My one former student is a member and premiere soloist of this company and they will be doing only two nights in NY but you should go see this.

www.grandsballets.com . . . for tickets and info.

This company is great, very off-beat (what I love about it) so whenever it is in the US, take the time to see it.

Here are a few videos of the company.

www.youtube.com . . .

www.youtube.com . . .

Tell me when they're in A'dam.

That looks fabulous, my kind of ballet, unique, with a tint of humour, and technically beautiful. I also have a question since this seems to be a great place to ask. Years ago when the use of unitards and flexed feet came to ballet we would call it Neoclassical, is that evolved to another name? or is it still neoclassical? Obviously, neo meaning new classical dance, but I sometimes wonder. Thanks...

I am not sure, as I hear it called neo-classical and contemporary ballet. That company does modern, too, so they have sort of mixed up the lines between the two. A lot of their pieces have comedy and/or are quite tongue-in-cheek.

I taught, Jeremy, from when he started, until his family left our school at age 14 or 15. There was a personal situation between one of the owners and the one parnent, which I shall not get into.

I pressed his mother to take him to the Joffrey, as this kid had it, and had it in large quantities. He learned fast, was a sponge and just wanted to dance, dance, dance.

We did not have a professional program and as I did with others, who showed promise, I would get them to go to pro schools that fit their talents. We could only take them so far.

He then went to study with another school, that was a strong competition school, and won Mr. Dance at DMA. I was so happy for him.

Finally, he went to Joffrey, where I studied, and then received a full scholarship to Julliard, which was not surprising. The only thing is, at this point, I did not know that he had attended Joffrey or Julliard as I had moved away and lost contact.

Several years ago I received the most beautiful and tear-jerking email from him. Apparently he had been searching for me, but I had moved away. He found me through my studio website.

In the letter, he told me that I was his inspiration and that he never forgot me and wanted to thank me for putting him in the right direction and believing in him, even when life was rough.

I have saved that letter and I do not need to tell you how much that letter means to me.

I had him come down from Canada to do a workshop with my students and all I could do was beam with pride for him. He is a wonderful person and dancer, as well as a teacher and the students loved him and his classes.

When his company came to Philly, I went with my daughter, one of my serious ballet students and her mother. They were just floored by the talent of the company, and him. We met after and he introduced me to his co. pals as his first ballet teacher who inspired him to pursue this career. That will remain in my heart, forever.

That is amazing, hopefully one day I would be so fortunate to have a student tell me I helped them or inspired them. WOW...
That is amazing, I am sure that one students made it worth all of the other hundreds who probably said thank you...

ps. thanks for clearing up neo-classical and contemporary, I guess the same thing, different names. I guess it's a sign of the times!