{"id":254690,"date":"2026-06-04T02:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254690\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:25:20","slug":"ballet-tech-gave-them-dance-now-they-give-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254690\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballet Tech Gave Them Dance. Now They Give Back."},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago at Ballet Tech<\/a>, or the New York City Public School for Dance, a boy was dreaming of his future. He came up behind an adult dancer and matched his pose. He approached a woman and mimed being her partner. Then he walked to the ballet barre and got down to the hard work of achieving his dream.<\/p>\n

This was a choreographed sequence, part of \u201cEchoes of the Studio,\u201d a new work by Ballet Tech\u2019s artistic director, Dionne Figgins, that will have its premiere as part of the Ballet Tech Kids Dance program at the Joyce Theater<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

But the choreography also enacted something that happens all the time at Ballet Tech: alumni inspiring the young.<\/p>\n

For \u201cEchoes of the Studio,\u201d Figgins has cast four former students as teachers. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for young dancers to have professionals in the space, so they can see the light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Figgins said after the rehearsal. \u201cAnd it\u2019s good for the adults to be reminded where they come from and be inspired by the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five years ago, Figgins became director of Ballet Tech, a school that provides both academic and dance education for fourth through eighth graders. Since then, she has made a point of bringing back former students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want alumni to know that this is always going to be their home,\u201d she said. She has offered them free classes and made studio space available at affordable rates. She has hired them as stagers and teachers.<\/p>\n

Two of the alumni in \u201cEchoes of the Studio,\u201d Julienne Buenaventura and Nicholas Begun, now participate in the same outreach program that first brought them \u2014 and all other Ballet Tech students \u2014 into the program. They travel to public schools around the city, teach an introductory class and invite promising kids to audition for Ballet Tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the entire mission of the school,\u201d Figgins said. \u201cNot \u2018You come to us\u2019 but \u2018We bring dance to you.\u2019 And we want people in the room who can say, \u2018I was just like you and now I\u2019m out in the world dancing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful to be giving back to this place that gave me so much,\u201d said Buenaventura, who attended Ballet Tech from 2011 to 2016 and graduated from the conservatory of dance at Purchase College in 2024.<\/p>\n

What did Ballet Tech give her? \u201cA strong foundation,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of other studios might focus on \u2018boom, pow, slay,\u2019 but Ballet Tech starts slow, as it should.\u201d When she was exposed to other styles later in her training, she was able to approach them with \u201corder in my brain,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause of how I learned to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buenaventura also stressed the importance of performing on a professional level at an early age. \u201cMy middle school recital was at the Joyce Theater,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free education in strong fundamentals with an exposure to big-time glamour: That combination has been at the heart of Ballet Tech since the school started in 1978. Eliot Feld \u2014 then one of the most prominent American ballet choreographers \u2014 looked at a raucous group of students on the subway and saw potential dancers. In partnership with the city\u2019s education department, he began busing elementary public school students to his spacious studios at 890 Broadway (also home to American Ballet Theater).<\/p>\n

In the years since, Ballet Tech estimates that nearly a million students have participated in its outreach program and 25,000 in its on-site classes. Since 1995, students have also attended their academic classes in that building. Now the school is in the process of doubling its student body.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, Feld included Ballet Tech students in performances of his professional company. (\u201cThis is self-serving,\u201d he told NBC News in 1984. \u201cIt only appears altruistic.\u201d) In the mid 1990s, an all-student troupe called Kids Dance began taking over matinee slots in the company\u2019s runs at the Joyce. By 1997, most dancers in the professional company, which folded in 2003, were alumni of the school. Since 2013, Kids Dance has been having its own seasons at the Joyce.<\/p>\n

Naimah Kisoki experienced an early version of that student-to-professional pipeline. She started at Ballet Tech in 1988, when she was 8. By 12, she was performing with the company as a student. \u201cAnd the next thing you know, I\u2019m a professional dancer and still a student!\u201d she said. \u201cIt sounds crazy.\u201d From the Feld company, she moved to Dance Theater of Harlem, then to \u201cThe Lion King\u201d on Broadway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a timid little kid,\u201d she said. \u201cBut dancing on stages became second nature to me. That\u2019s where I actually felt free and comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Kisoki is a choreographer who returns to Ballet Tech to stage Feld ballets. \u201cWhen I first visited the students, I thought, \u2018How is this possible? These kids look just like us,\u2019\u201d she said. What she recognized were talented, serious students who were also \u201ccity kids, regular.\u201d That Ballet Tech is free, she said, \u201cmakes it about the heart\u201d and \u201cbuilds a different character of performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megan Eng, who started at Ballet Tech in 2009, recalled being angry at her mom for moving her to a school without her friends. \u201cBut then I immediately started loving it,\u201d she said. \u201cYou form a special bond with your peers.\u201d As evidence, she cited two of her closest friends, Zuzu Park-Stettner and Asia Yiu. They all met at Ballet Tech in elementary school and now all work there as teachers and stagers.<\/p>\n

Interviewed together, these three stressed the importance of being able to relate to the students as former students. \u201cAnd sometimes a student will joke, \u2018I\u2019m gonna take your job,\u2019\u201d Park-Stettner said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u201cGo ahead.\u2019 That means we\u2019re doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to pinpoint the most important part of a Ballet Tech education, all three had the same answer: discipline.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut people tend to associate discipline with a negative connotation,\u201d Park-Stettner said. \u201cWe don\u2019t mean that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a form of respect,\u201d Yiu said. \u201cIt\u2019s starting something and seeing it through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most Ballet Tech students won\u2019t become professional dancers. While some excel in the field \u2014 like KJ Takahashi, a soloist at New York City Ballet, or the sought-after contemporary dancer Tamisha A. Guy \u2014 others will go into business or the law. Buenaventura\u2019s best friend from Ballet Tech is now in medical school.<\/p>\n

\u201cBallet builds creative, disciplined people who know how to push through a challenge,\u201d Figgins said. \u201cDecorum. Professionalism. Physical confidence. These are things we take for granted because it\u2019s just part of our practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cEchoes of the Studio,\u201d however, Figgins does not take this work for granted. Like most ballet classes, the ballet ends with a series of bows called r\u00e9ver\u00e9nce. The students bow to the alumni. The alumni bow to the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brings tears to my eyes every time,\u201d Buenaventura said. \u201cI really do see myself in them, and it\u2019s like passing the torch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few weeks ago at Ballet Tech, or the New York City Public School for Dance, a boy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99207,13531,99211,13997,99213,99212,99210,99209,99208,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-254690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ballet-tech","tag-dancing","tag-dionne-d","tag-education-k-12","tag-eliot","tag-feld","tag-figgins","tag-joyce-theater","tag-kids-dance","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}