PROGRAMS & TUITION – Enrichment
Enrichment
Enrichment classes support and maximize a student’s progress and potential. Conditioning provides critical cross-training and proper stretching techniques to help a dancer identify and strengthen weaknesses, which facilitates maximizing progress and reaching full potential while preventing the most common dance injuries. Partnering and repertory classes allow dancers to explore advanced classical ballet genres and become more musical and artistic. Broadway and Contemporary dance support ballet students in building diverse movement modalities, increasing physical strength, flexibility, and musicality, and broadening their overall artistic skills as dancers.
Enrichment classes are open to students in Levels 2-8 who are enrolled in New Haven Ballet’s Student Division.
©2024 Thomas Giroir Photography
CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Contemporary dance incorporates elements of jazz, lyrical, ballet, and modern dance. The class explores some of the traditional styles of dance that make up today’s contemporary dance, allowing students the opportunity to move, explore improvisational movements, choreography, and more. Students interested in professional dance careers are strongly encouraged to participate.
©2024 Thomas Giroir Photography
BROADWAY REPERTORY
Join us for an exciting journey into the world of theatre dance with our Broadway Repertory course at New Haven Ballet. Under the expert guidance of Joseph J. Simeone, a seasoned Broadway performer and writer, students will have the unique opportunity to learn dances from popular shows such as Hamilton, Beetlejuice, and Wicked. The 2024-2025 season will culminate in a thrilling West Side Story medley, featuring iconic numbers like “Cool,” “America,” “Dance at the Gym,” and “The Knife Fight.” This course is divided into advanced beginner and intermediate advanced levels, ensuring that every student can progress at their own pace. Throughout the season, students will not only refine their technique and performance skills but also gain invaluable insights into the Broadway industry, including audition tips, stage presence, and the creative process behind staging a show. Don’t miss the chance to be part of our best season yet, where you’ll elevate your dance abilities and experience the magic of Broadway firsthand!
Musicality for Dancers: “Dance to the Beat” (Endorsed by Tiler Peck, Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet) In an extraordinary collaboration, New Haven Ballet presents Joseph J. Simeone’s groundbreaking course, “Dance to the Beat: Unleashing Musicality.” Dancers enrolled in Levels 6, 7, and 8 have the unique chance to explore the dynamic relationship between dance and music under the guidance of Joseph J. Simeone, a New Haven Ballet faculty member who has achieved success in both fields.
Why This Course:
- Unique Expertise: Joseph J. Simeone, an alumnus of The Juilliard School, brings unparalleled insight into both music and dance. With a background in composing orchestral works for Harvard and the L.A. Opera, performing with Merce Cunningham and Twyla Tharp, and holding leading roles on Broadway in “West Side Story” and “A Chorus Line.”
- Curated Curriculum: The course offers a codified blend of theory and practice, providing a deep dive from basic music theory to the creation and performance of your own music composition and choreography, accompanied by live music.
- Beyond Technique: Explore the evolution of dance and music, from prehistoric rhythms to the birth of ballet and modern dance, and onto the avant-garde movements of 21st-century artists.
- Exclusive Access: With limited enrollment, this course ensures personalized mentorship, fostering a customized learning environment where every dancer’s artistic potential can flourish.
Program Highlights:
- Understanding Music Structure: Gain insights into the fundamental structures of music, including time signatures and musical phrasing, to create a framework for intuitive and expressive dance—from auditions to performances.
- On Your Feet Work: Each class offers innovative dance exercises to translate theory into action, sharpening your listening and movement quality, boosting improvisation, and fostering personal expression through musical cues.
- Positive Feedback Only: Benefit from personalized, positive feedback, fostering growth and encouraging you to explore new dimensions of musicality.
- Bonus Content: Each of the 30 lessons include detailed takeaways like a glossary, key facts, and highlights for easy review. Our “Dancer of the Day” bonus feature also covers notable choreographers and composers, providing essays on their impact to inspire and inform your dance journey. This content is hand crafted to offer insights and motivation to refine your practice through the lessons of dance masters.
- Join the Legacy: This course invites you to be part of a movement that blurs the lines between music and dance, crafting performances that resonate with depth and emotion. With limited enrollment, secure your spot now for this unparalleled opportunity to expand your artistic expression through the power and rhythm of music.
“As a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, I can wholeheartedly say that Joseph J Simeone’s ‘Musicality for Dancers’ course is a game-changer. Joseph’s passion for both music and dance is incredibly inspiring, and it shines through in every lesson. This course goes beyond the basics, diving deep into musical phrasing, performing elements, historical dance forms, and the emotional connection between music and movement. The practical exercises are amazing; they help dancers truly feel and express complex musical ideas, taking their performance to a whole new level. If you’re a dancer looking to elevate your artistry, this course is a must.”
-Tiler Peck, Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet
©2024 Kelsey Paff Photography
CONDITIONING AND STRETCH
Incorporating elements of Pilates and traditional strengthening and stretching exercises, this class facilitates maximum progress in classical dance studies, prevents the most common injuries dancers suffer, and allows for quicker healing if the dancer succumbs to an injury. Underdeveloped, supporting muscle groups are isolated and strengthened, and proper stretching techniques are employed to facilitate long beautiful lines. Dancers will experience improvement in their adagio, pointe, partnering, turns, and grand allegro. This class is required for Intro to Pointe dancers.
©2024 Kelsey Paff Photography
PARTNERING
The partnering class is for advanced dancers who want to learn the art of classical pas de deux. It explores elements of turns, promenades, lifts, and other classical movements. It is by invitation only.
©2024 Kelsey Paff Photography
REPERTORY AND VARIATIONS
Classical repertory and variations from the world’s leading ballets are presented and studied in depth. Dancers can learn choreography performed in major ballet companies by the art form’s most prestigious and well-loved works and choreographers. The class improves a dancer’s versatility and musicality, enhancing artistry and musicality.
