Please join me in welcoming our newest contributor Dalia Rawson, who will be writing about ABT’s National Training Curriculum for 4dancers…
by Dalia Rawson
I was finally there, at 890 Broadway in New York City. This building, which houses the Laurence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theatre, is the legendary home of the American Ballet Theatre and ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. The building boasts floor after floor of dance studios, and it has been the site of rehearsals, classes, and auditions for countless dance companies, dance schools, and Broadway shows.
The building’s rich history is apparent the minute you step out one of its two operator-controlled elevators, into a maze of hallways and staircases leading to countless dressing rooms and dance studios. Innumerable legendary dance teachers have taught in these studios, and I was about to meet one of the most notable. American Ballet Theatre’s Franco De Vita, the co-creator of ABT’s National Training Curriculum and Principal of ABT’s JKO School had invited me to observe three days of classes. Ballet San Jose School is moving towards implementation of ABT’s National Training Curriculum, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled by this opportunity. Raymond Lukens, who co-created the Curriculum with Mr. De Vita, was out of town, so I would be learning about the Curriculum through watching classes taught by Mr. De Vita, as well as classes taught by other faculty members of the JKO School.
I had arrived early, not sure how long it would take to walk from the Chelsea apartment where I was staying to the studios, and found myself with a moment to catch my breath and reflect before classes were to begin. As I waited with the ABT receptionist, sitting under the framed Resolutions passed by the US Senate and House of Representatives recognizing ABT’s service as America’s National Ballet Company, I felt a growing excitement regarding what was to come. Having spent the previous night on a red-eye flight from San Jose to New York after Ballet SJ School’s Summer Intensive Auditions, I was slightly disoriented, adding to the almost surreal surge of anticipation I was feeling about seeing some of our nation’s most talented dance students up close in class. As it turns out, I wasn’t disappointed.
