CURRICULUM AND TRAINING
Our comprehensive curriculum includes daily ballet technique classes with additional classes in pointe, male technique, variations, special technique, modern, jazz, character, Pilates, and our Hydroconditioning Exercise System™. Class sizes are limited to approximately 20, affording the students individual attention. Professional musicians accompany all classes which are held in the five spacious studios of our Dance Center. The program culminates in a repertory performance in Walnut Hill’s state-of-the-art, 350-seat Keiter Performing Arts Center.
Placement in each level is determined by the technical ability and physical strength of each student. The curriculum for each level has been developed to be the most advantageous and healthy for each student's growth.TYPICAL WEEKDAY SCHEDULE
| 8:00 – 8:45 | Breakfast | |
| 8:45 – 9:30 | Warm-up | |
| 9:30 – 11:15 | Ballet Class | |
| 11:15 – 12:00 | Pointe or Men's Class | |
| 12:00 – 1:00 | Lunch | |
| 1:00 – 3:30 | Men's Class, or Variations/Partnering, or Pilates, or Hydroconditioning Exercise System™ |
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| 3:30 – 5:00 | Modern, or |
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| 5:15 – 6:30 | Dinner |
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| 6:30 – 8:00 | Rehearsal and Educational Workshops | |
| 8:15 – 9:45 | Free Time | |
| 9:45 | Check-In/Dorm Curfew |
The weekend schedule includes classes and rehearsals on Saturday as well as time to participate in campus events such as swimming, movies, and outdoor activities. On Sunday students may also participate in chaperoned day trips around New England and Boston.
EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS
To promote the education of dancers as artists, our program offers a variety of evening workshops to further enhance the student’s knowledge of this art form. The opportunity to learn all aspects of the craft is invaluable to the student’s development as an artist; we provide training for both the body and the mind.
- Dance History
- Costuming for Dance
- Lighting for Dance
- Stage Makeup
- Choreography
- Injury Prevention
- Nutrition
- Dance on Film Lecture & Discussion Series
HYDROCONDITIONING EXERCISE SYSTEM™
For dance students, the hours of practice place significant physical demands on the body. The commitment and intensity of training is often greatest at the same point that bone growth is most rapid. For many young dancers, continuing to demonstrate gains in flexibility, strength and skill can be very challenging during this period. Injuries due to overuse in the feet, legs and spine can occur, and painful muscle imbalance syndromes and acute trauma can arise over time from the repetitive motion and prolonged impact commonplace for a dancer. However, dynamic, full-body exercise such as hydroconditioning can provide an opportunity to prevent or manage dancers’ injuries.
Hydroconditioning is a tremendous tool to provide gains in joint mobility, strength and flexibility in a non-weight-bearing environment. By manipulating the factors of buoyancy and turbulence, via changes in equipment worn by the student and the speed, position, and direction of movement, aquatic exercise can be very supportive and safe, while also being challenging and dance-specific.
Walnut Hill offers summer students classes through our Hydroconditioning Exercise System™ under the direction of Lynne King, P.T.
GUEST FACULTY-IN-RESIDENCE AND MASTER TEACHERS
Each year Walnut Hill invites internationally known guest faculty to teach during our summer program. The list below includes faculty who have recently been in residence and some who may be in residence in future years:
Melanie Atkins
Soloist with Boston Ballet and former principal dancer with
Miami City Ballet (Walnut Hill alumna)
Catherine Batcheller
Former principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Stuttgart Balle and co-founder of Configuration Dance Ensemble
Mucuy Bolles
Former dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Walnut
Hill alumna)
Christina Fagundes
Former soloist with American Ballet Theatre
John Gardner
Former soloist with American Ballet Theatre
Amanda McKerrow
Principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre
Gillian Murphy
Principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre
Mikko Nissinen
Artistic Director of Boston Ballet
Ethan Stiefel
Principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre
Sabi Varga
Soloist with Boston Ballet
FACILITIES
The Ballet Center at Walnut Hill
The beautiful gambrel-roofed home of the Summer Dance Program offers five spacious studios with large arched windows, dressing rooms, faculty offices, and a lounge area. In addition, the campus fitness center offers 2 movement studios, as well as cardiovascular and strength building equipment.
Jane Oxford Keiter Performing Arts Center
Stephanie Bonnell Perrin Theater
The 350-seat Perrin Theater is the principal home and performance space for Summer Dance. The theater is a professional level venue with full stage-size wings and a 60-foot full fly loft with thirty-two counter weight battens. The theater has an electronic lighting system and a double sprung stage floor.
In addition, the Keiter Center includes a Green Room, teaching studios, costume shops, spacious dressing rooms with showers, lockers, hanging racks and specially lit theatrical make-up mirrors.
DANCE FACULTY
BALLET
Michael Owen
Director of the Walnut Hill School Ballet Department and Walnut Hill Summer Dance. Mr. Owen studied with Marcia Dale Weary at the Pennsylvania Ballet School and continued his studies at the School of American Ballet. He is a former principal danseur of American Ballet Theatre where he had a distinguished 26-year career. Michael Owen has made guest appearances with companies across the globe, has appeared in television and film, and performed for every U.S. President from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton. He continues his professional affiliation with American Ballet Theatre, recently performing in Le Corsaire and Romeo & Juliet. As Director of the Ballet Department for the past nine years, Mr. Owen has meticulously brought the department into the forefront of excellence in training. In addition, he is an international master teacher, with periodic engagements across mainland United States, Hawaii, Canada, and Japan.
Samuel Kurkjian
Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of the Walnut Hill National Youth Ballet and Summer Dance Repertory Performance. Mr. Kurkjian trained with Richard Ellis and Christine Duboulay of the Sadlers Wells Ballet and at the School of American Ballet. He studied choreography on a fellowship with George Balanchine at Saratoga, New York, and holds a B.A. from the University of Illinois. Mr. Kurkjian was formerly a resident choreographer of Boston Ballet and held the position of ballet master at Boston Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Basel Ballet in Switzerland. Mr. Kurkjian is currently a member of the Walnut Hill ballet faculty.
Kathy Kozul
Ms. Kozul is a former member of Boston Ballet and Boston Repertory Ballet. She has danced leading roles in Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Concerto Borocco, Allegro Brillante, and Tarantella. Ms. Kozul is currently on the faculty at Walnut Hill School and has taught at The Sherry Gold Dance Studio, where her students have been recipients of national titles including the Capezio Award for Excellence in Ballet, the Gold Family Award for Excellence, and the Gus Giordano Award. Ms. Kozul also is a master teacher at numerous studios and has served as an adjudicator at many competitions.
Sherri Kitchens
Ms. Kitchens trained at the School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, and with Ditzi Nagy and Allan Miles in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. She also studied in New York City with Rosanna Seravalli, Elisabeth Carroll, and Nadine Revene. Ms. Kitchens danced professionally with the Hartford Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and Tucson Ballet. She has been an instructor at Boston Ballet School, Ballet Theatre of Boston, and Dallas Conservatory of Ballet. Ms. Kitchens currently serves as an instructor of the Community Dance Academy at Walnut Hill and in the high school program, and is a guest instructor at Steps on Broadway.
Erika Lambe-Holland
Ms. Lambe-Holland is a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, and trained at the Boston Ballet School. She then danced for eleven years with Boston Ballet. She performed in a variety of ballets to critical acclaim including Romeo and Juliet, and was the first African-American ballerina to dance the role of Sugar Plum Fairy in Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Ms. Lambe-Holland has guest performed with Boston Dance Company, and is currently on faculty at Boston Ballet School and Walnut Hill.
Monica Lender
Ms. Lender received her training at Ballet Arts in Carnegie Hall with Robert Blankshine, as a scholarship student at the New York School of Ballet with Richard Thomas, and at the David Howard Dance Center with David Howard and Diana Cartier. She danced professionally with Feld Ballets/NY, Princeton Ballet, James Sewell Ballet and Ballet Manhattan, among others. She continued her career performing as a free-lance and guest artist for a number of different choreographers. Ms. Lender has taught in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and is currently on faculty at Walnut Hill and the Academy of Ballet Arts.
Kathryn Stark
Director of Walnut Hill Youth Summer Dance and the Community Dance Academy. Ms. Stark has been an instructor at the Pittsburgh Youth Ballet and Chautauqua Institute. She received her dance training at North Carolina School of the Arts, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and as a child with Eduard Caton and Jean Gedeon. As a professional dancer, Ms. Stark performed with Ballet Met and was a principal dancer of Southern Ballet Theatre.
MODERN
Diane Arvanites-Noya
Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Prometheus Dance, has been teaching modern technique and choreography at Walnut Hill since 1989. Ms. Noya is currently on the dance faculties of The Boston Conservatory and The Dance Complex in Cambridge, where Prometheus Dance is in residence. The presentations of her choreography nationally and internationally include The International Dance and Theatre Festivals in Venezuela, Ecuador, Spain, and France, as well as La Mama, the Joyce SOHO, and the Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors Festival in New York City.
JAZZ
Billy McLaughlin
Mr. McLaughlin is presently on the dance faculties of Walnut Hill, The Boston Conservatory, Boston Arts Academy, and Simmons College, among other institutions. Mr. McLaughlin is a prominent Boston area choreographer. Several of his works have been performed to critical acclaim by the Walnut Hill Dance Department.
PILATES
Janet Blackman
Ms. Blackman has been teaching Pilates for the past 15 years. She currently teaches modern dance at Lesley University and Pilates at Walnut Hill School.
HYDROCONDITIONING™
Lynne King, P.T.
Ms. King is a registered physical therapist practicing in Wayland, Massachusetts. For the last ten of her thirteen years in practice, Ms. King has integrated aquatic and traditional therapies to expedite the rehabilitation and conditioning of performing artists.
ADMISSION
Admission to Summer Dance at Walnut Hill is highly selective. Each year Walnut Hill enrolls talented students from around the nation and the world.
To apply to Summer Dance Program, please submit the following:
- Complete application form
- A nonrefundable $30 application fee
- Two photographs (1 first arabesque and 1 pointe tendu crosse devant)
- One letter of recommendation from a current or recent dance teacher
- Audition in one of the cities in which Walnut Hill will conduct auditions in 2008
Video taped auditions are not preferable; however VHS video taped auditions are allowed. The tape should be approximately fifteen minutes in length and should display a student's technical ability. Examples of classroom work including both barre and centre combinations should be shown. Ladies should include a pointe combination or variation. Please do not submit performance excerpts.
Return your application to:
Walnut Hill School
Office of Admission and Placement
12 Highland Street
Natick, MA 01760
Applications must be mailed to the address above or given to the audition personnel at the audition. Spaces and scholarship funds are limited. No admission decision can be made prior to completing the entire application process.
Please call the Office of Admission and Placement at (508) 650-5020 if you have any questions.
AUDITION INSTRUCTIONS
Applicants are strongly encouraged to attend a live audition at one of the sites offered in 2008. Pre-registration is not required to audition. Audition registration will take place during the first half hour of each audition session. The application fee of $30.00, application, and photographs are due at the time of audition.
Auditions take the form of a regular ballet technique class and include barre, centre work, and pointe. Ladies are asked to have their hair secured up, jewelry removed, and wear pink tights and ballet shoes with a solid-colored, but preferably not black leotard. Gentlemen are asked to wear black tights and a white leotard or t-shirt. Black shoes and white socks are preferred.
Walnut Hill School policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, handicap, sexual orientation, or veteran status. This policy extends to all rights, privileges, programs, and activities, including admission, employment, financial assistance, and educational, arts, and athletic programs.
Disclaimer: All information contained in these pages of is as current as possible, but is subject to change at the discretion of Walnut Hill School without notice.
