school of american ballet

Interview: New York City Ballet Corps Member Laine Habony

August 13, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

Laine Habony. Photograph by Kenneth Edwards.

At what age did you begin ballet? Where did you receive your early training?

I began dance at age 3. Both my older sisters danced and I begged for a year to take class too. I started in a combo ballet/tap pullout class at a Montessori school and my first recital was a tap recital.

The next year, I started ballet and tap classes at a small studio called Denton Ballet Academy. I moved to Ballet Conservatory (BC) when I was 8 to train with Kelly Kilburn Lannin. Ms. Lannin introduced me to classical ballet, modern, tap, jazz, and musical theater. It was a great performance studio that fed into a local company, LakeCities Ballet Theatre (LBT).

I was invited to join LBT at age 11 and performed many ballets there for two years before leaving for NYC. At BC/LBT, I was able to train with Ms. Lannin, Shawn Stevens (NYCB and Twyla Tharp), and Allan Kinzie (Boston Ballet) as well as guest artists including Michael Vernon (Royal Ballet), Josh Bergasse (On The Town, Smash), Marco Perins (La Scala), Julie Kent (ABT).

When did you realize you wanted to be a professional ballet dancer?

I always preferred tap/jazz over ballet until I was 11 years old – then I got my pointe shoes! I auditioned for summer programs that winter and spent my 12th summer at ABT NYC. I knew then I wanted to be a professional ballerina in NYC. When I was 13, I performed Serenade with LBT and knew then it was Balanchine all the way.

I saw on YouTube that you competed in Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP) when you were 13. Tell us a little about that experience and what you learned from it.

I did compete in YAGP when I was 13. It was a great year. I did two classical pieces – Satanella and Aurora’s first variation from Sleeping Beauty. I also did a contemporary piece choreographed by Shawn Stevens to Vivaldi called Red Cardinal. I had gorgeous tutus sewn by Elizabeth Schillar, a tutu designer in Texas. She allowed me to help with the creation, picking fabric and even sewing on all the crystals.

I won 1st place in Classical in Dallas and Top 12 in Contemporary and went on to compete in the YAGP NYC Finals. I had great scores and great comments and was offered full scholarships to quite a few places including Canada National and John Cranko, but I had to decline them all because I already knew I was going to the School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet’s official school) on scholarship.

Training for YAGP is an experience a young dancer cannot replace at that age. Private lessons that provided individual performance coaching were so valuable for my technique and confidence. My coaches taught me to work for the sake of experience, not to win a contest. I learned that a dance career is a marathon not a sprint, and not to get caught up on losing or winning any one thing.

[Read more…]

Summer Dance Intensives – A Guidebook

February 15, 2013 by 4dancers

There’s a lot to know about summer dance intensives, and both students and parents may have a lot of questions regarding topics such as which one to choose, what to do about housing and which intensives are the best match for their particular situation. And the biggest question of all may be where to find those answers…

Nina Amir is a journalist with a vested interest in the subject–she is also the parent of a dancer, and the author of “My Son Can Dance” – a popular dance blog on the web. She created a handbook that helps answer a lot of the basic questions people may have about summer intensives in the dance world. Today, we talk with her about that resource–and learn more about why she decided to write it…

How did the idea for this handbook come about?

Every year I receive a ton of questions about summer dance intensives—especially about the American Ballet Theatre intensive in New York. From about November or December, when the boys and their parents start gearing up to audition for the bigger intensives, through until May or June, my readership at My Son Can Dance, skyrockets. Mostly these visitors are reading posts about summer intensives. It became obvious parents needed and wanted help not only deciding on an intensive but choosing the right one for their dancers—not just the dancin’ boys but the girls as well.

I’d written a number of blog posts on the topic of choosing and preparing for an intensive that I felt could be expanded into longer articles, if you will, or chapters. Also, I thought I would be doing the community a service by compiling some of the posts I’d written into one document—an easily read handbook—and adding more information as well.

What is covered in the handbook?

The Handbook includes chapters on:

How to Choose a Summer Dance Intensive Program
How to Register for a Summer Dance Intensive
What to Bring to a Summer Dance Intensive
How to Prepare for a Summer Dance Intensive
How to Stay Healthy and Strong During a Summer Dance Intensive
How Dancers Should Conduct Themselves During a Summer Dance Intensive

Plus, it has one full chapter on “What to Consider When Attending the ABT Summer Dance Intensive in New York City.”

The new edition, which I released the last week of January, includes a bit more information than before. I’ve updated it to include the experiences Julian and I had during our additional summers in New York while he was at ABT and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and what we learned when he attended the School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet summer intensives. It also includes a brief discussion of how some of these programs can lead to year-round residential programs.

Can you give readers a few tips for summer intensives that you talk about in the handbook? [Read more…]

Dance Wellness: Phases Of Healing

November 29, 2012 by 4dancers

We are pleased to have Marika Baxter, PT, as our guest contributor this month. Marika has extensive experience working with dancers, and her article on the “Phases of Healing” is great information to share regarding what happens in your body when you have an injury, and how to integrate that with returning to happy, healthy dancing.

After Marika’s article, you’ll find a few additional words from me, on something we’ve mentioned before in our Wellness column, but which bear mentioning again — keeping the rest of your body in shape while you’re recovering from an injury.

The Holidays are here, so enjoy — happy “Nutcracker”, if that’s a part of your dance life, and “talk” to you again soon!

Jan

Jan Dunn, MS

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Phases of Healing

by Marika Baxter, PT, MSPT, OCS

If you’ve ever had an injury that’s sidelined you from dancing, the most pressing question you may have is “How long will it take to recover and when will I be dancing again?” Though every injury and dancer is different, the way our body heals does follow the same pattern. Understanding the phases of healing and how they relate to getting back in the studio can help you in the journey back to health. The important thing to remember is that healing is a process, not an event!

Phase I – The Inflammatory Phase

The first phase of healing is called the inflammatory phase. You’re in the studio rehearsing for a performance and as you step into a turn your concentration lapses and your ankle rolls. You feel pain on the outside of your ankle and when you try to continue dancing your ankle feels weak and is too painful to put weight on. Luckily you put ice on it right away but by the end of the night your ankle is swollen and bruised.

Whether the injury is major, like this story of an ankle sprain, or just a small cut or bruise, the first thing the body will experience is inflammation. You can think of the inflammatory phase as the clean up phase. In the first 24-48 hours, the body will send cells to the area to help remove injured tissue. The body will also begin laying down new cells to form a blood clot, almost like an internal scab. This helps keep the injury protected as it begins to heal.

During the inflammatory phase, there are a number of things you may be feeling. It’s common to have pain, swelling and possibly warmth and redness in the area. Depending on the severity of the injury, you may have difficulty dancing, walking or moving the body part. In this first phase of healing, you may need to modify what you’re doing in class or rehearsals to allow for healing to begin. In some cases you may need to take a break from dancing so the body can start the healing process.

In these first few days after an injury, the best thing to do is PRICED: Protect, Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate, Diagnose. You can see the previous dance wellness article on 4dancers.org entitled “Keeping Dancers Dancing: “Help I Have An Injury – What Do I Do?” for more information on PRICED.

Phase II – The Repair Phase [Read more…]

The Professional Pointe Shoe Fitter

January 24, 2012 by 4dancers

Please welcome Brenda Neville, head of the US Retail Department & NYC Boutique for Freed of London. Ms. Neville is here to talk with us today about her career as a Professional Pointe Shoe Fitter…

w_20120109_4Dancers-Freed_Christopher.Duggan_081 — Brenda R. Neville, Photo by Christopher Duggan

What is your background in dance?

I received my early dance training at the Milwaukee Ballet School and went on to graduate from Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in Dance Pedegogy. After graduation, I moved to New York and then spent the next 15 years performing and touring internationally with a variety of companies, choreographer’s, and musical theatre productions in styles ranging from ballet to flamenco to Irish Step dance.

What are you doing now?

Aside from my work at Freed’s, I am the founder and Artistic Director of Neville Dance Theatre, a contemporary ballet company based in New York with annual performance seasons, and teach ballet classes and world dance workshops at The Ailey School, Steps on Broadway, and Covenant Ballet School of Brooklyn, to name a few.

w_20120109_4Dancers-Freed_Christopher.Duggan_044 — Brenda R. Neville with SAB student Ashley McAleer, Photo by Christopher Duggan

How did you become a Professional Fitter?

When I wasn’t performing or touring, I supplemented my time and income in New York working with pointe shoe manufacturers as a fitter, manager and product tester. It’s now been over 15 years that I’ve been in the business.

What organizations have you worked with in terms of fitting pointe shoes? [Read more…]

One Dancer’s Journey…

November 14, 2011 by 4dancers

Today I’d like to welcome Todd Fox as our latest contributor to 4dancers. Todd originally was going to complete the interview I sent for “10 Questions With…” the feature I typically use to highlight dancers and dance-related professionals on this site.

Time passed and he found himself answering the questions in depth, and after we talked a bit, we decided we would break them down into monthly posts, so that readers could get a closer look at his journey through the dance world. Today is his first post…answering question 1…stay tuned next month for more! -Catherine

1. How did you become involved in dance?

I was born in Miami Florida and from a very early age my mom exposed me to dance. She taught ballet for a magnet arts school in Miami called PAVAC, Performing and Visual Arts Center, and used to drag me around to all the classes she taught.

As I got old enough she made me learn ballet by taking one of her classes each week with her other students. At that age I wasn’t at all interested in studying ballet, I thought it was boring and I hated wearing tights. All I ever wanted to do was go ride my bike with friends or play video games but my mother was insistent, VERY insistent. She eventually presented me with an effective ultimatum, take one ballet class per week or I wouldn’t receive my weekly allowance. So, I studied ballet like this on and off for most of my young life, I went through the motions but never really took a serious interest, it was all just to appease my mom and of course get my allowance.

When I was 13 my family moved to New Jersey and in Somerset County where I attended public school there was a Vocational and Technical School (vo-tech) which had a performing arts program offering dance. There were lots of girls in the Vo-Tech dance program from mine and several neighboring schools with no guys at all. At that age the thought of spending my day dancing around with lots of girls and being the only guy had amazing appeal and much to my mom’s complete jaw dropping shock and surprise I begged for her to let me enroll. [Read more…]

Phases of Healing

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