The program just recently named a new director, Michael Vernon, ?earlier this summer.
Vernon studied at the Royal Ballet School in London and performed in both London and New York. Since being named director of the ballet department, he has choreographed numerous shows and opera theater productions.
“We are creating and adding more contemporary elements into our production under the new direction,” Associate Director Jennifer Adam said.
The pre-college ballet program draws top faculty members from both the professional dancing world and some of the most talented dancers in the IU Department of Ballet.
“Coming from Pittsburgh, I feel very lucky to have such wonderful teachers at IU and have learned so much from them,” senior ballet major Maura Bell said. “I think it is great that I’m able to pass it down to younger kids in the pre-college program.”
The program is meant to mimic the ballet department for college ballet majors, Bell said.
“I think the faculty group does a great job to achieve the goal,” she said. “Their experiences brought tons of professional opportunities to young students in Bloomington and the surrounding area. The kids might not have access to such great trainings and instructors without this program.”
The program works with the ?students to present classical performances. This fall the group plans to put on “Dark Ellegies,” “The Emeralds” and “The Envelope.”
“It’s very exciting to see a lot of new teachers here and a lot of creations in the production process,” Claessens said.
The program has seen success over the years and has been operating for almost 20 years.
Part of its success comes from the popularity and familiarity of the college program at Jacobs.
“Bloomington is very familiar with our production, especially ‘Nutcracker,’ which is really popular for the public,” Bell said. “The fact that we do come with that reputation makes the program big for itself.”
The reputation of the program is what convinced principal teacher and Curriculum Adviser Christian Claessens to join the staff when she was invited a few years ago.
“It’s a top school. It’s continuing the tradition of offering great ballet training programs,” Claessens said. “And the main thing is to create dancers, those who are going to be top dancers in the dancing world.”
Faculty members agree that the college program has a spirit of creating true ?professional excellence.
“I believe that we all do our best to create dancers,” Claessens said. “Not just about creating professional dancers, but creating a discipline and also introducing an audience, people who know the performing group and truly appreciate their works.”
