Appointment aims to inspire dancers

Michael Vernon is coming to IU to be the chair of the Jacobs School Ballet Department, a school that already produces dancers for some of the world's leading companies. \nVernon said he wants to develop more choreographers, eventually leading to a choreography track of study. He also plans to facilitate collaboration between music and ballet majors. \n"I would like to eventually bring in composers," he said. "Ballet has to be a team." \nHe sees his role as a director of artistic talent. \n"I don't teach people to dance," he said. "I think people were born to dance. Some were born for music. Some were born to be mathematicians. To be a good dancer one must embrace dance. I help dancers to achieve their destiny."\nHe first visited the ballet with his mother at eight years old. At this young age he said he was filled with a sense of "wonderment, beauty and pageantry" about ballet. At age 15 his uncle encouraged him to take ballet lessons to better understand the art form. \nHe studied at Nesta Brooking School of Ballet and Royal Ballet School in London, working with the best dancers in the world. \n"I came in as a balleto mane," he said, which is an Italian phrase meaning something similar to an absolute efficianado. "I was well-known in the Royal Ballet very young because I went there all the time."\nVernon has choreographed many ballets for professional companies across the nation including the Eglevsky Ballet in New York (at which he was the artistic director from 1989 to 1995) and American Ballet Theatre. \nHe currently teaches at Steps, a dance studio in New York, where he works with dancers from around the world. He also works for the Manhattan Dance Project and has spent time with ballet companies in Australia, China, Germany, New Zealand, the Phillipines and Sweden. He was also a guest teacher for the Juilliard School in 2001, according to a press release.\nJacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards said in a press release that Vernon "will further connect our students to the professional world, expand our technical proficiencies and establish our program as one of the leading centers for choreographic training in North America."\nVernon said he has a deep respect for the past but that ballet, like all art forms, must look forward. "It's going to be fun"