The New Albany Ballet Company will present its Repertoire Performance at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Capitol Theatre in the Riffe Center.
Tara Sokolowski-Miller, director of the school, graduated in 1997 from Ohio State with a degree in dance.
“I was in the dance department but decided early on I wanted to do more of the teaching side,” Sokolowski-Miller said. “Even in college I was always asking professors for their advice. But they focused more on performance so I had to kind of source out my own ways of how to make it happen.”
While in college, Sokolowski-Miller worked on the side as a teacher at the Columbus Youth Ballet. Upon her graduation, the director at CYB mentioned the possibility of her retirement and asked Sokolowski-Miller if she had the financial backing to take over the school.
“I was only 21 years old,” Sokolowski-Miller said. “But I was teaching classes at the New Albany Country Club as well and one of my students was Alexandra Bernard, whose father happened to be the CEO of the Limited, Inc.”
“His wife, Alisa, would bring Alex to my ballet class, and she was very impressed with it. They had just moved to Columbus from New York City and she was saying how New Albany lacked a lot of arts and there was nothing to do with your kids.”
Sokolowski-Miller decided this might be the prime opportunity to make her dance dreams come true. Unfortunately, the director of CYB changed her mind about retiring but Sokolowski-Miller and Bernard already decided they could run the school so Sokolowski-Miller left CYB and opened her own dance school in New Albany.
About 400 students and 10 teachers later, she is running a very successful business and achieving her dream.
This weekend her best students will perform a repertory concert choreographed primarily by OSU graduates. Nicole Afera, who graduated in 1995 with a BFA in dance performance, is the modern director and also teaches a few jazz classes.
“She choreographed a really pretty trio that is very contemporary,” Sokolowski-Miller said. “It’s a lot of what you would see performed at Ohio State.”
Afera and Sokolowski-Miller share responsibilities by team-teaching the modern dance section of the school. Sokolowski-Miller also choreographed a section of the modern dance portion.
“I did a piece that I had actually worked on my senior year at OSU in my choreography class.”
Amy Tremante, who just graduated from OSU, choreographed two of the ballet pieces. Tiffany Kmet, an accomplished dancer-turned-teacher, is the school’s ballet director. Judy Spring completes the list as the tap director.
“The repertory company is made up of young dancers that are serious and pre-professional,” Afera said. “The performance is pretty true to a repertory concert. It has point, ballet, modern, character, tap and a little bit of jazz.”
“We do a big recital at the end of the year where all the students perform,” Sokolowski-Miller said. “But this is what we call the best of the best. It’s the best kids that train in tap, ballet, modern and jazz.”
The show runs an hour and a half and begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased by calling the school at 939-9058.
