The American Theater Dance Workshop in New Hyde Park announced an artistic alliance last Wednesday with a Manhattan ballet company that the dance workshop’s operators hope will give students a leg up on professional careers.
The Manhattan-based Nomad Contemporary Ballet Company will begin residency at the American Theater Dance Workshop at the Herricks Community Center this summer, according to American Theater Dance Artistic Director Jerome Vivona.
Vivona said the new relationship means that members of the Nomad company will be teaching regular classes and master workshops for American Theater Dance students, with the prospect of introducing some of them to performance opportunities with Nomad.
“We’re trying to offer a pathway for our dancers to become professionals from our school working directly with Nomad. The goal is that we’re going to develop dancers in our school that can perform with their company,” Vivona said.
He said American Theater Dance Workshop will be the exclusive Long Island school for Nomad. The agreement will also provide Nomad with additional rehearsal space outside Manhattan.
Vivona declined to comment further on the business relationship between the school and the ballet company.
The artistic partnership between the dance school and the ballet company will be led by Kristen McGrew, Nomad’s founding artistic director, and Melissa Bartucci, Nomad’s assistant director, Vivona said. McGrew, he said, has been teaching classes at the New Hyde Park dance school for several years. Bartucci recently began teaching classes at the school, which is now entering its 31st year.
“What we’ve got is an artistic alliance with the Nomad Ballet where they will be offering ballet classes for us,” Vivona said.
Vivona and his wife Michelle purchased the American Dance Theater in August from longtime owner Maddy Dempster.
Their experience includes dancing, acting and singing in Broadway shows and on tour. They also have taught theater skills for 10 years while operating another private performance school, Drama Kids, which is now a companion school to American Theater Dance.
Nomad Contemporary Ballet describes itself as a small company that seeks to provide a workshop for novice and veteran choreographers to develop new ballets.
Jerome Vivona said a student from the American Theater Workshop is already an apprentice with the Nomad company. That student and a second student will be rehearsing with the Nomad company starting this summer.
“We look forward to nurturing and giving a first opportunity to these young dancers, a taste of the life of a professional dancer,” Nomad’s Bartucci said in a statement, calling the deal an “exhilarating milestone.”
Vivona said ballet classes are considered a cornerstone of training for all students at the American Theater Dance Workshop. Students who become members of the schools ballet repertoire company are encouraged to take three or four ballet classes and to also work with private teachers to learn classical ballet, he said.
“We’re educating them and giving them a real syllabus to work with,” Vivona said.
The Vivonas both taught at American Theater Dance Workshop before buying it. Jerome started teaching there two years ago, while simultaneously coaching soccer in the New York Red Bulls youth training academy, where he taught for five years.
Michelle began teaching tap classes for the American Theater Dance Workshop five years ago while performing in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” on Broadway and as a member of the Rockettes in Radio City Music Hall.
The core of the school is the approximately 300 female dancers who are high school age or younger at various levels of ballet, tap and jazz dancing and musical theater ability. The school draws students from New Hyde Park, the Willistons, Roslyn, Manhasset , Great Neck, and beyond Nassau County as well.
