Metropolitan Ballet Academy Announces 20th Anniversary Year - Classes Start Monday, Sept. 14, 2015

Metropolitan Ballet Academy Announces 20th Anniversary Year

Save June 4, 2016 for 20th Anniversary Gala Performance & Reception

Highly acclaimed ballet studio in Jenkintown, PA, launches 20th anniversary academic year with classes starting Monday, September 14, 2015

Jenkintown, PA—Metropolitan Ballet Academy (MBA), which has earned recognition from Pointe magazine as one of “seven local studios in America cultivating top talent” (November 2011), kicks off its 20th Anniversary year with classes starting Monday, September 14, 2015. The studio and its affiliated nonprofit performing company, Metropolitan Ballet Company (MBC), will celebrate two decades serving the greater Philadelphia region with an exciting year of guest artists, master classes and community performances, culminating in a Gala Performance and Reception on June 4, 2016.

Founder and Artistic Director Lisa Collins Vidnovic launched Metropolitan Ballet Academy in 1996, after performing for a decade with Pennsylvania Ballet, where she was also a Ballet Mistress. At age 14, Ms. Vidnovic received a full scholarship to American Ballet Theater in New York City; at age 16 she began dancing professionally with Chicago’s Lyric Opera Ballet, directed by the renowned Maria Tallchief. Over four decades, Ms. Vidnovic’s dance career included feature roles in many ballets by George Balanchine, as well as choreographers Jacques d’Amboise, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Peter Martins, Richard Tanner and Lynne Taylor-Corbett. She was a member of the School of Pennsylvania Ballet faculty from 1983-1996 and the Bryn Mawr College faculty from 1990-2000. Ms. Vidnovic also performed for seven years with the Voloshy Ukrainian Dance Ensemble.

Ms. Vidnovic founded Metropolitan Ballet with a vision to create a pre-professional ballet school and performing company that provides the highest quality classical dance training, scholarships, performance opportunities and outreach programs designed to promote a love and appreciation of dance in our community. Metropolitan Ballet is located at 700 Cedar Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046.

Metropolitan Ballet is distinguished by its nationally acclaimed Boys’ Scholarship Program, founded in 1999, which annually provides tuition-free dance training for nearly 60 boys ages 7 to 18. Families enjoy its community and Showcase performances of classical and contemporary repertory, including George Balanchine’s Serenade and Valse Fantaisie, both performed with permission from the Balanchine Trust. MBC often presents new dance works created for the Company by New York-based choreographers including Kanji Segawa, Jessica Lang, Katarzyna Skarpetowska and MBA alumna Sarah Mettin, whose own dance company made its debut at Jacob’s Pillow in July 2015. More than 25 Metropolitan alumni dance professionally with regional companies across America, on Broadway and in Cirque du Soleil.

Over 50 Metropolitan students have earned highest honors at Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) and/or scholarships for intensive study with prestigious ballet companies from coast to coast. YAGP Philadelphia has also twice awarded Ms. Vidnovic Outstanding Teacher (2011/2013) and Metropolitan Ballet Academy Outstanding School (2012/2015). In 2015 the Eastern Montgomery Chamber of Commerce named Metropolitan Ballet Company Nonprofit of the Year.

Metropolitan is now accepting registration for girls and boys ages 3 to 18 for its Creative Movement, Youth Division and Pre-Professional Division classes, taught by the school’s outstanding year-round faculty, plus renowned guest artists. Classes start Monday, September 14, 2015; information and registration forms are available at www.metropolitanballetacademy.com, or contact Ms. Vidnovic at 215-663-1665 or collinsvidnovic@verizon.net.

METROPOLITAN BALLET PHOTOS ATTACHED:

1. Guest faculty John Selya, former member of American Ballet Theatre and Twyla Tharp Dance and an acclaimed Broadway dancer, teaching class at Metropolitan Ballet, Summer 2015; photo by Miki Wray.

2. Guest faculty Cynthia Drayer, former Principal with San Francisco Ballet, instructs young boys in Metropolitan Ballet 2015 Summer Intensive; photo by Miki Wray.

3. Metropolitan Ballet students perform the Children’s Mazurka from Paquita, after Petipa (Company Premiere 2010). Photo by E.A. Kennedy III.

Contact: Ellen Warren, Media Liaison; 215-886-1666 desk | 215-669.0011 cell, ellenwarren@comcast.net

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