By Ray Breslin

Violetta Zhirova from Russia, and other young dancers do barre work

Most people don’t know it but Miami Beach, more specifically the Miami City Ballet, has the largest facility solely dedicated to dance in the world. Yet, they do not have a dormitory to house their students. This poses major challenges in becoming the world-class school with students attending from around the world.

This year, Miami City Ballet’s intensive summer program has 225 students from almost every state and 19 countries from as far away as Japan. MCB runs their program with a summer camp feel. The students train all day Monday through Friday in eight dance studios taking four different classes each day. There are nine levels of ability with most students ranging from 13 to 18 years of age. This year there are 16 instructors, including five principle dancers from Miami City Ballet, two ballet mistresses, plus the company’s founder and artistic director, Edward Villella.  On the weekends, the students have opportunities to take sponsored field trips to many of the great attractions South Florida has to offer. During the week, they are too tired to do anything but relax, eat and get ready for the next grueling day of intense training.  Now they have just one week left.

A group of boys getting ready for their intermediate men’s class to start

The students will complete their program with two Repertoire Demonstrations on Thursday, July 26 for parents and friends to see how they have progressed through this five-week program. With so many students, it is sure to be a full house with standing room only in the 200-seat Lynn Wolfson Theater at Miami City Ballet. They will perform classic pieces by George Balanchine and Maurice Pepita, as well as new pieces choreographed by some of the instructors that taught them this summer.

The dress rehearsal will be on Wednesday, July 25 from 1:30 p.m.to 4:30 p.m. and is open for those of you in the arts who want to see just how extraordinary these students are and why Miami City Ballet School has become one of the top four schools in this country. It is informal so you can stop for as long as you like. The younger students will perform first with the advance students performing around 3 p.m.

Aoi Anraku from Japan in class

Our hats are off to all these students who took the 40-minute bus ride every day from dorms at Johnson and Wales College to the Miami City Ballet School. Unfortunately, many of these students who might want to stay for the school year to train with the highly skilled and world-renowned staff cannot because MCB lacks permanent dorms. Hopefully they will come back next summer when again Johnson and Wales will open their dorm doors for Miami City Ballet. The CANDO Arts District along with the Collins Park Neighborhood Association have made it a priority to help find a developer willing to build up to 50 dorm rooms so that Miami City Ballet can move to the next level as a full service international training institution dedicated to dance. This is the final step needed to move Miami City Ballet’s School to the next level competing for world dominance in dance instruction. If you’d like to work with us on this worthwhile cause, call me at 305-772-5665.

Megan White from Michigan, Majoros Balazs from Hungary, Pedro Jimenez from Mexico and Julia Scheibmeir from Washington take a break

Come see these kids dance and you will see why this community is filled with pride.
 

Ray Breslin is a member of Miami City Ballet School’s advisory board, president of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association, member of the Mayor’s Cultural Arts Neighborhood District Overlay (CANDO) blue ribbon committee and supporter of the Arts.