will learn to look through the lens of a camera, the proscenium of a stage or the boundaries of a canvas and see the composition of the picture within.

Costuming

When considering dressing dancers, actors or singers, costuming becomes an essential element of design for stage. Students will learn the different types of costuming they can draw from, and how those can be adapted for use on stage. They will learn, and make, the basic elements of costuming (skirts, pants, shirts, dresses/robes and headgear), exploring different types of fabric, cuts and stitches to achieve maximum expression.

Criticism, Critical Review

Art criticism is one of the main avenues of reaching the general public with information about what is happening in the world of the arts. By learning how to look critically at works, the student will learn how to assess their own performance. Criticism here isn’t just being negative or finding fault. Instead it is learning how to explain what a person will see or experience when they interact with a specific work of art, what place this work plays in the overall picture of the arts, and their opinion on the quality of that work. They will study reviews of works in the past, and will chronicle current reviews in conjunction with viewing and writing reviews of their own on the same works (movies, restaurants, dances, music recordings, music videos, etc.).

Curation

The Academy will have a few gallery spaces where works of visual art will be on display. Students will learn how to select works to display, how to prepare the physical space for display, how to mount the pieces, how to write the exhibition book and how to present individual works in the context of a curated show. They will either organize exhibitions from Mr. Ludden’s personal art collection, or find local artists to feature in an exhibition.

Dance History

Using Walter Sorrell’s book “Dance Through Time” and the PBS series “The Magic of Dance”, students will study all public forms of dance throughout history, and then focusing on the early beginnings of organized theatrical dance in Europe. They will follow the progression of ballerinas from Pavlova to Fracci to Fonteyn to Jamison, on the female side. And they will chart the impact on male dancing Nijinski and Nureyev had, seeing how they laid the foundation for all contemporary dance. They will also study the impact of luminaries such as Balanchine and Baryshnikov. In addition they will study the impact of politics, economics and war on dance.

Eastern Healing

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