At Atlanta Ballet, Students Get a Leg Up Professionally by Working With Company Répétiteurs

By the time Rachel Zinman finished her first year with Atlanta Ballet 2 (AB2), the highest level of the company’s Centre for Dance Education, she already had multiple professional performances to her name.   

“I very much love it here,” says Zinman, who moved from Canada to join the school’s program. 

This December, Zinman—now in her second year at AB2—will take on four roles in the company’s Nutcracker, as well as dance in Atlanta Ballet’s Christmas performance at the city’s Lenox Square Mall. In the new year, she’ll head into rehearsals for the second company’s family-friendly Swan Lake, The Swan Princess. 

“It’s a luxury,” she says of all the opportunities, which come with the chance to learn from the main company’s artistic staff. “You want to get into the company, so it’s good for them to see you.” 

Exposure to Atlanta Ballet, Onstage and in Class  

In addition to AB2, Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education hosts six levels in its Academy. During the year, AB2 takes classes with the company twice a week, and students across the school’s highest levels sometimes rehearse and perform with the company onstage at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

“When you’re dancing alongside company dancers, you’re learning from them,” company répétiteur Angela Agresti says. 

This exposure happens even when students aren’t performing. “We adjust our classes according to what program we’re in,” company répétiteur Rory Hohenstein says. “If we’re preparing for a Balanchine piece, we try to work on different types of technique in classes to help lend itself to the quality of movements we’re working on.” Students present for company class then reap the benefits of these adjustments, gaining exposure to world-renowned choreography from professional company staff. 

Zinman says this makes her feel included in the company process. “The dancers are very nice and welcoming,” she says. “And the teachers and artistic staff are also very sweet. They’re very encouraging.”  

Hohenstein says this encouragement is reflected in the facility’s very layout, where AB2 and top levels of the Academy work directly across the hallway from the company. “There’s a lot of crossover, watching each other’s rehearsals,” he says. “There’s a lot of camaraderie.” 

Summertime in Atlanta

The school’s summer programs offer further chances for student and professional cross-pollination. While the company dancers are on summer leave, the répétiteurs—Eduardo Permuy, Agresti, and Hohenstein—have the chance to work exclusively with students and spend an intensive two weeks with them during the five-week program. “They get more personal connections from us,” Agresti says. 

The company’s artistic director, Gennadi Nedvigin, also attends certain classes and all of the program’s performances. “He has personal coaching moments with these dancers,” Agresti says. “He remembers them and sees how they grow from year to year.” 

Zinman says it’s this exposure that allowed her to gain confidence as she entered her second year with AB2. “We’ve built a good relationship,” she says of the artistic staff. “I got to know them more and they got to know me.” 

Supplementing the Cast of Large Ballets

Working with students also empowers the répétiteurs to provide those dancers who stay for the year-round program with more onstage opportunities, sometimes in full-length works with the company’s corps. “It helps us get a jumpstart on knowing what [the students] are capable of when [casting],” Agresti says.

Earlier this year, for example, Zinman joined the company for Agresti’s staging of Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa’s Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon as well as Mark Morris’ Sandpaper Ballet. 

“Coco Chanel is a large cast,” Agresti says, and it provided another opportunity for AB2 dancers to experience working together with the company. 

Lopez-Ochoa also came to work with Atlanta Ballet dancers on her production. “We got to see how she choreographed and connected her rehearsals,” Zinman says. “She was a very big presence.” 

Supporting the Full Journey of the Dancer

Even when the company works on smaller productions that don’t require AB2 dancers, Hohenstein says the Academy’s presence is never far away—when he staged Lar Lubovitch’s Elemental Brubeck, for example, he cast several company dancers he had first met as students. “That always feels really special, when you can see the full journey of the dancer,” he says. “It’s a really great sense of achievement.”  

The school and the company also foster an important culture of mutual support. “It doesn’t feel very separate,” Zinman says. “I have people in the school who ask me questions, and then I also have people from the company who I can go to if I need help.” Hohenstein echoes this sentiment: “It’s a really safe environment to grow side by side.”