About Us
Infinity Ballet Conservatory
Benefit from the experience of professionals by Learning the Art of Dance as well as the steps.
The education at Infinity Ballet Conservatory creates understanding dance, in a fun, nurturing and challenging environment, with a gradual study that promotes all the disciplines of body awareness through creative movement and music appreciation.
Mission
The Conservatory's mission is to promote a dance program with a healthy, creative and diverse atmosphere using a comprehensive teaching method and the founder's professional performing experience and artistic inspiration. IBC is developed to create a place of study for the fine art of classical dance, an extended education in movement and physical fitness. It is founded on the understanding that classical dance is the essential base study for most styles of dance. The program's emphasis is on proper training which gives the maximum possibilities to the student for success. Education in the performing arts increases awareness of the arts in the community and develops pride through the student’s goals and achievements.
Infinity Ballet History
Infinity Ballet Company (IBC) was co-founded in 1997 by its director, Debra Sayles Senchak, an acclaimed New Jersey Ballet principal dancer, teacher and proponent of the concept that dance, like all art, is a powerful reflection and expression of life. During its early years, IBC raised awareness and appreciation of dance in communities from New Jersey to Hawaii through lecture demonstrations, workshops and public performances by nationally and internationally renowned artists.
Infinity Ballet relocated to the Raleigh, N.C. area in 2000 and became a member of the United Artists of Wake County Arts in the School Program. The newly christened Infinity Ballet Conservatory opened its doors in 2002 as an instructional studio for students of Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance. IBC offers ballet and movement programs for dance enthusiasts of all ages and abilities – preschool through high school and adults. Today, the expanded curriculum includes classes and workshops in Creative Dance for preschoolers as well as National Character Dances, Jazz, Hip Hop and Tap for school children and adults. The Conservatory also hosts accomplished guest artists and instructors who conduct workshops in various styles and artistic forms including teacher’s classical dance training programs, ballet partnering, yoga and conditioning, ballroom dances and special needs.
Infinity Ballet Theatre (IBT), a non-profit company incorporated in 2005, provides introductory performing opportunities for local students in addition to a pre-professional youth program for aspiring young dancers to perform with accomplished professionals. As a charitable organization with 501c3 tax exempt status, IBT runs independently from Infinity Ballet Conservatory and has seasonal auditions that are open to all dancers who train consistently. The Infinity Ballet Guild, an association of local businesses and professionals, was also formed in 2005 to support these projects. For more information on the Infinity Ballet Theatre please click the Theatre tab on our home page at http://www.infinityballet.com.
Debra Sayles Senchak
- Infinity Ballet Founder
- Principal Teacher and Artistic Director
IBC Faculty
Guest Artists and Teachers
Recreational Division
Classical and Contemporary Training
Classical and Contemporary Training
Debra Sayles Senchak
Debra Sayles Senchak has worked as a professional performer and dance instructor since 1976. She began her academic studies with Cecchetti training under Margaret Dallman and at the Washington School of Ballet under Mary Day. Her advanced training continued at American Ballet Theater School, David Howard School and New Jersey Ballet School where she joined the faculty and became a Principal Dancer of the New Jersey Ballet Company. Noted for her versatility she has performed extensively throughout the world. She has toured with Edward Villella Dance Ensemble, Stars of American Ballet, and Kozlov and Friends. Ms. Senchak has formal pedagogy training in the Complete Teaching Method of Classical Dance developed by Vera Kostrovitskaya and based on the work of Agrippina Vaganova at the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, taught by Prof. Peggy Willis-Aarnio. She has developed her leadership as an educator in the use of the Fine Art of Classical Dance Training for developing performers. Ms. Senchak has taught on the faculty of both NCDI and CPAC in NC in addition to Director and Teacher with the Infinity Ballet Conservatory and Theatre. She currently is an active Apex Arts Council member.
Ms. Margaret Rowland
Ms. Margaret Rowland trained extensively with Mr. Pavel Rotaru, Principal Danseur with the Bucharest Opera Ballet, in Romania. She performed leading roles with Ballet Rotaru during her three year tenure with the company before being accepted into the Boston Ballet. Ms. Rowland could be seen in Soloist and Character roles for major ballets in addition to being a staple of the Corps de Ballet. She became an established guest speaker for the company for social seminars as she was often chosen to help bring Awareness of the Arts into the community. In 1996 she performed with the Santa Fe Opera as a Principal Dancer before relocating to Raleigh, North Carolina. During her performing career Ms. Rowland toured to several European Countries. Since 2001 Ms. Rowland has continued her passion for dance with formal training in The Teaching Method of Classical Dance. She has served on the dance faculty at Elon University, a staff ballet instructor with the Durham Arts Council and Ballet Mistress with Broadway Dance Project. Since 2002 Ms. Rowland has continued to help bring Awareness of the Arts into the NC community with her participation in Infinity Ballet Performances and by joining Infinity Ballet Conservatory Faculty as a Classical Ballet Instructor. Since 2007 Margaret Rowland Kinlaw has resided in Raleigh with her husband and works extensively with special needs students. While she pursues full credentials as a certified Pilate’s trainer, Infinity Ballet is pleased to have Ms. Rowland continue at the Conservatory and Theatre as a workshop and guest teacher.
Caroline Krähe
Caroline Krähe received her teaching degree from the Royal Academy of Dance and also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She is an associate with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance, National Character Dance Division. Ms. Krähe trained in the Vaganova and Royal Academy of Dance methods and also holds the Cechetti Intermediate certificate.
She trained in Argentina, England, and in Canada with National Ballet School in Toronto. She trained with Olga Baltecheeva, head of the St. Petersburg, Russia, Vaganova Institute and Bonnie Popadoplous, head of Music at University of Alberta. She was an Apprentice with Le Grande Ballet Canadiens. Ms. Krähe was the Director of her own ballet school in Canada for 10 years. She served as the Artistic Director of the Nova Scotia Children's Ballet Company, which toured nationally and was featured on national television. She has taught in Germany and guest teaches in England and Canada annually. She also taught at the Raleigh School of Ballet.
Ms. Krähe's classes lay the foundation for development of the educated student in classical ballet. She lives in Cary with her husband and her two children. Ms. Krähe has developed a specialized program for children's creative movement and music. She incorporates the elements of early movement and music by using musical instruments, awareness of anatomy, and the child's individual creativity.
Hong Yang
Hong Yang is originally from Beijing, China where she studied dance at the school of the Beijing Dance Academy as a child and then graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy in 1995. She immediately joined the National Ballet of China and was a principal dancer there before going to Toronto, Canada where she danced with Ballet Jörgen Canada. A beautifully accomplished dancer, Ms. Hong, has most recently been seen performing as a first soloist company member with the Carolina Ballet where she has danced in many featured roles. Infinity Ballet has been honored to have Ms. Hong as a guest since 2007 and as part of the classical ballet teachers at the Conservatory.
Laura Stauderman Earnhardt
Laura Stauderman Earnhardt's professional experience began in NY as a member of the Mid-Hudson Ballet Company. She earned a BFA in dance education from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a Master of Arts in dance education from Teachers College, Columbia University, NY. While there she taught the modern dance course and produced the annual student choreography concerts. Throughout her education, Laura has trained with many top choreographers and teachers including Milton Myers, Ronen Koresh, Pat Thomas, Val Suarez, Donald Byrd, Dwight Rhoden, and Desmond Richardson. She danced Doris Humphrey's "Life of the Bee" for the Humphrey-Weidman 100th year celebration at the Danny Kaye Playhouse in NY. In 1998 she performed at Lincoln Center with the Marcy Simon Dance Company with guest choreographer Janis Brenner.
After leaving NY, she spent four years teaching and directing a performing arts high school in Tampa, FL. Her students have since graduated and attend leading national dance programs including NYU Tisch, New World School of the Arts, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the University of the Arts. She also choreographed works for the dance program at St. Petersburg College, Florida and The Tampa Visitor's Bureau. Laura relocated to North Carolina in 2003 and and became the director of East Millbrook Dance Program. In August of 2006 she will begin her position as director of the dance department at Holly Springs High School and join the faculty at Infinity Ballet Conservatory.
Brian Youngkin
A native to North Carolina, Mr. Youngkin holds a BFA in Dance from the North Carolina School of the Arts and has served as ballet master at the Pierrette Sadler Danceurs Studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, for fourteen years. An avid dance teacher, Mr. Youngkin has been instrumental in the dance world in the Raleigh area. He is proud of the many accomplishments of his students including appearances on ABC's After School Specials, So You Think You Can Dance, and Dance Wars. Mr. Youngkin’s students can be seen performing for Cirque de Soleil, Alvin Ailey, Disney, and Jose Limon or studying at Julliard and North Carolina School of the Arts. Infinity Ballet welcomes him on the faculty this year.
Donna Griffith
Donna Renee Griffith began her training at Aesthetics dance studio in Ellicott City, Maryland where she performed with the resident company, The Howard County Ballet. Donna continued her dance studies at the Ballet Theatre of Maryland School and with the world renowned ballerina Rosella Hightower at the Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes. In 2002 she moved to New York to further her dance training while pursuing a degree in Forensic Psychology, where she studied at Steps On Broadway with former Stuttgart Ballet Soloist, Emilietta Ettlin and was honored to be chosen to teach for Ms. Ettlin for both her Ballet Classes and Ettlin Floor Technique Classes. While in NYC she also studied under internationally recognized ballet teachers, including David Howard, Michael Vernon, Willie Burmann and received Horton Technique training from Karen Gayle.
Upon graduating from college, Ms. Griffith she relocated to North Carolina and joined the Greensboro Ballet where she performed a number of company dance roles. In addition she made guest artist appearances in roles as the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker and "Rose" in Walltown Children’s Theatre. In addition to teaching dance Ms. Griffith can be seen performing with the newly developed Winston- Salem Festival Ballet during their 2009 inaugural season.
Photo by Steve Clarke
Recreational Division
Erica Jack
Erica S. Jack received her BFA in Dance Performance from the East Carolina University where she had the opportunity to perform works chosen to be presented at the American College Dance Festival Association. She was honored to participate in the American Dance Festivals’ Past/ Forward Concert in the reconstruction of Laura Dean’s “Tympani” during the 75th anniversary performance in summer of 2008. Ms. Jack has presented her own works at both East Carolina University and at the American College Dance Festival at the Hollins College. She began her teaching experience in 1998 and has taught at Hunter’s Dance in Wilson, NC and at Cary Ballet Conservatory. Ms. Jack began teaching at Infinity Ballet the summer of 2009.
Le Russell
Le Russell started dancing at the age of 3, and has not stopped. She began her formal training at the age of 12 with Gay Porter-Speer at the Charlotte School of Ballet. During her time in Charlotte, she appeared in numerous productions with the Charlotte Youth Ballet, including an original production of The Wizard of Oz. Following high school, Le attended Appalachian State University. There she earned a minor in dance. She performed with the Appalachian Dance Ensemble each year, and was a featured dancer in the university’s production of “Man of La Mancha” Ms. Russell began her association with Infinity Ballet in 2002 while extending her dance education and joined the IBC faculty with the children’s dance program in 2007. In the summer of 2008, she participated in the 11th Annual Teacher’s Congress for Classical Dance, hosted at Infinity Ballet and taught by Professor Margaret Willis-Aarnio. She welcomes the opportunity to expand her knowledge of ballet, and share her love of movement and dance with all ages! Le lives in Cary with her husband and son.
Maggie Witter
Maggie Witter grew up in Pennsylvania and primarily received her classical ballet training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. A very versatile dancer, Ms. Witter has taught extensively for many years and has a special talent for creating lessons that make learning dance fun for young students. An avid student herself, Ms. Witter continues to seek out ways to develop young dancers. She has been responsible for developing the syllabus for several dance programs both in New Jersey and North Carolina. She joined Infinity Ballet faculty during the summer of 2008 and teaches classes for the ballet and tap programs.
Kim Watson
Kim "Bela" Watson has been teaching all disciplines of dance for over 10 years. She grew up dancing in Florida and continued her training at Florida State University where she obtained her BFA degree in Dance. After a couple of years of teaching and choreographing around the country, she returned home to Florida and founded the Soul Play Modern Dance Company. Now cured from a 13 year battle with a rare cancer, Bela continues to teach and perform all disciplines of dance and yoga with a renewed gratitude for living and the ability of movement. Ms. Watson is fondly known as “Bela” amongst IBC students. She joined IBC faculty in 2008 and currently teaches workshop classes.
Rebekah Spurgeon
Rebekah Spurgeon began dancing in her mother's womb and continued to explore her talent at Greensboro Christian Arts Academy, Greensboro Ballet, and Greensboro Dance Theater. She began choreographing for her church dance team at the age of 12. Bekah attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as well as the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance. During her time in Charlotte she danced professionally for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats' Dance Team. She has studied with various artists including E.E. Balcos, Delia Neil, Melissa Coyle former principle dancer of the American Ballet Theater, Jan Van Dyke, Shawni Collins of Urban Bush Women, and April Berry former principle dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Bekah has participated in summer programs at Broadway Dance Center, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the American Dance Festival where she performed Paul Taylor's Esplanade. She has also had the opportunity to perform at Disney World, Dolphin Cruise Lines, the North Carolina Dance Festival, and the American College Dance Festival gala. Bekah joined IBC faculty in 2007 and is on leave from actively teaching there while she is residing in California with her husband and continuing to pursue her passion for dance in the forms of teaching, choreographing, and performing.
Sue Hewgill Peterson
Sue Hewgill Peterson started ballet classes at the age of 3. In England she attended Elmhurst Ballet School, Phyllis Bedells School and The Royal Ballet School, gaining Royal Academy of Dance and Imperial Society of Dance Teaching Qualifications.
She established and ran a full time dance studio and dancewear shop which still run today. She then moved on to be Head of Dance at Queen Margaret's Independent Boarding School in York, England building up the participation of dance pupils. During that time she also taught for the Royal Ballet School Associate Scheme. Mrs Peterson has performed in and choreographed for many Musicals and staged countless amateur and professional Dance productions including pieces set to music that was written especially for her. In 2004 she moved to America with her new husband and made her home in North Carolina where she continues to share her knowledge and pass on her love of dance. Ms. Peterson is the current Artistic Director of the Carolina Performing Art Center in Southern Pines. Infinity Ballet welcomes her as a guest teacher with the recreational program.
Elisabeth Johnson
Elisabeth Johnson is originally from Chicago where she studied dance from the premier ballet school, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Her advanced professional ballet classes were under the guidance of Rodney Irwin and Dolores Lipinski. Ms. Johnson toured with the Elgin Dance Theater Company and performed in more than fifteen major performances in the Illinois area. She also trained at Joel Hall Dance Center where she received her experience in Jazz and Modern. While her and her husband were in a three-year stay in Taiwan she received traditional Chinese dance training and continued studies with the Capital City Ballet. Ms. Johnson has taught all ages during her past ten years of teaching and directing in ballet schools. Her passion for dance includes a favorite joy of choreographing in a style that is influenced from her most recent experiences in the China.
Kristin Frank
Kristin Frank received her primary dance training in Poway, California, and went on to study at Palomar and Mesa Community Colleges in addition to receiving training with Hoctor Dance Caravans and Al Gilbert Dance. A strong tap dancer, Kristin also holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies and has received her master’s degree in Elementary Education. Kristin loves to work with children and especially enjoys passing on her love of dance to all her students, no matter what age. She lives with her husband and daughter in Cary.
Guest Artists and Teachers
Alexei Borovik
Alexei Borovik was born in Russia and began his ballet training at the age of ten at the Perm Ballet Academy. Upon graduating in 1979, he was invited to join the Perm Ballet Theatre. His reputation quickly established itself, and in 1982 he was elevated to Premiere Dancer.
Mr. Borovik was awarded the Second Prize at The Artistic Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1984. In 1987, he won the Gold Medal at The Sixth Concourse International Ballet Festival in Peru and was honored with a decoration as "Merited Artist of Russia."
A highly sought-after guest artist, Mr. Borovik has made numerous appearances internationally and throughout Russia. In 1997, he toured China with "The Stars of the American Ballet." He has also toured Europe and Asia with the company "Stars of the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet." Since 1992, Mr. Borovik has been a Principal Dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet.
His extensive repertoire includes principal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, and others. Along with the leading roles in the classical repertoire, he has taken up additional assignments in the ballets of George Balanchine: Apollo, Rubies, The Four Temperaments, Tarantella, Serenade, Theme and Variations, and Stars and Stripes. Mr. Borovik has also danced in such diverse pieces as Hans Van Manen's Grosse Fugue, Paul Taylor's Arden Court, Lynne Taylor-Corbett's Great Galloping Gottschalk, and has created roles in many new ballets.
In June 1997, Mr. Borovik had the prestigious honor of being invited to return to his homeland of Russia to appear as Principal Guest Artist in The Perm Ballet Theatre's productions of Don Quixote and Giselle in celebration of their 125th Jubilee.
Mr. Borovik is a virtuoso with an instantly recognizable individual style, whose career is still expanding: a great artist and a unique personality.
Luba Gulyaeva
Luba Gulyaeva graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia). Her instructors include the famous N.V. Baltacheyeva, assistant to A.Y. Vaganova. Ms. Gulyaeva joined the Kirov (Maryinsky) Ballet Company from 1968 to1979 in Leningrad where she performed in ballets such as La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, Le Corsair, Nutcracker, Legend of Love, Cinderella and others. In 1980, Ms. Gulyaeva was invited by Jurgen Schneider to be a faculty member of the Botsford School of Dance in Rochester, New York where she taught intermediate and advanced classical ballet, pointe technique, and variation repertory. She also coached students for competitions and professional company auditions. From 1988 to 1989, Ms. Gulyaeva was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to be a member of the faculty of the American Ballet Theatre School of Classical Ballet where she gave classes to the American Ballet Theatre dancers. From 1989 to 1993, Ms. Gulyaeva was ballet coach at the Steps Ballet Studio in New York City. She also taught master classes at the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne and classes at the School of American Ballet in New York City. Ms. Gulayaeva has privately coached participants of the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS and the Prix de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland. Today, Ms. Gulyaeva is the Ballet Mistress for the New Jersey Ballet Company in Livingston, New Jersey and where she also teaches at Chris Taylor's North New Jersey School of Dance Arts and the Long Island Dance Center (Eglevsky Ballet Company) in New York. In addition, She guest teaches all over the United States and has guest taught for the Salt Creek Ballet Summer Intensive in the past. . She is well known as one of the finest teachers of the Vaganova ballet system and classical repertory.
Alaine Haubert
Ms. Alaine Haubert is a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre and Ballet Mistress for American Ballet Theatre.
She has been a University of Hawaii faculty member for nine years, and is frequent Guest Instructor for Ballet Hawaii and West Hawaii Dance Theatre Summer and Winter Workshops. Ms. Haubert most recent years have been as a Professor of Dance at California State University at Long Beach. She currently is active as an International Guest teacher throughout the country and is Director of the ABT summer intensive program in Detroit, Michigan.
Elie Lazar
Elie Lazar is currently the Montgomery Ballet Artistic Director. Before moving to Montgomery to direct The Montgomery Ballet, Mr. Lazar founded and directed the Joffrey Ensemble Dancers; the performance group associated with the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City and founded LazarBalletNYC. Born in Israel, Mr. Lazar began his ballet training at age 17, with the Israel National Ballet Company. This led to appearances with the Israel National opera, the Haifa Ballet and the Inbar Dance Company. Dance fans are familiar with Mr. Lazar’s work as a principal dancer with the New Jersey Ballet where, beginning in 1986, he was known for athletic roles in ballets such as Balanchine’s Tarantella and Stars and Stripes, both coached by Edward Villella. He also danced the role of "Mercutio" in Romeo and Juliet and the principal role in Le Corsaire. In addition to his acclaim as a dancer, Mr. Lazar is building a reputation as a versatile and inventive choreographer. He received commissions to create ballets for the New Jersey Ballet Company, the Ruth Mitchell Dance Theatre, Atlanta’s Georgia Youth Ballet, and Japan’s Kumamoto Ballet. He was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to create a new work for the Berkshire Albany Ballet. Mr. Lazar organized and trained students from the Joffrey Ballet School to form his first company. Since its inception in 2000, he has expanded the company’s repertoire and commitments. Performances include works that Mr. Lazar choreographed specifically for the ensemble. Among them are "Surrender @ Love", "A Night in the Tropics", "Concerto for Dancers and String Orchestra" (known as "Ripples"), "Come In", "Dance with Me to the End of Love" and "Masa". Also to his credit, Mr. Lazar designed a program of lecture demonstrations to educate school children about dance and the commitment required to pursue the art as a career. He teaches master classes and develops intensive dance programs that are presented as summer workshops or as part of week-long residency seminars that include public performances, lecture demonstrations, master classes and pas de deux classes, as well as general instruction. His teaching commitments include classes at the Joffrey Ballet School, Broadway Dance Center, Peridance NY, New Jersey Ballet, East Carolina University, University of Kansas City, Tokyo Ballet, Kumamoto Ballet, and SERBA. Mr. Lazar directs and supervises the Summer Intensive he founded. He strives to dispel the idea held by viewers that their individual preferences for one genre of ballet or another cannot be challenged. He contends that those who love traditional story ballets can enjoy modern “abstract” ballets (and visa versa) and endeavors to expand viewer’s horizons to enjoy all types of dance.
Margot K. Martin
Margot K. Martin began training at the age of 8 with Tanju and Patricia Tuzer in Dallas, Texas. Later, she trained with Lisa Owen at the Conservatory of Classical Ballet and in 1997, she trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet on full scholarship. Ms. Martin is a founding member of Carolina Ballet and has danced the complete repertoire of the company during the past four seasons, including performances in Tarantella and "Trio" in Great Galloping Gottschalk.
Margaret Severin-Hansen
Margaret Severin-Hansen is a founding member of Carolina Ballet. She grew up in Huntington, Long Island where she studied dance at the Huntington School of Ballet until she went to the School of American Ballet when she was 13. She also studied for six weeks with the Royal Danish Ballet. She joined Carolina Ballet in 1998 as a member of the corps de ballet and quickly rose through the ranks to principal dancer.
Peggy Willis-Aarnio
Guest of Honor and Teacher's Workshop Educator
7th, 8th, and 9th Annual Teacher's Congress, hosted by Infinity Ballet
Please see Willis Ballet for more information.
Infinity Difference
Dance training in North Carolina varies in quality from very poor to exceptional. Many studios produce students that can perform specific dances well. Dance and competition teams for example, have become very popular and continue to raise their standards to higher levels. Many more studios produce technically proficient dancers who are able to perform more than ‘a dance.’ Often the students perform these dances with little or no understanding of the history of dance or the ability to move these steps from one dance to another.
This is true in many towns, villages and cities across America offering a multitude of extracurricular activities for children. Many parents enroll their children in a dance studio after seeing a production like CATS or Nutcracker. With no further information than what they saw and the response of their child, parents can become overwhelmed and bewildered by the choices available to them. Many studios offer a variety of disciplines taught by reasonably good teachers. Unfortunately, due to the costs of maintaining a dance studio the owners and teachers must come up with creative ways of staying in business and sacrifice the quality of training at the expense of quick results.
The responsibility for the parent to become an informed consumer and chose the dance studio that will offer the best training available so that they will receive the quality they are paying for becomes a challenging one. For those who wish their child to have a thorough dance education in a nurturing atmosphere, Apex is blessed with Infinity Ballet Conservatory. The owners and teachers are dedicated to maintaining the highest quality of training that follows one syllabus rather than the hodge podge found in the vast majority of studios across the country. This dedication to an ideal maintains an emphasis on building from a sound foundation of properly learned and executed steps before proceeding to the next level. The detail of every movement is taught at a pace that allows the student to perform the given skill successfully. This process builds confidence and self-esteem in the student, who learn not only to have an artistic awareness of themselves but also an understanding of being in unison with their peers.
Ballet is a performing art. Lessons must be designed with performance quality in mind. Teaching a dancer correctly takes years. As the dancer progresses, building a thorough understanding of what they are doing as well as executing each movement correctly, the student develops critical thinking skills and a sense of themselves in a community of peers. Each lesson includes concrete instruction and positive reinforcement as well as abstract concepts such as how to utilize time and space in unison with other individuals.
The owners and teachers have high expectations for each student, regardless of age, experience or career goals. The aim of Infinity Ballet Conservatory is to educate dancers who will carry a love of dance with them into their future lives, regardless of career choice. Rather than using humiliation or despotic teaching methods, the pedagogical study of ballet is used to reinforce the person dancing and give them a basis from which to build their lives. The love for the art, understanding of the student being taught and the ability of the body to execute each movement infuses each class with kindness between teacher and student. Good manners, praise and positive reinforcement bring positive results for all involved. A code of ethics is reinforced in each class. Studio ethics is not a set of hidden rules. Instead, the quiet discipline of each class is reinforced by quiet repetition of each movement, from the first greeting of student and teacher at the beginning of class to the reverence to honor the art form and each other at the end of each class.
The infrastructure of Infinity Ballet also promotes a continuous commitment to quality. Each spacious studio has quality sound equipment and professional sprung floors. Schedules for classes provide multiple opportunities for students to perfect their art and offer a variety of classes necessary to produce a well-rounded dancer. The dancers adhere to a dress code that is designed for optimum performance and focusing on the lesson at hand rather than on current fashion statements. Professional development for teachers is offered through the summer months so that the teacher continues to grow and develop as well as showing the students that personal growth is a life-long process.
Having danced professionally for most of their lives, the directors of Infinity Ballet have a unique relationship with the professional world of dance, like Carolina Ballet. This provides our students with performance opportunities at a professional level that is crucial for the development of a dancer. These opportunities offer the student the developmental experience that will increase their potential to succeed in any variety of professions. Taking class with professional dancers that live and work in North Carolina shows students how the training of dancers never stops and provides the example of striving for excellence is useful in all career endeavors.
Ballet lessons at a quality dance studio have positive long-term effects on the student, regardless of career goals. The health benefits of being physically fit combined with reinforced good grooming habits and a structured curriculum carries over into the academic world as well. The patterns used in combination with classical music reinforce concepts that promote literacy and brain development. Through study at Infinity Ballet, the child is able to build on their academic skills, often unaware that this type of learning is taking place. Students of music and dance increase their critical thinking skills, math and logical reasoning that improves their reading and writing. These skills in turn promote self-motivation, the love of learning and special concepts. The owners and staff of Infinity Ballet encourage parents as well as educators to visit our studio and initiate a dialogue to promote a sound educational experience that will improve the lives of all our children.
The Directors of Infinity Ballet Conservatory
Cordially invite you to join us for a Tour of our Studios and offers you a complimentary lesson of your choice.
Experience the joys of dance in a nurturing atmosphere.
United Arts
United Artists in the Schools – Infinity Ballet Theatre Programs
- Lecture/Demonstrations are structured for Pre-school age, K-6th grade, and 7th-12th grades, adult and handicapped audiences.
- Introduction Lecture Demonstrations introduce classical dance training techniques in coordination with music and concludes with short examples of choreography.
- Follow-up Demonstrations present ballet (dance) excerpts from different styles and eras.
- Storybook Demonstrations present excerpts from story-ballets full of different characters. All demos include question and answer periods with the artists and volunteer participation on stage from the audience. Time totaling: 45-55 minutes. *Study materials and worksheets are presented to teachers in advance of visiting, depending on the age group of the audience.
- Master Classes introduce dance education with fun choreography and music to students of all ages.
* Covering relationship of dance movement to Language, Literature, History, Geography, Math and Sciences. Geared for preschool, 5-10 years and 12+ up and are designed for 15-25 students. Lessons are one hour with two dance teachers participating.
For more information on booking a performance please call 919-303-1105 or write to us at ballettheatre@infinityballet.com