More Than Ballet

Photo by Brad Puckett / American Press

Lake Charles Civic Ballet has always offered its company members more. More than just an end of the year recital, the dancers enjoy precious opportunities to perform on the stage for the audience. In addition, LCCB provides dance students with a six-week summer intensive workshop taught by professional instructors from around the country. The workshop provides outstanding training for the serious ballet student. Dancers know how easy it can be to settle into comfortable surroundings—your regular studio, normal classes, that favorite instructor. For a dancer to gain full value from their ballet study they must stay connected. They must feel connected. Summer workshop can help the dancer reconnect. They walk into the studio like it’s new, try a different style of dance, and learn from instructors with different teaching methods. It's exciting! It's sort of like a metabolism boost for their dance study—infusing energy and excitement. Summer workshop for ballet students can provide hands on training into the world beyond dance. Lake Charles Civic Ballet dancers experience the big stage. They present full-length story ballets to large audiences, but that’s not all. Company members perform and work behind scenes in ways vital to the success of the performance. Everything imaginable from setup to cleanup becomes part of the dancers’ experience. The training, not always glamorous, develops the dancer. Not all dancers will become the principle ballerina in a professional company, but some may. Others may choose a career path they discovered while training in the company. The audience will eagerly embrace the talented professional ballerina and they will also need someone to design her fabulous costumes, run the complicated sound board, and plan that strategic marketing campaign to connect the audience to the arts.

Every year some of our company dancers attend summer workshops away from home. This summer a few of our members will attend Houston Ballet's Summer Intensive program. Some of those Level 8 students can participate in career studies courses. Read what Jaclyn Youngblood, Academy Intern, shares about these students' classwork.

http://houstonballet.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/developing-a-dancer%e2%80%99s-toolbox-the-world-of-wardrobe/