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DIRECTOR AND TEACHER:
Nina Alonso Hathaway, who has taught for over twenty years,
is the principal teacher and school director. Trained primarily
with Boston Ballet, she performed there and also taught a
wide range of classes. Her teachers there included E. Virginia
Williams, Bruce Wells, Shana Bereska, Violette Verdy, James
Capp and Sydney Leonard. In New York she also studied with
Richard Thomas and Barbara Fallis. In Boston she also studied
with David Shields, beginning teaching with his school when
injuries following an auto accident interfered with dancing.
She is well known as a deeply experienced, sensitive teacher,
interested in finding creative and personal methods to support
the growth of each student.
Nina founded Fresh Pond Ballet in 1987 to
bring a more personal approach to the teaching of classical
ballet than is possible in large schools like Boston Ballet
and Jose Mateo's Ballet Theater where she taught for many
years. At Fresh Pond Ballet, each child is considered a unique,
unfolding individual.
She has trained some well known dancers, including
Jennifer Gelfand, now a principal dancer with Boston Ballet,
Antony James Rizzi, choreographer and dancer with Frankfurt
Ballet in Germany and others. Eoin Gaj. who started his ballet
training with FPB is now studying and performing with Boston
Dance Company and doing the pre-professional summer dance
program at Chatauqua. Laurel Drane, who began with FPB. Went
on to Ballet Workshop of New England and is now with Austin
Ballet in Texas. Nina is also enormously proud of her students
who have gone in directions other than professional ballet.
Tanya Dennison graduated from Boston University and applied
her extensive ballet background to ballroom dancing, a field
where she has competed with outstanding success. The discipline
of ballet gives many mental as well as physical gifts to dancers,
including superior ability to concentrate, a quick, accurate
memory, confidence and self respect. The noble, strong posture
of dancers is a result of the centered, harmonious training
they receive, and is another plus of studying ballet.
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