Summer Intensives

August 2024

“We impart a passion for the Arts”

Welcome to Ballet des Amériques - a pre-professional ballet conservatory and professional dance company established in Westchester, NY in 2011, serving Westchester County, Fairfield County, the greater New York City area and beyond. Our school and conservatory are based on an integrative concept that is as old as the oldest and most renowned continuously operating institutions of the dance world. It draws on rich traditions, while opening our minds to the future. It combines the rigors of European classical ballet training with a broad education in the various facets of the performing arts. It calls for hard work and self-discipline, while maintaining an emphasis on the enjoyment of dance and the development of the whole individual.

Your commitment to join us will be rewarded by witnessing the growth in your children’s confidence and joy in the skills they develop and in the breadth of their cultural awareness.

Successful students!

Students of Ballet des Amériques and Carole Alexis have been accepted regularly to the prestigious programs at Paris Opera Ballet, Juilliard, Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, San Francisco Ballet, Netherlands Dans Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and Ballet West,. We are proud that our Intermediate and advanced students have successfully completed such programs and have been invited back to most programs without auditions. The Conservatory Ballet des Amériques Offers the best pre-professional ballet training and dance education programs in Westchester, Fairfield County and the greater New York area with mission of qualifying its graduates to successfully audition for colleges and dance companies.

Bringing each student to his or her full potential

Dance training naturally requires hard work and a singular focus, yet such must occur in an atmosphere - not of competition - but of mutual respect, kindness and support. The training is geared toward the performance of dance as a work of art in a collaborative enterprise, a universal expression on stage that transcends the particular individual. As performing artists and pedagogical experts, our teachers know what it takes for your child to get to that stage. In a custom-tailored program - continuously refined and adjusted to your child’s evolving needs - our teachers use the wealth of their experience and resources to bring each student to his or her full potential.

Tradition into the 21st Century

A school based in the European tradition

Our mission at Ballet des Amériques is to use a physiologically-informed approach that respects natural anatomical variation and tailors the training that each student receives so that all students can maximize their individual strengths and overcome their particular weaknesses. If one had to attach a label to this approach, it would be best described as one based in the European tradition (French, Imperial Russian and Cuban Schools) with a French emphasis on repetition: proper technique and alignment are mastered first, and such mastery then allows for the adoption of various styles.

The Young Student

For our youngest students, the immediate aim is of course to develop the universal characteristics of all successful dancers: flexibility, strength, balance, placement, grace and musicality. Yet, the challenge in working with young children is how to develop and maintain their concentration. Two things are required: discipline and imagination. One achieves the first by communicating to the child that one believes the child is capable of achieving a certain goal, of living up to an expectation. The other is to spur creativity, to understand that dance is the expression of emotion sans le verbe, as we say in French.

Educating the whole person

Our students also learn about the historical context of dance, the physiology of how to perform the intended movements, and the interplay of other art forms with dance. Once the foundations are solidified and the positions and movements of ballet are executed with grace, confidence, clean lines and perfect alignment, then the experienced student is ready to learn various styles of both classical ballet and modern dance.

Dance training, education and performance: the rigors of training, the rewards of educating the whole person in dance, music and related subjects, and the sheer joy and exhilaration of participating in performances that may open perspectives and avenues to professional careers - these are the defining elements of our school and company.