The Harid Conservatory: Going Beyond the Expected

Dance Magazine, Jan, 2000 by Marian Horosko

YOU MUST not be be misled by the beauty of Boca Raton, Florida, or The Harid Conservatory's state-of-the-art facility, small, full-scholarship enrollment, ideal living quarters, and enriched academic program. This is a tough school, based on methodology and dedicated to producing professional dancers.

Harid Conservatory was established in 1987 through the gift of an anonymous donor, to provide professional training for gifted young dancers and musicians from the United States and abroad, selected through audition for full-tuition scholarships. The school offers a four-year curriculum that includes ballet, modern, character, and jazz dance; music studies; art and dance history; nutrition; kinesiology and Pilates-based conditioning; career-related seminars; and dance performance. Annual evaluations determine whether students remain in the school. Students earn high school diplomas at the Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton.

How is this demanding program accomplished? Gordon Wright, director of the dance division, explains: "I have a dream team of superb teachers." They include Svetlana Osiyeva, who joined the faculty in 1998 as the newest member of the team. She teaches the advanced class. "It's the point in the training when students expand their performance values," she says. "Coordinating movements to music beyond counts and developing an awareness of inner meanings and expressiveness become important in these classes."

After she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy, Osiyeva became a member of the Kirov Ballet and performed with that company for twenty years. Awarded the first K. M. Sergeyev Scholarship in 1992 and a teaching diploma with honors from the Vaganova Ballet Academy of St. Petersburg in 1995, she has taught in Italy and Portugal and has staged the Russian classics.

Another member of Wright's dream team is Olivier Pardina, who teaches level two, men's class, and pas de deux. "The French method is similar to the Russian," Pardina says, "and is characterized by elegance and quickness. I put an emphasis on batterie in class and encourage the students to develop their individuality by getting them to feel the role and understand a variation or pas de deux emotionally."

Pardina performed with the Paris Opera Ballet and has received the Medal of Distinction and certification as a "Teacher with Exceptional Abilities" from the French Minister of Culture. Two students coached by Pardina have won major prizes at the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition.

Victoria Schneider is an American team member who teaches level one. She says, "Students who have come from different trainings have to open their minds to a methodology that is specific and with which they may not be familiar. I have to get them to see the artistry beyond the technique."

Schneider performed with the Garden State Ballet in New Jersey and taught at the school of the Pennsylvania Ballet and La Scuola di Danza Classica in Florence. Her teacher-training course was completed at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. She is regularly invited to conduct seminars on Russian ballet pedagogy.

Adjunct faculty members include Tara Mitton Catao (modern dance), Bertha Valentin (character dance), Deborah Rodensky-Bee (jazz), Sherry Sweeting (dance history), John Mahoney (Pilates-based conditioning), Kim Smith (kinesiology), Karen Manno (nutrition), Natalie Osborne (art history), and Mark Godden, guest choreographer, who has created six works for the school. Harid's extensive and busy library is maintained by Sister Elizabeth Ross. In addition, there are six dormitory supervisors.

Harid graduates include Helsinki International Ballet Competition gold medalist Pollyana Ribeiro (Boston Ballet); Prix de Lausanne awardees Marcelo Gomes (American Ballet Theatre) and Lyn Tally (Boston Ballet II); and Princess Grace award winner Riolama Lorenzo (New York City Ballet). Other graduates have joined the Atlanta, Pacific Northwest, Milwaukee, Richmond, Louisville, Cleveland/San Jose, Houston, and Pennsylvania ballets, among other ballet companies.

Wright, a former member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, took its teacher-training program and was subsequently appointed a teacher and administrator of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school (they use a Russian syllabus), He became director of Harid's dance division in 1992.

"Our first goal," says Wright, "is to give the students a cohesive technical foundation in classical ballet based on the Russian and French schools. Then, through our modern dance classes and varied performance repertoire, including neo-classical and cutting-edge contemporary ballet, the dancers gain the ability to effectively assimilate various choreographic styles.

"Producing well-educated dancers is also very important to us. We strongly encourage high academic achievement, and our curriculum ensures that our graduates have the option of pursuing other careers--dance-related or not--by enrolling at a college or university."