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Parents & Robin during Zumba Sampler
A special thank you everyone who made it out to the PTO Parent’s Night including our new parents. It was great to get some feedback from everyone about how we can make the year better, not to mention the wonderful Zumba Sampler class a few parents and Robin took part in.
Please check the PTO Page for more information about this meeting and upcoming information. Can’t wait to see you in classes.
The Heartland Youth Ballet is offering auditions for Junior, Senior, and Apprentice companies. Members of the companies will be involved in many performance opportunities including the opportunity to participate in the Regional Dance America Festival in the spring of 2011. For information about times of auditions, click here.
Master teacher David Howard instructs classes at RDA Festival.
Let’s Dance The World at Disney World! Students at Robin Welch Dance Arts have been given the exciting opportunity to perform onstage at Disney World in Florida and participate in the parade down Main Street Disney in a tribute to The Wiz. The trip is for 5 days in the Magic Kingdom, and includes performance opportunities as well as fun for the dancers and their families. For more information about the Disney Trip, click here.
After years with the Omaha Theater Ballet, Robin Welch prepares to open her new dance school.
By John Pitcher
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Robin Welch’s career seemed to be over last fall, when the Rose Theater announced that it would close the Omaha Theater Ballet at the end of the 2009-10 season. Welch had founded the ballet at the Rose in 1999 and led it as artistic director and choreographer for 10 years.
On June 1, the dancer begins the latest act of her life, opening a new school called Robin Welch Dance Arts and Core Training, located at 8801 F. St.
We recently asked Welch about her career, the folding of her ballet company and her new school.
Q. What was your first professional dance experience?
A. I became a member of the original Harkness Ballet when I was just 17 years old. Harkness was headquartered in New York City but did many of its performances abroad. So the first thing I did after I was hired was go buy a big trunk. Then I headed straight for Monte Carlo and spent a year dancing in Europe. The great thing about being in Harkness was that the dancers always got a cosmopolitan experience. For me, it was a dream come true.
Q. What brought you from the East Coast to Omaha?
A. After Harkness, I went to Connecticut and danced with Connecticut Ballet for a while. My ex-husband, Robert Vickrey, landed a great job as artistic director of Ballet Omaha, so we moved the family in 1985. The thing I’ll remember most about ballet in Omaha is “The Nutcracker.” Robert and I brought our version to Omaha in 1985. After Ballet Omaha closed in the mid-’90s, I brought “The Nutcracker” with me to Omaha Theater Ballet at the Rose Theater. In 2007, Omaha Theater Ballet launched “Imperial Nutcracker,” which we danced until the company folded. So I spent 25 years in Omaha either dancing in or choreographing “The Nutcracker.”
Q. Was there anything that could have been done differently that might have saved Omaha Theater Ballet?
A. I’m still too upset to talk about that. I might have been able to stay on at the Rose for another year as a dance teacher, but there was no guarantee it would have lasted more than a year. And I couldn’t go through another year like this past one. But at the same time, I couldn’t just leave all of my former students high and dry, which is why I used much of my savings to start a new school.
Q. What’s your teaching philosophy?
A. I believe it is very important to train students to use their creative imaginations. It’s not enough for dancers to just go through the physical motions. They need to have a sense of the image they are trying to create. If you don’t learn that skill early on, it’s hard to develop it later. I also believe it’s important for the dance teacher to pay attention to all the students and not just to the skinniest little girls in the class. You’d be surprised how often that doesn’t happen.
Q. Who are the teachers at your new school?
A. Well, it will be me and my daughter, Rachel Vickrey, who many people know as the Sugar Plum Fairy from “Imperial Nutcracker.” Deborah Carr, Omaha Theater Ballet’s former ballet mistress, will also teach. For our opening summer session, we’ll have Liz Reiter, the director of the dance program at St. Gregory’s University, to teach jazz dance.
Q. There’s a Heartland Youth Ballet associated with your new school. What is this group?
A. The mission of the school is to develop the full potential of our dancers through technical training, artistic development and performance opportunities. Heartland Youth Ballet will be the part of the school that provides our young dancers with performance opportunities. Among other things, they will present workshops and perform in residencies in the Omaha area throughout the year. The best education any dancer can get is the experience of dancing in public.
Contact the writer:
444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com
It was just brought to my attention that there is a mistake regarding the dates of the “Live the Dream” Workshop. The workshop runs for a total of four weeks. Classes begin on Tuesday, June 1st and go through Friday (to make up for the Monday holiday), June 4th. Then, for the next 3 weeks (June 7-10, June 14-17, June 21-24) classes will run Monday thru Thursday. The performance for the workshop will be held at 7pm on June 24th at our studios. I’m so sorry for any problems this might have caused any of you. If you need to talk to me please call – 237-8801.
Sophia Marichal celebrated her birthday doing her favorite thing…dancing! Her party at our studios was full of high spirits and merriment as everyone began creating their own headpieces and choosing scarves to use as props during the Zumba class. Teela, their Zumba teacher gave the girls a great class full of energy, laughter, and fun. Zumba was followed by cake, ice cream and the opening of presents. A good time was had by all!
Title: Start Day for Dance Arts Day Camp for ages 7-12
Location: 8801 f street
Description: In this three-week camp your child will explore his/her artistic and creative talents with our unique arts-oriented full or half-day Dance Arts Day Camp. Students will study ballet, jazz, musical theater dance, acting and voice classes while also participating in arts and crafts activities connected to ballet, music, art, stories or poetry.
Date: 2010-06-28
Title: Start Day for Beginning/Intermediate Ballet
Location: 8801 F street
Description: These classes are geared for the quick adult mind that would like to move to great music and stretch and strengthen muscles. It\’s a great way to release those daily tensions, tone your muscles and get a good workout!
Start Time: 6:30
Date: 2010-06-02
End Time: 7:45
Robin Welch Dance Arts – 8801 F Street – Omaha, Ne. 68127
If you have questions, call 237-8801. We’ll be glad to explain or discuss details with you.
Don’t be confused! Train where you can see the results. Our passion for dance is absolutely contagious! Students learn to love dance and because of the high-quality instruction we offer, many have gone on to careers in major professional ballet companies, received large college scholarships, and developed into wonderful dance teachers and administrators.
Our 3 beautiful new studios with state-of-the-art dance floors, gorgeous hand-painted murals, performance space, studio for private classes and coaching, and oasis massage room are almost completed. Be a part of Omaha’s new and exciting premier dance and exercise facility. Join us this summer for the best training and most exciting summer classes in Omaha!
Robin Welch and Rachel Vickrey
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