The School of Ballet Arizona welcomed over 160 students to our 2018 summer intensive. Over the six weeks of the intensive, students took classes in ballet, pointe, men’s technique, pas de deux, character, modern, Horton technique, flamenco, jazz, yoga, conditioning, and choreography. The students presented two performances over the summer, a character dance showcase at the midway point and a showcase of all the disciplines on the final day. The Summer Intensive is an exciting time for the school as students from our own school share the studios with students from across the country. It was thrilling to watch, as new friendships were formed and ideas were shared between students. For the faculty and staff of the school, the intensive was a labor of love that took an entire year to organize. Although we just said farewell to this group of amazing students, we are already busy preparing and looking forward to the summer of 2019 at The School of Ballet Arizona! Lastly, we wanted to share highlights from some of our Summer Intensive students. – Anthony Jones, School Director.
“This summer intensive made me so much stronger as a dancer. I think Mr. Jones organized everything so well. Every day I felt improvement and so much inspiration from all of the teachers. I loved how the teachers were so encouraging as well as strict. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would be as strong as I am now. I also loved being with so many dancers from around the country. They were all such creative inspirations to me. I was so lucky to be able to dance with most of them. I made some great friendships. This was my third summer intensive in the upper division, and I think it was the best one by far.” – Cheyenne You
“When it comes to dance, I was trained in a more classical French and Russian style so coming to a place that does classical but also uses Balanchine’s work a lot, I’m exploring a lot of new context and its really fun. My friends that I made here are some of my the greatest people I’ve met in my life, the most important thing for me when it comes to my art is being able to have experiences outside of it and bringing those feelings to the stage and giving it to the audience and I have had nothing but good experiences here and that’s why I felt like the end of summer performance was so much fun because I had nothing but love for this amazing summer. Everyday after dance we would go and explore the city or just stay in and watch movies but we were always having fun.”
– Jake Mingus
“My summer at SBAZ has been so incredible. I feel like I have really grown as a dancer because of how hard the teachers work to help each student as much as they can. Everyone has been so encouraging and it felt like they truly cared about me progressing during my time there. Phoenix is a beautiful and lively city to explore and SBAZ has an amazing facility for their dancers. Overall this has been one of my favorite summer intensives to attend.” – Britta Albertson
To Learn More about The School of Ballet Arizona and our year-round program, click here!
