Meet our 2023 Hosts

MoBBallet Symposium on the Hill:

A space that centers Blackness but welcomes all!

..

WHAT’S NEW ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM ON THE HILL?

A LOT!  The 2023 Symposium on the Hill is being hosted by Boston Ballet School and Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and takes place on the beautiful Walnut Hill campus in Natick, MA, just outside of Boston. MoBBallet (Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet) will have access to their state-of-the-art facilities, which includes 3 large studios, blackbox theaters, a gym, generous grounds, and we are now able to offer both a daily meal plan as well as dormitory lodging.

Walnut Hill has opened their dormitory and dining facilities to the MoBBallet Symposium. Participants can choose from double or quad rooms, in Bishop Hall. Each room is furnished with a desk and desk chair, a bookshelf, a bureau and a bed for each occupant.  All dorms have common spaces for gathering. The dining hall will provide 3 meals a day for all participants.

 Dining Experience

GROUP RATES AVAILABLE

INDIVIDUAL RATES

Dancer Tuition w/Room and Board- $1800

Commuter Dancer Tuition w/3 meals included-$1400

GROUP  RATES

Dancer Tuition; group of 8+ w/Room and Board

$1400 per participant

$1350 (when accompanied by chaperone living in the dorm)

Commuter Dancer Tuition: group of 8+ w/3 meals

$1050

 

The MoBBallet Symposium on the Hill offers:

  • High caliber dance training and mentoring of Black ballet dancers by faculty and mentors that look like them.
  • Personal Development for students, choreographers, dance educators, studio owners, and scholars led by industry professionals.
  • Pathways to Performance Choreographic Program to support the development of Black ballet choreographers.
  • A platform for scholars in higher education and dance educators to present and engage in continuing education and discourse via panels and town hall sessions.
  • Programming that addresses and interrogates the state of the arts, offering opportunities for the dance community to liaise with ballet leadership.

FULL BIOS OF MOBBALLET SYMPOSIUM ON THE HILL BALLET AND PATHWAYS TO PERFORMANCE FACULTY/MENTORS

Ballet Course for Intermediate and Advanced Dancers

Our intermediate and advanced ballet course centers Blackness both in our students and faculty. Participants will not only have the opportunity to learn from our elite and diverse faculty, but also to truly connect with them as they learn about (Black) ballet history, discuss body image and aesthetics, and discuss training and higher education. Our Advanced track is designed to support dancers on the cusp of entering the professional realm by pairing them with a personal mentor who will provide individualized coaching, feedback, and mentorship, both in and outside of the studio.

Ballet Course Classes: 

  • Technique
  • Pointe
  • Allegro
  • Variations
  • Contemporary
  • Corps de ballet
  • Repertory (advanced)
  • Body maintenance

Personal Development Programming:

  • Icon Talks
  • Dance history
  • Body image workshop
  • Nutrition and cooking class
  • Screenings of films
  • Pointe shoe workshop
  • Physical therapy workshops   …and more

 

Dance Faculty and Mentors thus far:

  • Debra Austin – Carolina Ballet
  • Anjali Austin- Formerly DTH, Florida State University
  • Allen Barnes – Formerly  Ballet Frankfurt
  • Chandra Moss-Thorne – Swarthmore College, Kitchen Table Dance Collective
  • Erica Edwards – Formerly danced with Joffrey Ballet, Cultivating Better Tomorrows
  • Ramon Flowers- Formerly Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet Frankfurt
  • William Isaac – Kymera Dance Company
  • Caroline Rocher Barnes – Towson University
  • Troy Brown- Independent Teacher and Coach
  • Miranda Silveira- Reframing the Narrative, Formerly San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet
  • Kareen Pauld Camargo- Miami City Ballet

APPLY HERE

REGISTRATION FEE: $150.00 (applied to tuition)

PROGRAM FEE (INCLUDES 3 MEALS daily): $1400.00

PROGRAM FEE With ROOM & BOARD: $1800.00

Dance Educators and Scholars Forum (In person and Virtual)

MoBBallet Symposium will not just break the mold, it will build a new one by drafting a blueprint for ballet and beyond.

Dance teachers plant the first seeds in students.

The Dance Educators and Scholars Forum is a space for dance educators in divergent educational spaces (conservatory, studio, academia). All these educational spaces are vital aspects of our artistic ecosystem. This historical, intellectual, artistic, highly curated forum will focus on shifting the culture of ballet training, and developing a lens, and practice that centers, IDEA, cultural competence and the students personal development and humanity. Using the divergent structures of the “Ballet School” and that of the “Academy” as tools, dance educators will be able to share their theories, methodologies, barriers and queries around how to create safe, healthy, culturally competent, decolonized spaces that produce well trained, completely formed humans!

The Educators and Scholars Forum offers: lectures, panels and workshops lead by MoBBallet Founder Theresa Ruth Howard, industry professionals and presenting scholars.
SESSIONS INCLUDE
Teacher Heal Thyself:
Examining effects of generational trauma in Ballet training
How inherited trauma presents in the studio
Teacher Educate Thyself:
Beyond the “barre” Education and Personal:
Cultural Competence and I.D.E.A. in the Studio
Ballet ]History

Decolonizing our Lenses:
Interrogating the implicit biases due to our ballet socialization
Program/class/course Identity
Program/ Studio Culture

Designing a Student Centered Culture
Mission, Vision, Values
(individual/faculty/program )
New Agreements around Communication
Crafting a New Studio Culture

CALL FOR PAPERS ON:

Black dance archives and history

Anti-racist and inclusive pedagogy

Decolonizing ballet/curriculum

Organizational and department culture

Rethinking pedagogy and curriculum

I.D.E.A. in ballet

Black dance archives and history

Teaching through intersectionality

Reimagining dance history

Cultural competence in the studio

SUBMIT HERE TO PRESENT HERE

REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE

For questions or information contact: chandramossthorne@gmail.com

REGISTRATION FEE: $150.00 (applied to tuition)

PROGRAM FEE (INCLUDES 3 MEALS daily): $1000.00

PROGRAM FEE With ROOM & BOARD: $1350.00

Pathways To Performance Choreographic Program

MoBBallet’s next focus is on Black ballet choreographers and those of color. In keeping with MoBBallet’s 360˚ approach to transforming the field of ballet, Pathways To Performance (PTP) cultivates and mentors Black choreographers (and those of color) who are working specifically in the ballet idiom. PTP supports Black contemporary choreographers (and those of color) who are interested in investigating working in the ballet genre, while helping established but unknown and overlooked makers break glass ceilings that have prevented them from leveling up in the dance world, by providing concrete opportunities for them to create work and have it presented on main stages around the US and beyond.

Program Director:  Christian Von Howard, Montclair State University

Mentors to date:

                    • Donald Byrd
                    • Jennifer Archibald
                    • Helen Pickett

APPLY NOW

REGISTRATION FEE: $150.00 (applied to tuition)

PROGRAM FEE (INCLUDES 3 MEALS daily): $1200.00

PROGRAM FEE With ROOM & BOARD: $1650.00

Leave a Reply