Sumertime In The City—with ABT

This summer, a handful of students attending summer intensives around the country will be sharing their experiences with
Pointe. Here, year-round ABT/JKO student Lindsay Karchin recounts her summer at the 2011 ABT New York Summer Intensive.

This is my fourth year at ABT’s summer intensive in New York, and for those of you who’ve never experienced it, it is an amazing program. I’ve met and become friends with dancers from all over the world, learned choreography and variations from many classical ballets as well as modern works, and attended lectures on ballet history, nutrition and injury prevention. In addition to ballet technique, we also get classes in pointe, pas de deux, character, jazz, modern, musical theatre, Pilates and yoga. The dancers range from 12-20, and come from approximately 13 countries around the world and about 33 states. Altogether, there are about 260 students in seven different levels.

I’ve become very good friends over the past years with many international students, and even though some don’t speak English very well, they have no problem in our ballet classes (ballet is a universal language) and they have friends translate our emails and Facebook messages so we can stay in touch. This summer, I’ve gotten to know Mai Iwaki, a dancer from Japan. She says that so far jazz is her favorite class in the program, and she’s excited to have character, since it’s not offered in her ballet school in Japan.

It is amazing to be in New York in the summer, and there is plenty of time to explore the city. Many students have been going to ABT’s performances at the Met. I recently saw guest artist Alina Cojocaru in The Sleeping Beauty, and she performed one of the best Rose Adagios I’ve ever seen! In addition to seeing performances, last year a group of summer intensive friends and I went to a park event where we had free salsa lessons and dancing. Over the summers, it is also fun to go out for bubble tea, great Thai food and to shop at Union Square, all within a few blocks of ABT.