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Master Classes
Maggie Small’s training began at the School of Richmond Ballet. While in middle school she participated in the Richmond Ballet’s Minds in Motion program and in high school she was invited to attend the Richmond Ballet's trainee program. She spent one year at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and completed an apprenticeship at Richmond Ballet before being promoted into the full company. While dancing with the Richmond Ballet she has performed many classical roles including the title role in Cinderella, Swanhilda in Coppelia and the Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle. She has also had the opportunity to dance leads in many ballets by George Balanchine including Duo Concertant, Serenade, Liebeslieder Waltzer, Who Cares?, The Four Temperaments and Apollo. She has performed in works of enduring value such as Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free and John Butler's Carmina Burana and Eve in After Eden. She has originated roles with many contemporary choreographers such as Ma Cong, Jessica Lang, Gina Patterson, Mauricio Wainrot, Val Caniparoli, William Soleau and Malcolm Burn. While with the Richmond Ballet, Maggie has performed at the Linbury Theatre in the Royal Opera House in London, in the Chicago Dancing Festival, in the Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis, Missouri and multiple times at the Joyce Theater in New York City. Most recently she has traveled to China with the Richmond Ballet where she performed as a part of the ‘Meet in Beijing’ Arts Festival as well is in the cities of Shanghai, Dezhou and Jinan. She has spent summers working with National Choreographers Initiative, VOICE Dance Company and Jessica Lang Dance, with whom she performed at Jacob’s Pillow. In 2012 she was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine as "Richmond's Home Grown Ballerina." She will begin her eleventh season with the Richmond Ballet in August.
Past Master Classes
Master Class Series featuring Carlita V. Ector
Carlita Victoria is a Raleigh, North Carolina native, she attended The University of NC at Greensboro (BFA Dance Performance & Choreography, K-12 Dance Education).
Selected credits- National Tour: Chuck Davis & The African American Dance Ensemble, Industrial: Glee Project Promo featuring Darren Criss. (Lead Singer) Regional: The Color Purple (Nettie), Dreamgirls (Lorrell Robinson), Hairspray (Little Inez/Dynamite), Disney's Aladdin (Regional Premeire), Shani Collins/Eternal Works (Soloist), Urban Bush Women (Apprentice), RESPECT. International – Gyeonggi Village Theatre Company, PAS Jazz Dance Co. of Seoul, DzaNonmo Dance Co. of Ghana, singer at Circus Conelli of Switzerland.
Master Class Series featuring Misty Copeland
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Master Classes Series Featuring Alicia Graf Mack
July 30, 2015
Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in San Pedro, California, Misty Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro Dance Center. At the age of fifteen she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. She then began her studies at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. Copeland has studied at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre's Summer Intensive on full scholarship and was declared ABT's National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. She has danced Kitri in Don Quixote and the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker.Copeland joined ABT's Studio Company in September 2000 and then joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001 and was appointed a Soloist in August 2007. Her roles with the Company include Gamzatti, a Shade and the Lead D'Jampe in La Bayadère, Milkmaid in The Bright Stream, the Autumn Fairy in Frederick Ashton's Cinderella, Blossom in Cinderella, Swanilda and the Mazurka Lady inCoppélia, Gulnare and and Odalisque in Le Corsaire, the Driad Queen, Mercedes, the lead gypsy and a flower girl in Don Quixote, Duo Concertant, the Masks in Christopher Wheeldon's VIII, the title role in Firebird, Flower Girl in Gaîté Parisienne, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Lescaut's Mistress in Manon, Columbine and one of The Nutcracker's Sisters in Alexei Ratmanksy's The Nutcracker, a Gypsy in Petrouchka, the Lead Polovtsian Girl in Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, the Saracen Dancer in Raymonda, a Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, the Fairy of Valor in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile, the pas de trois, a cygnet and the Hungarian Princess in Swan Lake, the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and roles in Airs, Amazed in Burning Dreams, Bach Partita, Baker's Dozen, Ballo della Regina, Birthday Offering, Black Tuesday, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Brief Fling, Company B, Désir, Gong, Hereafter, In the Upper Room, Overgrown Path,Pretty Good Year, Private Light, Sechs Tänze, Sinatra Suite, Sinfonietta, Thirteen Diversions, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and work with in work.
Alicia Graf Mack is a lead dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has also been a principal ballerina with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Alicia has danced as a guest performer with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Beyonce, John Legend, Andre 3000 and most recently, Alicia Keys on the 2013 Set the World on Fire World Tour. In addition, she’s appeared at many galas and festivals including the Youth America Grand Prix and the International Stars of the 21st Century. She has made national television appearances as a featured guest on Live with Kelly and Michael and The Tavis Smiley Show. Mrs. Mack graduated magna cum laude with honors in History from Columbia University and holds a MA in Nonprofit Management from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2007, Smithsonian Magazine named Alicia an American Innovator of the Arts and Sciences. Mrs. Mack is a recipient of the Columbia University Medal of Excellence, an award given each year to one alumnus who has demonstrated excellence in their field of work. In 2008, she had the honor of delivering the keynote address to the graduates of Columbia University’s School of General Studies. In 2010, Mrs. Mack served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at Webster University in St. Louis. Alicia is a gifted writer. She has contributed to some of the most prestigious national magazines in her industry;Dance Magazine, Pointe Magazine and Dance Spirit. Recently, she wrote the historic cover story, “Beyond Role Models” for Pointe Magazine’s June/July 2014 diversity issue featuring Ashley Murphy, Ebony Williams and Misty Copeland. She has also authored the foreword of American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History by Margaret Fuhrer. Alicia reaches thousands of readers every day through social media, where she chronicles her life and love for dance, her challenges and triumphs. Alicia Graf Mack is the CoFounder of D(n)A Arts Collective, an initiative that she created with her sister, Daisha, to empower and enrich the human experience through dance and music (www.dnaartscollective.com).
(Photo credit: Kevin Garrett)
