Ballet Choreographer Offers Class

BRADFORD, Pa. – Russian National Ballet choreographer Yuri Vetrov will teach a master class for dancers prior to the ballet’s performance of “The Sleeping Beauty” on March 24.

The master class will take place from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the dance studio of the Sport and Fitness Center. The class is free, but enrollment is limited to 20 and reservations will be required.

Vetrov is a former Bolshoi dancer who has been awarded the highest honor the Russian government can bestow upon an artist, the Order of the People’s Artist of Russia.

“This is the first time I have ever heard of a dancer this prestigious teaching a master class,” said Randy L. Mayes, director of arts programming at Pitt-Bradford. Mayes said that although Vetrov doesn’t speak English, he will have an interpreter for the workshop.

Upon graduation from the Moscow Choreographic School, Vetrov joined the Bolshoi and immediately became a leading character dancer, portraying such roles as the priest in “Romeo and Juliet” and Drosselmeyer in “The Nutcracker.”

In 1980, Vetrov graduated from the Leningrad Conservatoire, where he studied under the legendary Yuri Grigorovich.

In 1994, he was selected by presidential decree to assume the first permanent artistic directorship of the Russian Classical Ballet Theatre, which has focused on maintaining the purity of the grand national tradition of the Russian classical ballet repertoire in addition to developing new talents throughout Russia.

For more information, or to reserve a place in the class, call the Bromeley Family Theater box office at (814)362-5113 or Patty Colosimo, assistant director of arts programming, at (814)362-5155.