So often in dance students are treated as professionals from a very young age. But here, they’re students, they’re here to learn and gain experience.

And, in the dance world, we tend to focus so much on what the body can do during the audition process, but there's so many other things that we need to assess when we're looking at whether or not a student is going to thrive in the studio. Are they interested? Do they have focus? Do they have creativity and coordination? This is a ballet school, but there are so many pathways that come out of ballet. So why would we eliminate a student just because they don't have a ballet aesthetic? 

Despite the fact that it’s a ballet school, there are other types of classes too, right?

In middle school, we really start to add more variety to the curriculum. They start to experience tap, jazz, Horton, and we have a repertory class where they learn choreography by the founder, Eliot Feld. I teach a choreographic workshop with the eighth graders that starts preparing them for auditions. And then throughout the year, depending on what's happening, we do classes that are tailored towards cultural celebrations. For Latin Heritage Month, we'll bring in artists from Ballet Hispánico to work with them on different styles, or if it's Lunar New Year, we always have someone come in to do traditional Chinese dancing with the students. This is a very diverse, international school. Another part of my vision is making sure that the students are able to embrace their own cultures while simultaneously learning ballet. They don’t have to strip themselves of their culture in order to participate in ballet—these two ideas can live side by side. 

Tell me a bit about “Echoes of the Studio,” your new work that will premiere as part of Ballet Tech’s Kids Dance program at the Joyce in early June.

I love studio practice. I’m a performer so I’ve been on stage my whole life, but it’s the rehearsal process that I really love the most. There’s just something so powerful about being able to focus your energy for that amount of time, dedicating yourself to a practice. The piece is essentially about the journey from being a student and taking everything you learn and bringing it to the stage. There are also adults in the piece. I’m introducing adults into the space and having them serve as inspiration for the students, but also to feel the inspiration that pours back into us as adults when we are in the studio with the students.