A Heady Teachers Conference at Vail.

Have you been teaching ballet for years? Do you have professional performing experience? Are you a new teacher? Do you need further dance education?

"Yes!" was the resounding response from participants at the Vail, Colorado, Summer International Dance Teachers Conference, held August 8-12. Led by Lynn Wallis, artistic director of the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD) in London, "The Practice and Theory of Teaching Ballet" enrolled twenty-four teachers from across the United States and abroad. Some had attended Vail summer conferences off and on since 1992, when Katherine Kersten, producing artistic director of the Vail International Dance Festival, became head of the teacher-training program. Conferees included artistic directors of dance programs in academic schools and dancing schools, such as William A. Starn, who directs Youth Ballet Colorado and also works with public school teachers to use dance to help students learn other subjects. He helped develop state standards for dance education in academic settings.

Past Vail conferences have exposed teachers to leading experts from major schools of dance in Russia, France and Denmark. Husband and wife Barry and Anna Baker Van Cura from Chattanooga, Tennessee, observed that "the Parisians are more passionate, the Russians more flamboyant, with strength, accent and design. Each has something to bring to the table."

Lori Romito of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, remarked, "Most of us had training but don't know the source. We're seeing clarification so we can inform our students."

Many of the teachers liked learning how their peers solved problems with students. It's inspirational, several teachers agreed. Nancy Derby of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a returnee to Vail, wanted to "catch up" once again.

Wallis's goal was to enhance teaching techniques, coaching and understanding of ballet for all teachers regardless of their teaching expertise. Since 1994, she has had the weighty responsibility for setting and maintaining standards of RAD dance training worldwide. Represented in sixty-five countries, RAD is the world's largest examining body for classical ballet.

Wallis graduated from The Royal Ballet Senior School in 1965 into The Royal Ballet's touring company, becoming ballet mistress at the school in 1969 and then deputy principal in 1982. Two years later she joined the National Ballet of Canada, where she taught, coached and became co-artistic director. She returned to England in 1990 as deputy artistic director of the English National Ballet. She has also taught and staged works for major dance companies worldwide.

The British Royal Academy of Dancing came about because of the two thousand dance teachers working in England in the early twentieth century, perhaps only a hundred were qualified. Anyone could open a dancing school; some who did so did not know the very rudiments of the art they professed to teach. Charlatans ruined young dancers' physiques and movement by bad training. So in 1916, The Dancing Times (edited by P.J.S. Richardson, a fervent campaigner for better teaching and dancing) published what became the RAD foundation: Edouard Espinosa's teaching syllabus based on the lore of past masters from Beauchamps in the seventeenth century to Petipa two centuries later. Espinosa thought ballet teachers should be examined on their knowledge of dance.

In her RAD leadership role now, Wallis says, "I emphasize communication, being able to talk about dance to promote the art form and sharing. There's more information we try to incorporate, more knowledge about how the body works. We don't have our own school. We train teachers.... I feel passionately that you've got to want to teach. You've got to educate yourself to the highest level. Never assume you know it all.... You never stop learning."

Wallis offered daily experiential technique classes, beginning the week with basics and progressing to advanced ways of teaching. Participants explored barre work, center practice, port de bras, pirouettes, adagio, allegro and pointe work. Singing to the exercises she demonstrated and interacting with a pianist, Wallis attended to the musicality and performance quality that must intertwine with technique.

Discussion/demonstration sessions followed the movement the teachers performed, exploring the reason for execution, its importance and how it should be performed. Wallis explained the evolving RAD curriculum and methodology in her pedagogical analysis of technical exercises and components in a ballet class. "A syllabus is only as good as the teacher who teaches it," she explained. "As an educator, you do it properly. You have those young people's lives in your hands."

Some of the teachers who had RAD training explained that the academy constitutes a network of supporters, a family. "You're part of an organization and it's there to help you," Wallis said.

Also at Vail, Trina Jackson offered Alexander Technique to show teachers how to relieve chrohic dance-related strain and pain.

Attending part of a community outreach series, teachers heard local people express their interest in ballet. Teachers observed classes of the four-week World Masters at Vail International Academy for pre-professional students ages 15 to 19, taught by two master teachers from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy of Moscow, Pytor Pestov for boys and Irina Syrova for girls. Marian Horosko, a dance journalist, discussed teachers' and schools' rights in the business of managing a dance school.

Teachers at Vail saw the results of excellent dance education as principal couples from such companies as American Ballet Theatre, National Ballet of China and Pilobolus gave superb performances to standing ovations during the Paul Mitchell International Evenings of Dance. Finally, the teachers saw the Student Showcase, in which youngsters offered teachers a measure to compare their own students.

This professional educational development at Vail richly rewarded teachers, helping them refresh skills, clarify what they had learned and acquire new knowledge. Teachers explored dance style, teaching techniques, learning psychology, healthy practices and performance opportunities for students.

Judith Lynne Hanna is a noted author, research scholar and anthropologist.