Ballet Workshops

Ages 11+ with 4 or more years of dance experience

This series of ballet master classes is for intermediate/advanced level dancers with at least four years of ballet study. Each class will begin with ballet barre work in the Vaganova technique. Exercises will be modified for the level of the dancers attending. The second half of each class will alternate between ballet center work, basic pointe work and ballet variations. Each student will receive personal feedback as appropriate, and will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Originally from Texas, Jeanne Giroir studied at New York City's School of American Ballet on a Ford Foundation scholarship, and at the Harkness Ballet, receiving scholarships from the Joffrey Ballet. She danced with the Harkness Ballet, also in New York City, before moving to Hartford. A principal dancer with the Hartford Ballet for 15 years, she danced such roles as the Sugar Plum Fairy/Clara in The Nutcracker, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and the Maiden in Carmina Burana, along with works by George Balanchine, Anthony Tudor, Michael Uthoff, Peter Martins, Lars Lubovitch and Doris Humphrey. After retiring from the stage, she was ballet mistress for the Hartford Ballet. During her years there, she taught company class, rehearsed the company, and taught master classes in colleges and universities across the country. She has taught at the School of the Hartford Ballet, the Hartford Conservatory and is currently on the faculty of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, as well as at private dance schools in the Hartford area.