Local Ballet Students Selected for International Summer Study!

The Lilburn School of Ballet, home of the Northeast Atlanta, has been serving Gwinnett County and surrounding communities for nearly 40 years! Long a pillar in our community, they are committed to providing the absolute best in classical ballet training and professional quality performances at Gwinnett Center. Dancers receive intense training all season long, but have the unique opportunity to explore intensive workshops across the country during the summer months.

After a long and highly competitive audition season held in January and February, we are pleased to announce that many of our students were selected to  numerous summer study programs. The hardest part for our dancers was to decide between the many offers that each of them received. After much thoughtful consideration, we are pleased to announce the final decisions made by our aspiring dancers for the summer of 2013!

Emma Button, a rising junior will be attending Next Generation Ballet in Tampa, Florida. Aria Colangelo, a rising senior will be studying abroad with  Staib Dance in Sorrento, Italy. Shannon O’Reilly will be attending Carolina Ballet’s summer intensive. Glori Thomas, a rising senior, will be traveling to Ohio to dance with the Cincinatti Ballet.  Ian Schwaner, recent graduate and scholarship student at Univeristy of North Carolina School for the Arts will be dancing in New York on full scholarship with American Ballet Theater.  Katelyn Smith, recent graduate will be attending Nashville ballet this summer and plans to dance with Nashville Ballet II in the fall. Liesl Wiedmann, a rising 8^th grader will be returning to the Rock School in Philadelphia. Elizabeth Yavnel will be dancing in Nashville this summer. Jessie Williams, will return to Next Generation Ballet in Tampa on scholarship after returning from her year as a scholarship trainee with that program.  Lauren McDonough, now a senior at University of North Carolina School for the Arts will also be traveling to Europe for a full scholarship summer study opportunity.  She was awarded several grants to attend the William Forsyth Intensive in Berlin, Germany.  “Wow! We can’t even begin to say how proud we are of our talented group of dancers!”, says Jennifer Gordon, Artistic Director.

            For those dancers not traveling this summer, we have a wonderful faculty on tap for our summer intensive at our home studios. Permanent faculty member, Marcial Iberra of National Ballet of Cuba will open up the workshop. We will also be hosting Beau Foister of The Georgia Ballet, Theresa Howard of Ballethnic, and Ellen Tshudy of Zoetic Dance Ensemble to name just a few. Then, we are excited to fly in Marcus Bugler from Nevada Ballet for our second week! Our goal is to provide a high quality program right at home for those who are not able to get away!

            The Lilburn School of Ballet is proud of all of our students and their never-ending dedication to the art form! Be sure to visit our company website to keep track of upcoming performances! After the dancers return from summer study, we will be getting ready for our world premiere ballet, Emperor and the Nightingale to be performed at Gwinnett Center on September 14^th.