Chattanooga Ballet is bringing professional dancers to the Cookeville Performing Arts Center this week to teach masterclasses and perform for the community.
Cultural Arts Superintendent Rex Bennett said the visiting company aims to share high-level dance instruction with smaller communities that might not have their own professional troupes. The upcoming sessions offer local students a rare chance to train directly with working artists who tour regionally.
“Part of their mission is to spread the love of dance through service,” Bennett said. “And so they are professionally trained dancers with a wonderful repertoire there in Chattanooga, but they like to bring their show on the road so to speak. They like to bring it to smaller towns, smaller venues, and give that love of dance and that passion for teaching dance to others, especially upcoming ballet students.”
The masterclasses are scheduled for Thursday with specific times set for different age groups. Bennett said students ages 10 through 12 will begin at 4:30 p.m., while the session for those 13 and older starts at 6:00 p.m.
“It gives them a bit of a something to shoot for,” Bennett said. “It’s such a niche art form that not a lot of little kids that are in, say, dance or ballet classes know that you can go on to be a professional and make an actual career out of it if you work hard enough and get that exposure. So getting that one-on-one, in many instances, training from a real, honest dance professional is just invaluable to keep that passion going in these kids’ lives.”
Participants will work on specific skills including pointe technique and choreography blocking under the guidance of visiting professionals. Bennett said the instruction will mirror the work company members do during their own rehearsals.
“There’ll be some one-on-one work with our artistic, the artistic director of Chattanooga Ballet, his name is Brian McSween, and some of the other company members will be here going through a bit of what they would do in a performance, working on technique such as pointe, on various blocking when it comes to choreography, how to read your choreographer,” Bennett said. “And then the more advanced class for our older students is even more in-depth into that, depending on class size that they break you into when you come on Thursday night.”
Bennett said experiencing live performances in person creates a different connection than watching on a screen. He said the goal is to ignite a lasting interest in the arts that students can carry into adulthood, whether as professionals or hobbyists.
“Having that opportunity for these professional dancers to come up from a larger city, which not all even larger cities have ballet companies, but to have them come to share their passion and their talent on our stage for our students here in Cookeville is invaluable,” Bennett said.
Following the Thursday classes, the Chattanooga Ballet will present their “Art in Motion” performance at the Cookeville Performing Arts Center on Friday at 7:30 p.m.