ballet

It’s That Time of Year: ‘Nutcracker’ Season

The holiday season is here and Berks Ballet Theatre is gearing up for a weekend of “The Nutcracker” performances. If you don’t have your tickets yet, click here. Some exciting news to share: two of our pre-professional ballet students, Gabby Beauvais and Allison Welch are featured on this week’s Reading Eagle Weekend cover! Check out the cover and click through to read

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Summer Intensives

Summer is certainly upon us with all the sweltering heat we’ve been having! With summer comes, summer intensives. BBTCD’s Summer Intensive for dancers 10 and up begins July 25 and runs through August 19. Along with Conservatory faculty, we have 2 exciting guest instructors. Week 1 | Conservatory Owner / Director Nathan Bland and Principal Teacher Kelly Barber will focus

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The Perfect Performance Bun

Having a slicked back, clean bun is key to a good performance! Many a ballerina will blame it on their crooked bun if they have an off performance! Here is a video of Gabby and Olivia from Ballet 7 showing you how it’s done! Follow their step by step instructions. I’ve included 5 key steps to making a proper bun

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The importance of age appropriate training for young dancers.

How important is it for young dancers to train based on their age? It’s a question that’s often debated amongst parents, teachers and dancers themselves. Good dance programs will build a solid foundation before pushing young dancers beyond the limits of their growing bodies. A solid foundation includes coordination, musicality, spacial awareness, flexibility, strength and the ability to focus and

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A Look Back in Time at the Beginnings of “The Nutcracker”

“The Nutcracker” is a classical holiday ballet with roots dating back to the 19th century. It premiered in Russia in 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre with choreography by Marius Petipa, a French ballet dancer, teacher and instructor and Russian-born dancer and teacher,  Lev Ivanov. Surprisingly, the show with the soaring Tchaikovsky score was not as revered back then, with

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