Princeton Ballet School's Summer Intensive Junior and Intermediate Programs

Princeton Ballet School's Summer Intensive Juniors is for students ages 9 to 11 and is located on Princeton University's campus. Students are able to enroll for any amount of weeks over the 5 week period from June 23 through July 25, and dance every weekday from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. This junior intensive is taught by Jennifer Gladney, an alum of Princeton Ballet School and former dancer with American Repertory Ballet. Gladney graduated summa cum laude from Rider University with a BA in Elementary Education, Early Childhood Education, and Dance as part of the Rider University/Princeton Ballet School Dance program.

The program's schedule includes a daily ballet class, which focuses on correct alignment and épaulement, as well as dance history, performance skills, and choreography. The days also include arts and crafts breaks, during which the students create accessories, such as headpieces, with which to costume themselves for an in-studio showcase at the end of each week. Gladney works to make sure that her students are learning more about ballet than just the technique. During each week's culminating showcase, students perform the choreography they learned from the ballet they studied as well as the choreography that they created themselves for their family and friends.

Princeton Ballet School's Summer Intensive Intermediates is for students ages 11-14 and is held at the school's Cranbury studios. The dancers attend classes in variations, Pilates, choreography, hip-hop, and modern dance, in addition to their daily ballet class. Many of the female students in the program are either working towards or have recently begun pointe work, so the program has a special focus on strengthening the skills and muscles needed for dancing en pointe. There is also a men's class available for the male students who attend the intensive. The daily ballet teachers for the intermediate intensive are Erika Mero, Karen Leslie Moscato, and Katie Scibienski Croghan.

Katie Scibienski Croghan graduated Cum Laude from Butler University with a BA in dance pedagogy. Karen Leslie Moscato received her dance training at Princeton Ballet School, and is now a professional dancer in American Repertory Ballet. Erika Mero also received her dance training at Princeton Ballet School. She graduated Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance performance from SUNY Purchase, and also has an MA in Dance Education with a concentration in ABT Ballet Pedagogy from New York University.

Mero has been teaching at Princeton Ballet School for almost 10 years now. "To see the program as a whole grow in the past few years has been amazing," she says. "It's great when I see the dancers back for another summer or to even see them 'graduate' to our advanced summer intensive. Having attended this program myself when I was a young dancer, I still to this day remember certain corrections and combinations that were passed down to me by my teachers. It's an honor to be able to pass this knowledge onto these young dancers!"

In addition to their ballet classes, the young dancers take a twice weekly choreography class from Susan Tenney; a weekly modern dance class and Pilates class from Janell Byrne; and a weekly hip-hop session with Angela Cusamano.

About American Repertory Ballet and Princeton Ballet School

American Repertory Ballet's mission is to bring the joy, beauty, artistry and discipline of classical and contemporary dance to New Jersey and nationwide audiences and to dance students through artistic and educational programs. The organization comprises: American Repertory Ballet professional company, the preeminent classical and contemporary ballet company in the state; Princeton Ballet School, one of the largest and most respected non-profit dance schools in the nation; and ARB's Access & Enrichment initiatives, including the long-running and acclaimed DANCE POWER program. The performing company is a classical and contemporary ballet company committed to presenting ballets from the 19th and 20th centuries alongside new and existing works by choreographers from today. Founded in 1963, the company is currently under the artistic leadership of Douglas Martin, former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet. Its rich history of repertory includes established masterpieces by distinguished American choreographers such as George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp; cutting edge works by choreographers such as Val Caniparoli, Kirk Peterson, Dominique Dumais, Harrison McEldowney, Amy Seiwert, Susan Shields, Melissa Barak, Patrick Corbin, Trinette Singleton, and ARB Resident Choreographer Mary Barton; and former Artistic Directors Dermot Burke, Marjorie Mussman, Septime Webre and Graham Lustig. ARB has been designated a "Major Arts Institution" by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts consistently for the past two decades, and has repeatedly been awarded a Citation of Excellence by the Council. ARB was voted the Jersey Arts People's Choice for "Favorite Dance Company" in 2008, 2011 and 2012.

Princeton Ballet School has gained a national reputation for its excellent dance training since its founding in 1954 by Audrée Estey. Under the direction of Mary Pat Robertson, Princeton Ballet School currently serves approximately 1,200 students, starting at age three, and includes a large open enrollment division for adults. Princeton Ballet School has studios in Cranbury, New Brunswick, and Princeton and offers classes in ballet, modern dance, jazz, hip-hop, cardioballet and Pilates. Students from the school have gone on to dance in professional ballet and contemporary dance companies in the US and abroad. Graduates have danced with such diverse organizations as New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, Complexions, Mark Morris Dance Company, Twyla Tharp, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Ballet West and on Broadway.

The Access & Enrichment wing of American Repertory Ballet reaches out to the community not only through its DANCE POWER program and signature On Pointe series, but also with free programming, master classes, residencies, lecture demonstrations and School Time Matinees throughout the state. In 1984, American Repertory Ballet partnered with the New Brunswick Board of Education to create DANCE POWER. Today, it's the longest-running uninterrupted arts/community partnership in New Jersey. The legendary Gregory Hines was DANCE POWER's Honorary Chair for 18 years before his untimely passing in 2003. In 2001, Mr. Hines endowed a scholarship at Rutgers University that earmarks annual funds for a DANCE POWER student to attend the university.