All over the world in different towns, cities, and countries there are tens of thousands of ballet schools and summer intensives, so what makes ABA such an amazing place to train? ABA has so many wonderful gifts to offer both its year-round students as well as its summer intensive students. First, and most importantly, is the school’s focus on the Russian Vaganova training method. This is the finest methodology of teaching ballet to students which focuses on a strong technical base and development. Ballet technique is the foundation to all movements, and at ABA it is prioritized as the most important part of a student’s training. Each day begins with technique class focusing on the student’s development and what level they must achieve. All the teachers at the school utilize the small class sizes to focus individual attention on the students’ needs and to help guide them in their progress. The classes are kept small so that the teachers can work more closely with each student. Pointe work is developed separately in classes focused on strength and capability to ensure that when the students learn repertoire, they are fully prepared. After both technique and pointe class are concluded, the students turn their work toward repertoire class. Here they learn variations from ballets, some solo, some group ensembles that teach them to showcase the steps and technique taught previously in class. This allows the students to learn to work with the knowledge from class and apply it in a variation. The teachers coach the students to perfect both the technical aspects of the variation but teach them how to express themselves artistically as well. At ABA’s summer intensives time is dedicated to perfecting variations and developing artistry while typically in other schools, time is spent learning as many variations as possible which keeps the students entertained but does not further their training or develop their talent. At ABA the students are taught more than just learning steps. This focus and work create dancers and without it one cannot improve.

Towards the end of the day, the students are introduced to different aspects of the dance world through classes such as character and contemporary dance. Character dance is a wonderful tradition that must be continued and taught to students as it is in every classical ballet. It blends tradition, spirit with technique and is quite difficult to learn correctly, but at ABA we have wonderful teachers who have so much experience and knowledge to share with the students. Contemporary class is also important as it teaches the students to move in different ways and to learn about their bodies and expression. Other very important instruction sessions are ballet history, ballet terminology and corrections classes. These classes teach the important history of the art form, the dancers who have shaped the dance world, and very importantly, to learn and understand the terminology of ballet. These all help create well educated and smart students. Corrections class is used for the teachers to discuss with the students the corrections they received and what they need to focus on for the next class. This helps the students to sit down, remember and internalize the corrections so that they will be easier focused on for their next classes. At the end of each day the students finish with cardio class for their stamina, Pilates for strength and stretching for their flexibility. These are all important aids to avoid injury and improve technically as they allow the students to focus on their weaknesses with exercises and stretches.

 ABA not only provides world class training, but it also provides a welcoming and encouraging home for students to develop their skills. We pride ourselves on the hard-working and rewarding atmosphere that we provide as we welcome students into our studios to train for the summer.