Though I define myself as a professional dancer, I have always loved to teach. I have been fascinated by ballet teaching principles for as long as I can remember. As a kid, “play time” in my room, was actually my chance to pretend I was the ballet teacher; and as a college student, I organized extra ballet classes for my classmates in Modern Dance who wanted a little ballet advice. As a professional dancer in NYC, I took open classes from the best teachers not just for ballet training, but also for teaching inspiration.
My first teaching job was with Ballet School of Stamford, where I was fortunate to have the opportunity to teach both children and adults. On Wednesdays, I’d go from rehearsals in the morning with Brooklyn Ballet straight to Grand Central to catch the train to Stamford, CT. In Stamford, I’d teach children for 4 hours and finish my day with an adult Beginner/Intermediate ballet class. You’d think at the end of that day I’d be drained, but after leaving my adult ballet class, I always felt energized, inspired, and happy.
As I taught this Beginner/Intermediate class, added on some adult private lessons, and explored the adult ballet scene in NYC, I became more and more aware of some of the inherent issues associated with adult ballet. First off, there are very few working adults who have time or energy for a traditional 90-minute ballet class. Second, though a leotard and tights was not “required,” I could tell that the pressure to be in a perfect ballerina outfit was just not working for many of my adult students. Additionally, Beginner Ballet is never really beginner ballet – it’s usually far too advanced for a Beginner. But real Beginner Ballet is quite slow-paced, and not much of a workout. Finally, I disliked the way my adult students would judge themselves for not being perfect or not remembering a combination; and when I took other open adult classes, I was disappointed in the overall sense of “judgment” that fills the studio.
So in August 2017, I decided that I could solve these “problems” – I set out on a mission to create a judgment-free, fast-paced ballet class, that was really accessible to and interesting for adults of all levels from absolute beginner to advanced. I wanted anyone to be able to walk in off the street and take my class. This was the beginning of Cardio Ballet. I knew that if I could just get people to try the class, I’d be able to grow The Ballet Spot and turn Cardio Ballet into a phenomenon!
In October of 2017, I officially launched The Ballet Spot. Within a few months, it was growing. For about a year, I taught 3 Cardio Ballet classes every week in a small studio on W 72 nd Street. I still remember the first day a class was booked full – a Saturday in the summer – that was a huge milestone for me.
In October of 2018, Liz Hepp, a friend from college, approached me, saying she loved
what I was doing and wondering if I could train her to teach at The Ballet Spot. Around the same time, Janna Davis came to take class and expressed her interest in teaching as well. The next thing I new, I had two trained instructors, teaching their own classes in this unique style I had developed.
The Ballet Spot was BOOMING! It was so much fun to see adults of all backgrounds and experience levels, from all over NYC joining our classes and having so much fun.
Leading up to March of 2020, The Ballet Spot was taking off. We opened a second location in TriBeCa, which was building momentum, and all of our 72nd Street classes were booked full. We had added 3 additional instructors, Mary Kate Hartung, Ali Block, and Robyn Jutsum. But then on March 15, NYC shut down. We launched our first Zoom Live Stream class that same day.
We were one of the first studios to launch virtual classes in response to COVID. All of the instructors depended on income from jobs that were shutting down like dominos, and I did not want to be a part of that financial suffering. So, I guaranteed each instructor the pay they had made prior to COVID shutdown.
Since March, we have increased our virtual class offerings and also increased the opportunities for dancers to work during this crazy period of time: Robyn Jutsum is now also the Marketing Manager, Ali Block is also the Operations Manager, and Deepa Liegel, who joined our team in May, is now also the Class Content Coordinator. The team has continued to grow to include professional dancers from around the country.
Prior to March 15, we had 32 classes a month in our two locations in NYC and 24 classes a month in our Santa Monica location, all primarily Cardio Ballet. Now, we offer more than 100 virtual interactive Live Stream classes, ranging from Cardio Ballet, to Total Body Barre, Stretch, Pilates Mat, Ballet Sculpt and MORE!
This is only the beginning and we are so happy that you are on this ballet journey with us. Let your friends and family know about our classes and help us to grow our virtual ballet-loving worldwide community!
