Briansky approached Skidmore College and was given studio space and housing on the college’s downtown campus. The Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center opened in July 1965, one year before the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Briansky’s school boasted a staff of excellent teachers. Co-director Mireille Briane and Michel Renault were from the Paris Opera Ballet. Joysanne Sidimus was a respected teacher from the National Ballet of Canada. Other well-known modern dance and ethnic dance teachers completed the faculty. After retiring from the New York City Ballet, Robert Maiorano taught regularly for Briansky, and before she joined Skidmore College, Debra Fernandez taught jazz for Briansky’s program. The summer students attended New York City Ballet performances at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and many company dancers and staff taught master classes for the school. At a time when the New York City Ballet had just begun inspiring audiences with world-class performances, the Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center was offering a glimpse into the rigorous training necessary to develop young students into ballet dancers.
Oleg Briansky, premier danseur, owner of Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center. Photo provided by Mr. Briansky.
The Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center continued at Skidmore until 2008 and then relocated to the campus of Mount Holyoke College in western Massachusetts. Oleg Briansky and Mireille Briane declared, “We were pioneers. Who would ever guess, in such a small town one hundred seventy-five miles north of New York City, we would be a catalyst to help shape the artistic future of the city.”84
THE INFLUENCE OF SKIDMORE COLLEGE AND THE SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ON LOCAL SCHOOLS
After just two seasons of performing at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with the New York City Ballet, ballerina Melissa Hayden bought a home in Saratoga. She joined the Skidmore College dance faculty in 1974 and established her studio in the old Saratoga National Bank building on the corner of Broadway and Phila Street. In addition to teaching Skidmore’s ballet dancers, Ms. Hayden developed a BOCES program for the Saratoga Springs City School District’s talented children. She also held an intensive summer ballet program for students from around the region.
Melissa Hayden left Saratoga Springs in 1976 and was succeeded at Skidmore College by well-known ballerina Elisabeth Carroll. Like Ms. Hayden before her, Ms. Carroll and her husband, Felix Smith, were interested in teaching ballet to local children. They co-directed the Saratoga Dance Academy, a children’s ballet school held in the campus studios. This community school was short lived, however, due to the increased demands placed on them by Skidmore’s growing dance program.
A second ballet dancer, Phyllis Latin, moved to Saratoga in 1968 and began a ballet school in her large home on Union Avenue. Ms. Latin’s performing career had been cut short by an automobile accident, so she began teaching dance. After moving the school to several locations, Phyllis Latin’s American Dance Center secured a large space on the third floor of the Saratoga National Bank building. She taught in this studio for over thirty years.
Phyllis Latin founded the Saratoga Civic Ballet Company in 1971 with financial support from the CETA program.85 She hired twelve dancers, many of whom lived in Ms. Latin’s home, and a small staff. The company presented educational programs for schoolchildren and toured in the region. Michael Steele, former dancer with the New York City Ballet, worked for Ms. Latin as ballet master, and Patti Pugh, a student of both Briansky and Ms. Latin, performed with the company. With support of a wealthy patron, the Saratoga Civic Ballet Company traveled to Moscow, where it performed with Russian dancers.
After the first company closed, Phyllis Latin began the Phyllis Latin Dance Company in 2000. For several seasons, this company performed various styles of dance that appealed to a wide audience.
The American Dance Center still holds classes in the Swyer Studios of the National Museum of Dance. For over forty-four years, Phyllis Latin has taught hundreds of students who are now scattered throughout the dance world. She travels internationally to teach master classes in their schools, proudly promoting her former students and their many achievements. Phyllis Latin says, “I am old school, but I can’t imagine dance without me or me without dance!”86
In 1968, Michael Steele was the first New York City Ballet dancer to buy a house in Saratoga Springs. He later left New York to perform in Europe, where he met dancer Tomislav Vukovic. They returned to Saratoga in 1978 to begin their professional ballet school, Ballet Regent. At the time, Michael Steele was quoted as saying, “I just wanted to get back to my beautiful little town in the country and teach ballet.”87 Steele had hoped to create a performing arts center in the old Regent Street Theater, but the plans for the building did not materialize. Ballet Regent moved to a space on Woodlawn Avenue before ultimately purchasing an old factory building on Jumel Place.
Steele and Vukovic were a complementary team in the studio. Steele taught the Balanchine style of precise movement and speed, and Vukovic, a former premier danseur from Yugoslavia, taught a more refined European classic style. Along the wall in the main studio at Ballet Regent is one of Michael Steele’s favorite quotes by Lincoln Kirstein: “Ballet is about how to behave.”
Michael Steele, owner of Ballet Regent. Photo provided by Hattie’s Restaurant.
The Ballet Regent Summer Institute attracted students from all over the country. New York City Ballet dancers and Skidmore dance faculty taught frequently for both the summer and year-round sessions.
Most ballet schools struggle with a lack of male dancers. Michael Steele’s particularly inspired solution to this challenge was his class “Pas de Dads,” a pas de deux class for his most advanced girls and their fathers. The young ballerinas and their cavaliers learned partnering techniques and choreography. The Pas de Dads couples performed with great success in the spring performances.
Michael Steele died in his home in 2011. Tomi Vukovic moved to Florida, where he teaches ballet. They have left a legacy of many beautifully trained ballet dancers. The Ballet Regent studios are still in use and currently house several dance schools.88
In 1980, another commercial dance school, the Dance Factory, began offering classes in tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical and hip-hop. Director Dianne Carola was the primary dance teacher and an experienced choreographer.
Ms. Carola specializes in creative movement classes for very young children. Many of her students continue studying at the Dance Factory throughout high school, and some of these teenagers teach the younger children. The Dance Factory has a large enrollment and is now located downtown on Hamilton Street. Dianne Carola inspires her students by saying, “When dance is in you, you can’t stop. If you’re going to dance, you can’t be a quitter.”89
Patti Pugh Moore was a local dancer who had studied with Oleg Briansky and Phyllis Latin. After attending the North Carolina School of the Arts, she returned to Saratoga to study with Elisabeth Carroll at Skidmore College. Ms. Pugh Moore taught at Ballet Regent before opening her own studio, the Children’s Ballet Theatre School, in 1988. The school moved to the vacant studio space on Woodlawn Avenue when Ballet Regent moved into its own building. Patti Pugh Moore was an excellent children’s teacher, and her students progressed rapidly. She soon began a small performing company, the Saratoga City Ballet, for her most advanced dancers. Patti Pugh Moore left Saratoga Springs in 2003.
Dianne Carola teaching at her studio, the Dance Factory. Photo by Megan Mumford.
The Saratoga City Ballet Company and School are under the co-direction of Julie Gedalecia and Eve Welchel. Located in the Ballet Regent Studios on Jumel Place, the school focuses on serious ballet training with additional classes in modern dance. Ms. Gedalecia has a BS in dance from Skidmore College, where she teaches as a lecturer in dance. She comments, “Teaching ballet in Saratoga is a great life. I really love it here.”90 Ms. Welchel holds a BFA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The Saratoga City Ballet School has a faculty of eight teachers who train students of all ages
, and Skidmore dance faculty work with the company. Students are frequently accepted into prestigious professional ballet programs, and many are chosen to perform during the summer with the New York City Ballet. Saratoga City Ballet dancers perform an annual Nutcracker and spring performance at the Skidmore Dance Theater and appear at many seasonal events in Saratoga Springs.
After dancing with the New York City Ballet, Leslie Roy-Heck came to Saratoga in 1990. That same year, David Otto left the company and also moved to Saratoga. Both dancers started teaching for Ballet Regent and immediately organized a summer ballet program. The Saratoga Springs Conservatory of Dance was a five-week intensive course taught by Leslie Roy-Heck, David Otto, Michael Steele and Olga Kostritzky, with guests from the New York City Ballet. Leslie Roy-Heck soon stopped teaching ballet and chose to pursue a different path.91
David Otto opened the Capital Ballet Company and School in Albany. After Michael Steele’s Ballet Regent closed, Otto moved his school up to Saratoga Springs and established the Saratoga Ballet Academy with his wife, Christine Otto.92 The Ottos say, “We believe every child loves to move. Our mission is to introduce structure and technique in a caring and nurturing environment while enhancing the love of dance. We do so using the Balanchine technique which has produced some of the finest dancers in the world.”93
Many of Otto’s students attend respected professional summer programs and are chosen to appear with the New York City Ballet during their summer seasons at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Saratoga Ballet Academy students perform locally and at the Egg in Albany.
David Otto also teaches ballet for the Dance Department at Skidmore College. In 2011, he performed with Skidmore dancers as a guest artist in Swan Lake, Act II, at the Zankel Music Center.
Denise Warner Limoli joined the Skidmore dance faculty in 1992. In addition to her work at Skidmore, she immediately began teaching and staging ballets for Ballet Regent and the Saratoga City Ballet. In the community, she teaches as a private instructor and performance coach and is a member of the board of directors for the National Museum of Dance.
In 2008, the National Museum of Dance opened the School of the Arts, which offers a variety of dance styles taught by a large faculty. Although the primary focus is classical ballet, classes in modern dance, Irish step, Middle Eastern, Zumba, hip-hop and jazz are offered for students of all ages. Performances are held in the Swyer Studios and at the Spa Little Theatre.
Raul Martinez directs the school and manages the Lewis A. Swyer Studios. After graduating from the National School of Fine Arts in Mexico City, Martinez danced professionally and studied both the Vaganova and Cuban methods of ballet training. Mr. Martinez explains, “We have worked hard to establish the rigor and as high a quality as possible. It all takes time.”94
Former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet Melinda Roy and her husband, Roberto Muñoz, are co-directors of the Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive. Originally held at the Ballet Regent studios, the program is now located in the Swyer Studios during June and July. The Saratoga program is for serious ballet students ages twelve and up, and a second program in Vail, Colorado, teaches pre-professional students starting at age fourteen. A high-caliber professional faculty teaches at both programs. Melinda Roy is the founder of the Gulfshore Ballet in Florida. She is the sister of Leslie Roy-Heck of Saratoga Springs.95
The most recent addition to the dance schools in Saratoga is the Myers Dance Center. Darlene Myers, who danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, has been teaching ballet in Schenectady since 1985. Students of the Myers Dance Center have appeared at functions for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, such as the Ballet Gala and the Nutcracker Tea. Select students from the Saratoga studio perform with the Northeast Ballet Company in their annual production of the Nutcracker.96
Nacre Dance Company, the resident dance company of the Universal Preservation Hall, is a professional modern dance company directed by Beth Fecteau. Nacre (French for “mother of pearl”) revives and performs classic dance works by American dance pioneers, such as Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. The repertoire also includes original works by emerging choreographers. The dancers of Nacre offer educational programs, master classes and lecture demonstrations. Beth Fecteau states, “I resolved to create a company that would link the past with the present and carry modern dance into the future.”97
Nacre Dance Company. Photo by Steve J. Nealey.
BALLROOM DANCE IN SARATOGA SPRINGS
Ballroom dance has become very popular in Saratoga Springs. In 2005, the Arthur Murray Dance Studio moved into a customized studio in the old firehouse building on Broadway. Formerly owned and established by Leslie Ann LaGuardia, the studio offers classes in all styles of ballroom and social dance. The school’s impressive roster of professional ballroom dancers and international master teachers includes Iraida Volodina of Russia, Ricardo Sopin of Haiti and the new owner and director, Safwat Gerges of Egypt.
Ms. LaGuardia won many professional ballroom competitions before leaving dance to study marketing in college. She now travels the world as public relations director, motivational speaker and coach for Arthur Murray International.
Leslie Ann LaGuardia has repeatedly won the Saratoga Springs Community Service Award for her creation of the “Pink Ball,” a benefit for breast cancer research held annually at the Hall of Springs. Ms. LaGuardia and Mr. Gerges both serve on the board of directors of the National Museum of Dance. She teaches, “Instill, inspire, create. If you’re born to dance, nothing gets in your way.”98
Saratoga Savoy Center of Dance is a ballroom and social dance school directed by co-owners Keira Lemonis and David Wolf. Located on Wells Street, the school offers instruction in many styles of dance, such as swing, lindy hop, Argentine tango and hip-hop.
Dancin’ Time at the Universal Preservation Hall on Washington Street also offers a variety of ballroom dance classes. This school is co-directed by Dawn and David Levesque.
Tango Fusion Dance Company and School came to Saratoga Springs in 2006 from New York City, where the company appeared at Tango Fest NYC. Co-directed by Diane Lachtrupp and Johnny Martinez, the company of ten professional dancers has performed locally at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Spa Little Theatre, National Museum of Dance and for the Saratoga ArtsFest. The school offers classes for adults in multiple styles of ballroom and Latin dance at its studios on Regent Street and at the Mine on Broadway. Children’s classes in hip-hop, jazz, swing and salsa are held in the studio. It also directs the “Lake Ave. Swing/Salsa Kids” at the Lake Avenue Elementary School and offers a Summer Dance Camp for children at the Tango Fusion studios.99
OTHER ARTISTS IN THE COMMUNITY
Choreographer Debra Fernandez explains, “There is something so special about Saratoga Springs. Artists have an immediate connection here. It’s so nice to be ‘home.’ In the 1980s, Saratoga was an eccentric, colorful town with many highly cultured people. The town was smaller than it is now, but much more sophisticated.”100 Former librarian and dance lover Rhona Koretzky-Forman declares, “This place is extraordinary.”101
Many dance personalities and other artists in related professions have made Saratoga Springs their home. Some came to retire, but others continued their professional work. They all have made an important contribution to the rich cultural fabric of our community.
Zachary Solov (1923–2004) studied ballet with Catherine Littlefield in Philadelphia and performed with the Balanchine’s Ballet Caravan, a precursor to the New York City Ballet. After serving in World War II, he returned to New York to join the American Ballet Theatre and performed on Broadway. Sir Rudolf Bing hired Solov as chief choreographer of the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained until he retired to his Victorian home in Saratoga Springs.
Solov was a gregarious person who loved to entertain with stories about his experiences in the arts. In Saratoga, he and John Martin spent time gardening and collecting antiques. Their home was filled with books and memorabilia from the ballet and th
e opera. The Zachary Solov Foundation preserved his collection for the New York Public Library of Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. After his death, a retrospective memorial to Zachary Solov was held at the Metropolitan Opera House.102
John Martin (1893–1985) was America’s first major dance critic. He started writing with the New York Herald Tribune and then, in 1927, began his lengthy career with the New York Times. Lincoln Kirstein explained, “John Martin was practically the first, for four decades the most influential, dance critic in the United States, and historically the best informed and least self-serving.”103
Martin was an advocate for the emerging modern dance form and championed the work of new choreographers such as Martha Graham. At the invitation of his friend Zachary Solov, John Martin moved to Saratoga Springs, where he received an honorary doctorate from Skidmore College. In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame. At a memorial for Martin, choreographer Murray Louis said, “John Martin gave the art of dance a voice at a time when it was struggling for articulation.”104
Shaun O’Brien and Cris Alexander at Hattie’s Chicken Shack in 1967. Photo provided by Hattie’s Restaurant.
Shaun O’Brien (1925–2012) performed with the New York City Ballet for thirty-nine years and was considered one of America’s great character dancers. He was best known for his portrayals of Dr. Coppélius in the ballet Coppélia, Herr Drosselmeyer in Nutcracker and the patriarch in Balanchine’s The Prodigal Son. O’Brien came to Saratoga Springs for the New York City Ballet’s first season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In 1973, he and his partner, Cris Alexander, bought a house near North Broadway, where they hosted grand summer parties for dancers and fans.105
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