Festival Ballet Providence - Center for Dance Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2005

Festival Ballet Providence, 401-353-1129

Master Class Ballet series features three internationally recognized masters of the art form April 3, April 10 and May 1, 2005!

Providence, RI - Mary Ann Mayer, director of the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education, announces a three-part Master Class Series taught by three nationally recognized authorities to take place three Sundays in the spring. Joan Kunsch, Larissa Ponaomarenko and Adriana Suarez will each lead a two-hour ballet master class, open to the public, at it’s 825 Hope Street studio.

Joan Kunsch, Associate Artistic Director and choreographer of Nutmeg Conservatory in Torrington, CT, will lead off the series on Sunday April 3 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. Ms. Kunsch has been with Nutmeg as classical ballet teacher/choreographer since 1988. An experienced artistic director and international guest artist, she has also served as ballet mistress to MOMIX. She has been a guest teacher/choreographer in Oslo, Norway, with London’s Royal Ballet School and Royal Academy of Dancing, the principal Swedish Ballet school in Stockholm, The Hague, and across the US. She was on the dance faculty of SUNY-Binghamton and Butler University. She twice traveled to consult with faculty members of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg.

Larissa Ponomarenko, Principal Dancer with Boston Ballet will teach the second master class in the series on Sunday April 10th from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. A principal dancer with Boston Ballet since 1993, Ms. Ponomarenko received her training from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, and was principal dancer with the Donetsk Ballet Company in the Ukraine before coming to the United States. She has danced all the major roles of the company’s repertoire since arriving at Boston Ballet over ten years ago. Always in demand as a guest artist, Miss Ponomarenko was noted in the Boston Globe in 2004 as being “one of the top dramatic ballerinas in the world”. She is married to choreographer and Boston Ballet Senior Artist Viktor Plotnikov.

Adriana Suarez, Principal Dancer with Boston Ballet, will teach the final master class on Sunday May 1st. from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. A native of Caracas Venezuela, Ms. Suarez studied at the school of American Ballet prior to joining Boston Ballet in 1989. Promoted to principal level in 1994, she has performed a broad range of lead roles in the company’s repertoire, thrilling audiences along the way. Adriana became a certified Gyrotonic instructor in 2003. She is married to Boston Ballet’s Gianni Di Marco with whom she shares two children.

Class level is geared to high intermediate to advanced ballet students. Space is limited, so pre-registration is suggested. Students may register for the entire series for a fee of $90, or register for single classes for a fee of $35. To register, contact Festival Ballet Providence at 401.353.1129.

The Festival Ballet Providence and the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education are together a not-for-profit arts organization whose EIN is 05-0377245 and whose Rhode Island Corporate ID number is ND-27-137. The Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education is handicapped accessible.