She’s taking a detour. The airport in Donetsk is closed due to civil unrest as Russian and Ukrainian cultures clash. The trains are to be shut down after June 14. The city has imposed a 10 o’clock curfew for all residents. Irina Komarenko, Principal Dancer for the Donetsk Ballet Company, will be traveling to Kiev by train before the shutdown. From there, she will board an airplane destined for New York and will be brought to Philadelphia by Nancy Malmed, Artistic Director of Wissahickon Dance Academy (WDA) where she is slated to direct the summer ballet intensive which begins June 23.
This will be the third year that WDA has brought Irina Komarenko to teach this very unique summer ballet program. She has danced all of the major roles in Donetsk Ballet productions including Don QuIxote, Swan lake, Sleeping Beauty, Spartacus, La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker. She is fluent in English, having spent six years as Principal Dancer for Indianapolis Ballet. Like all dancers from the former Soviet Union, she teaches the Vaganova method of classical ballet, a standardized Russian system that stresses strength, flexibility, and artistic expression that has produced some of the greatest dancers in the world.
Irina enraptured Philadelphia audiences this past December with her performance in The Nutcracker. So, students are excited to have her as their teacher this summer. Adding to the international flavor, former PA Ballet soloist, Yosbel Delgado, from Cuba, will teach advanced classes and partnering. The Cuban training is also Vaganova based since their country was a Soviet satellite.
The staff also includes Donald Lunsford, Artistic Director of Philadanco II teaching jazz and modern, Svetlana Lutz teaching character, and Meghan Dwyer teaching yoga, rounding out an interesting international brew of cultures.
The three week course runs from June 23 – July 11 and is for intermediate and advanced ballet dancers ages 10 -22. It runs from 9:30 to 3:30 everyday and will culminate in a studio performance and reception.
For information, contact the studio at 215-849-7950, or email [email protected] or visit the website a www.wissahickondance.com.
Steven is currently the CEO of Delaware Valley on Line, one of the first regional Internet Service Provides that now focuses on business-class web hosting, design, and internet marketing. He is president and founder of Rainbow Promotions Inc., a special events and entertainment agency established in the late 70’s, that services corporate and retail accounts both locally and nationally.
Steven is the Founder of PhiladelphiaDANCE.org,the largest web presence and resource for the dance community in the greater Philadelphia region, and the Founder and Editor of The Dance Journal. His involvement in the dance community extends to being Director of Graffito Works, an international platform for dancers and performing artists to create site-specific work and to make it readily accessible to the public.
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