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Founder/Director
Cynthia Kelly, VCB's director and founder, has been teaching for 17 years and has performed professionally for 30 years. She holds her Cecchetti Teacher's Certificates at the Advanced level. (The Cecchetti method is the oldest classical methodology of dance. All teachers, who wish to be certified, must be presented by a coach and pass an oral and danced exam.)
Professional Experience
Ms. Kelly’s professional experience is quite extensive. In New York, she performed with The Long Island Ballet Theatre under Kaleria Fedicheva, former soloist of the Kirov. With the Long Island Ballet Theatre, Ms. Kelly performed in NYC as well as local touring in NY State. Ms. Kelly also performed and toured for four years with Windemere Ballet Theatre, a resident company of Queensborough Community College. Her roles there ranged from corps to solos in such notable ballets as Swan Lake, Nutcracker, and Les Sylphides, in addition to solos and corps in modern ballets created by the director.
Along with other performing opportunities in New York, Ms. Kelly studied with Marjorie Mussmann, formerly of the Joffrey Ballet; Benjamen Harkarvy from the DanceTheatre of The Netherlands; Maggie Black, the ballet guru who taught dance moguls such as Gelsey Kirkland; Egal Perry, from Bat D'Or of Israel, and Betsy Haugue, with whom Ms. Kelly studied jazz for 7 years.
In Virginia, Ms. Kelly continued to perform professionally. As a member of the Asaph Ensemble, she performed at the Kennedy Center as well as at local venues. She also performed with The Classical Ballet Theatre, in Washington, D.C. During a four-year tenure at the National Ballet of Maryland, Ms. Kelly performed various roles, both solos and corps, in modern as well as classical ballets.
In 1991, Ms Kelly founded Crossroads Dance Project (CDP), formerly Ballet East, a company was dedicated to bringing educational, classical ballet programs to schools, under the management of Young Audiences of Virginia (YAV). Virginia-based, YAV has chapters across the United States and is the largest organization dedicated to bring professional artists to schools. CDP's youth-based programs became so popular that the company was performing 60 shows a year as they toured all through the state of Virginia. Ms. Kelly choreographed all of the YAV programs, as well as performing in the programs and organizing the tours state wide.
In addition, CDP produced full-length productions of modern dance concerts as well as a Nutcracker set in the nineties. CDP’s Nutcracker involved three different Virginia-based studios and the under-privileged children from Daryl Green’s foundation in Washington D.C. in the full-length productions. This production was written up in the Washington Post and named as “The Pick of the Town." Ms. Kelly co-choreographed this innovative, multi-cultural ballet.
CDP also produced full length modern dance concerts, for which Ms. Kelly choreographed and performed. CDP was awarded a grant from Arlington County in recognition of their contribution to the community.
Into Fauquier County
Injuries, and the needs of her two daughters who also dance, required Ms. Kelly to stop touring and performing full time; so she founded Virginia Civic Ballet in Fauquier County.VCB has produced five full-length ballets in the last three years. Ms. Kelly created a fully choreographed version of “A Christmas Carol” (copy written 2001) for VCB.Under her direction, VCB continues to bring professional dance concerts and professional training to Fauquier County and the surrounding areas.
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