CCP's Dance Directors to be Honored Prior to Leaving for New Positions in Texas

Cumberland County Playhouse dance directors Eldar Valiev and Lilia Valieva will be feted with a "farewell reception" to wish them well as they leave Clarksville to take over as artistic directors of the Festival Ballet of North Central Texas. The couple will also lead the 22-year-old professional company's training program. The reception will be held on Sunday, July 17, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the CCP Gazebo.   

Russian-born Eldar and Lilia, proud American citizens naturalized in Tennessee, have served The Playhouse and its community of families for 13 years, first as ballet master and mistress, and then as directors of dance education. Trained at the Vaganova Academy of Russia's famed Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg, the couple also danced with Icelandic Ballet and South Carolina Ballet, prior to moving to Tennessee to join The Playhouse education staff. 

"Eldar and Lilia have brought our community the world's finest ballet training," said Lisa Garner Harrison, CCP's education committee. "And we've seen their students advance to top-rank college dance programs, to major scholarship support, and to performing and teaching jobs in Tennessee and across the country." 

Jim Crabtree, producing artistic director at The Playhouse, added, "We will miss them, but they and their instructors have set a benchmark for training which we intend to maintain, as CCP's education committee and management explores several excellent and exciting options for new program leadership. We wish them well."

Playhouse dance classes, which had tentatively been slated to resume in late August, will now be deferred to an opening on September 12.

"We are challenged to recruit teaching artists of comparable stature," explainEd Harrison. "But we are proud that an important American dance company has reached out to rural Tennessee and The Playhouse to find its future leadership." 

Harrison's daughters Grace and Katherine are very active in Playhouse education programs and youth projects. CCP's education committee includes Regina Villaruz (who has three children in Playhouse programs): Suzanne Banegas (teen sons Isaiah and Malachi, plus daughter Darbi are active at CCP); Carol Ann Chadwell (daughter Aven, an SMHS and Playhouse graduate who is entering her junior year as an art history major and dance minor at Belmont University and her third year studying at the School of Nashville Ballet); and Sherri Crain (daughters Jensen and Alli are veterans of many CCP classes and productions).

"Eldar and Lilia have inspired us," said Chadwell, "and we're excited to be planning and recruiting for a great new era in dance, musical theater, and growth for young people and adults  through The Playhouse's strong and affordable programs."   

 

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