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 Anna Paskevska
BIO: My training experience encompasses several diverse styles. 
I began dancing with Olga Preobrajenskaya at the age of 9 years old. She was greatly influenced by Enrico Cecchetti, even though she was a product of the Imperial Russian Ballet and studied with the master rather late in her career. After two years with Preo, I was enrolled at the Paris Opera School, where a generic French style was taught at the time (late 1940’s into the early 1950’s). However, I continued to attend Preo’s classes as well as studying with Serge Peretti and Madame Rousanne. 
At age 15, I made a short sojourn at the Legat School in England. The teachers ranged in style from old Russian (Lydia Kyasht) to Soviet- influenced (Leonid Prorwitch). Madame Legat is generally cited as teaching her husband’s system. When I later studied with Cleo Nordi, I realized that my understanding of Legat, to that point, was rather superficial. My education in classical ballet was concluded at the Royal Ballet School with English-trained teachers and classes with Cleo Nordi. 
As an adult, I ventured into modern dance; first, at the Graham School with Bertram Ross; then with James May who taught the Limon technique; and finally with Paul Sanasardo. The exposure to modern dance reshaped my understanding of classical ballet and led me to appreciate its underpinnings. I then was able to recognize the import of the classical training vocabulary before stylistic differences affected its execution. In other words, my focus shifted from the steps of the vocabulary to the meaning of the steps in terms of their impact on our physicality. My teaching is informed by the totality of my experience, although I rely primarily on Legat’s precepts as taught by Cleo Nordi. This is a system of educating the body and mind that optimizes the body’s ability to move and the mind’s ability to discover the logic within motions. Classical ballet can then be understood in terms of its dynamics and physics, avoiding dogma, thus recognizing it as a living, and evolving art form. This approach acknowledges both the range of motion available to us and the relationship with the space in which we move. The system’s most salient features are the recognition of gravity’s impact on motion and the inclusion of the potential of the spine to spiral expressed in the use of épaulement. My performing experience includes participating, as a child, in the repertoire of the Paris Opera, and briefly with the Royal Ballet before joining Western Theatre Ballet and, encompasses work for British television, stage, and film. 
I have been teaching ballet since 1966 in a variety of circumstances, in the private sector, as well as professional schools and universities. Currently, I am on the faculty of The Chicago Academy for the Arts and Columbia College. I am also currently directing The Dance Teaching Initiates, funded by the Chicago Community Trust. The teaching has led me to questions the precepts of the classical technique and grew into a need to express and share my discoveries.In 1981, I wrote Both Sides of the Mirror, in response to my perception that the students I taught at Indiana University had very little if any idea about the more advanced principles of the classical technique. In other words, my students did not know why they were doing what they were doing and how barre exercises served the vocabulary. Alignment was a quaint notion and épaulement was what you did with the head. Both Sides of the Mirror, twenty years after its publication is still used as text in universities. It was followed by three more books: From the First Plié to Mastery, an Eight Year Course (1991, reprinted by Routledge Press in 2002), Getting Started in Ballet, A Parent’s Guide to Dance Education (1997, Oxford University Press), Ballet, Beyond Tradition: The Role of Concepts of Motion in Ballet Technique (due to be published in October of 2004, Routledge Press) PROFESSIONAL TRAINING  top of pageClassical Ballet 1947-1953 Olga Preobrajenskaya, Studio Wacker, Paris 1949-1953 Paris Opera Ballet School: Mlle Simoni, Mlle Lamballe, and privately with Mons Peretti, Mme Rousanne 1953-1954 Legat School, England: Lydia Kyasht, Leonid Prorwitz, Mme Legat 1954-1957 Royal Ballet School, London: Miss Edwards, Michael Soames, Ursula Moreton, Peggy Van Praagh, Pamela May, Harold Turner, Harjis Plucis. And privately with Cleo Nordi Modern Dance 1971-1975 Martha Graham School, New York: Bertram Ross Jose Limon Technique : James May Merce Cunningham Technique: Gail Kaplan, Dan Wagoner And Barbara Gardner, Larry Clark, Paul Sanasardo PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE top of page1949-1953 Paris Opera: Participated as a Petit Rat in operatic repertoire: Otello, Romeo and Juliet, Faust, Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher, Master Singers, Les Indes Galantes Ballet choreographers: Serge Lifar, Harold Lander, Albert Aveline Opera Comique: Leonid Massine 1954-1957 Sadlers Wells Opera: Tannhauser, choreographer: Harold Turner Royal Ballet: Swan Lake, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Petrouchka, Cinderella, Giselle 1957-1966 Western Theatre Ballet: Pulcinella (Pimpinella) Peter and the Wolf (Peter), Girl in a Mask (Girl) Choreographers: Peter Darrell, Elizabeth West, Wolfgang Brunner, Ronald Wilson Old Vic: The Tempest, Choreographer: Peter Wright London Coliseum: Aladdin Choreographer: Robert Helpman BBC Television: Choreographer: Maggie Dale. Coppelia, Cinderella, Choreographer: John Cranko. Eugene Onegin, Lady and the Fool, Choreographer: Elizabeth West. Peter and the Wolf Films: The Golden Disk, Pinewood Studios. The Yellow Hat, on location, London. Choreographer: Rosella Hightower 1966-1981 Circles and Squares Dance Theatre: Program for schools (New Jersey); Dance Coop, Princeton (modern repertoire) Indiana U. Nutcracker, Cinderella, Coppelia, Giselle, Choreographer: Nicolas Beriozoff 2001 Cameo role in "Save the Last Dance" Paramount Pictures TEACHING EXPERIENCE top of page1966-1972 Dance Instructor: Livingston College; The Appari School of Dance, Princeton Ballet Society. Director: Millstone Ballet School 1972-1975 Dance Instructor: Princeton Day School. Philadelphia Dance Academy. The Dance Coop. Princeton, Carrier Psychiatric Clinic 1975-1982 Associate Professor Indiana U. School of Music, Bloomington. Courses taught: Ballet, Pointe, Variations Courses developed and taught: Theory, Pedagogy, Choreographic Principles 1982-1984 Academy of Russian Classical Ballet, Louisville KY: director. Young Dancers Company: Ballet Mistress; U. of Louisville: Preparatory, College, Civic Ballet 1984-1985 Helena Movement Center, Helena, Montana 1985-1989 Faculty: School of Chicago City Ballet; Columbia College; Lehnhof School of Dance; David Puszh Studio; Ballet Mistress: Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre; Lynda Martha Dance Company; Substitute: Lou Conte Studio; Ruth Page Foundation 1986-1989 Faculty and Administrator: School of Chicago City Ballet 1989-1995 Director: Preparatory Dance Division, and faculty at Chicago Academy for the Arts 1986-present Faculty, Supervisor Ballet faculty: Columbia College 1989-2003 Dance Dept. Chair: Chicago Academy for the Arts 2003-present Faculty: Chicago Academy for the Arts MASTER CLASSES, WORKSHOPS top of page1974-present New Jersey Arts Council; Iowa U. residency; Indiana Dance Alliance; Ballet Arts Academy (Indiana) Culver Girls Academy; Svetlova Dance Center (Vermont) Deer Track Performing Arts Camp (Indiana); Montana Dance Council; Youth Performing Arts School (Louisville); Salt Creek Ballet (Illinois); Mt Helena Dance Academy (Montana); Dance Theatre of Florida; The Royal School (Orlando); School Chicago City Ballet (Summer Workshops); Chicago Association of Dance Masters; University of Texas (Austin); American College Dance Festival: U. of Georgia (Athens); Iowa U. (Ames); Springfield (MO) Creative Art Center,(Montana); Gibbs High School, Florida National Scottish Ballet (Glasgow); Motion Ballet Company (Bozeman); Northbrook Dance Center (Illinois); Ballet Madison (Wisconsin); Dance Theatre of Florida (St Petersburg); Dance Arts International (England); Dance Forum Summer Workshop (Taiwan); Dance Festival of Uruguay and National Ballet and School(Montevideo); Dance Festival of St Louis (Missouri); Von Heidecke Ballet (Illinois); LeVine Ballet (St Louis); National Tunisian Ballet; NAADE workshops; Texas Christian U. (Fort Worth) CHOREOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE top of page1959-1966 Western Theatre Ballet: section of Impromptu (Kabalevsky) Cambridge Ballet Club: The Silken Ladder (Rossini) Sunday Ballet Club: The Cycle (Hartman) 1966-1975 Circles and Squares Dance Theatre: Artistic Director and choreographer Dance Coop: Ophelia, Childhood Images, To Isadora, Implosion, Etudinal, Jeux et Divertissements 1975-1981 Indiana U.: Piece Breve (Ibert); Aspects (Fox); Blumine (Mahler); Getting Ready (Czerny); Nutcracker, sections (Tchaikowski); Coppelia after St Leon(Delibes); Souvenir (Erb); Stratiform (Rogers-Levenberg); Robert and Clara (Schumann); Dance Suite (Rothmuller); Those Who Run and Those Who Know (Satie); Etudes (Czerny); Peregrination (Schumann); Patterns (Mahler) Operas and Operettas: My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Naughty Marietta, Darkened City 1982-1984 Louisville Ballet: Bagatelles (Tcherepnin) Youth Performing High School: #406 (Vivaldi) Young Dancers Co.: Russian Dance (Folk); Before the Ball (Shostakovitch); Dancescape: Adaptation (Williams) 1985-1989 Beverley Dance Ensemble: La Ronde (Shostakovitch) Lynda Martha Co.: More or Less (Jethro) Columbia Dance Center: Urizen (Hawkins) School of Chicago City Ballet: Allegretto (Bach); Ladies in Waiting (Diabelli); Graduation Ball (after Lichine); Chicago Academy for the Arts: Delphi (Vest) 1989-present Chicago Opera Company: Lakme (Delibes); School of City Ballet: Plus Ca Change (Ponty); Accord (Marcel Duchamps Players); Chicago Academy: Gone Fishing (Gershwin); From the Steppes (Prokofiev); Ballero Verde (Verdi); Divertissement (Verdi); Three Is (Tchaikowsky); Parting is Such (Shubert) Have continued to choreograph at the Chicago Academy for the Arts for the yearly Faculty Concert. PUBLICATIONS. PROJECTS, LECTURES, PANELS top of page1974-2000 The Examiner: Dance is a State of Mind; Ballet, Various Works (review); IDS: The State of the Arts: Dance; Occasional Newsletter: Movement in Classical Ballet; US1; Primer, Streets: poetry; Solicited Papers: NDA, NDEA. Seminar on Slavic Culture, Russian and East European Institute, IU; Women in the Arts, Notre Dame and St Mary U. Rise of American Music Identity, U. of Chicago. Adjudicator: Dance St Louis Festival; College Dance Festival, (Texas) Presenter National Dance Education Organization: The Wisdom of Classical Ballet. (1999) : The Concepts of Jose Limon as they Manifest in Ballet Technique (2000). Workshop: Ballet from the Inside (2001). 1981 Both Sides of the Mirror, The Science and Art of Ballet, Dance Horizon, New York. (revised 2nd edition, 1990) 1983 Kentucky Premiere, magazine for the Arts, Louisville, KY, By-line 1991 From the First Plie to Mastery,an Eight Year Course, Princeton Books, 1991. 2nd edition Routledge Press 2002 1997 Getting Started in Ballet, a Parents Guide to Dance Education, Oxford University Press 2001 Produced instructional video for Princeton Books Co. Intermediate/Advanced Pointe Class. Directed production of Compact Disc "Music for Ballet Class" with pianist Olga Meyer. 2004 Ballet Beyond Tradition, Modern Dance Concept in Classical Ballet, Routledge Press, New York ORGANIZATIONS, COMMITTEES top of pageNational Society of Arts and Letters; Dance Alliance of Indiana; New Jersey Council for the Arts, Advisory Committee; Women Affairs Advisory Committee (IU); University Committee on Women in the Arts; School of Music Council; Chicago Dance Coalition (board); Advisory Committe for Goals 2000, Dance; National Dance Education Organization. NDEO, papers presented, 1999, 2000, 2001. Chicago Dance and Music Alliance (Board). Advisory Committee for the Chicago Community Trust Dance Initiative, Director of the Dance Education Initiative GRANTS / AWARDS top of pageLilly Foundations Teaching Fellowship; IREX grant for research; PCIP grant for research; Illinois Arts Foundation; Abelson Foundation. Lifetime Contribution to the Field, Chicago Dance Coalition Ruth Page Award DEGREES top of pageCertificat d'Etudes, Paris, 1952; Master of Science in Ballet, Indiana University, 1981 CURRENT POSITIONS top of pageFaculty and supervisor of ballet faculty, Columbia College Chair of Dance Dept. at Chicago Academy for the Arts |
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