FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Meghan McNamara
412-454-9117
mmcnamara@pittsburghballet.org
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School Welcomes Andre Reyes to 2012-2013 Faculty
PITTSBURGH, PA (September 2012) – Marking the start of the 2012-2013 school year, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School Directors Marjorie Grundvig and Dennis Marshall have announced the addition of Andre Reyes as the school’s newest full-time faculty member.
Reyes brings more than 30 years of professional ballet and teaching experience to PBT School, where he will instruct students of the Pre-Professional Program in a variety of classes, including Pas de Deux, Men’s Technique and others.
“I’m really proud to be part of such an experienced team,” said Reyes, who danced for several years with School Director Dennis Marshall and remembers watching PBT Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr and Ballet Mistress Marianna Tcherkassky perform when he was a student at American Ballet Theatre.
A San Francisco Bay Area native, Reyes received his early dance training from his parents Benjamin Reyes and Josefa Villanueva at Santa Clara Ballet School before continuing on to Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet School. Reyes, a longtime favorite of Bay Area audiences, performed as a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet from 1980 to 1993 and Pacific Northwest Ballet from 1994 to 1996.
It was during his time as a principal dancer at San Francisco Ballet that Reyes first met PBT School Director Dennis Marshall, then a fellow principal with the company.
“Andre was an amazingly exciting dancer,” Marshall said. “He’s very versatile whether he’s working with classical or contemporary choreography, staging or creating works. He was a phenomenal dancer, and he’s a phenomenal teacher.”
Prior to joining PBT School, Reyes taught since 2007 on the faculty of the Boston Ballet School. Reyes has been a guest lecturer for Stanford University, University of Santa Clara, San Francisco State University, Boston College, Harvard, as well as the American College Dance Festival Association. During his career, he worked with world-renowned choreographers Glen Tetley, Jiri Kylian, Michael Smuin, Eliot Feld, James Kudelka, and David Bintley, and danced in a number of special invitation and international gala performances.
Joining Reyes in Pittsburgh are his wife, Cynthia Drayer, a former San Francisco Ballet principal who served as a guest ballet teacher during PBT’s 2012 Intensive Summer Program, as well as his daughter Rowan, a new full-time high school student in PBT School’s Pre-Professional Program.
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School is the official training institution of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and has an enrollment of more than 900 students, including the Children’s, Student, Pre-Professional and Open Divisions. The Children’s Division gives young students an introduction to ballet and prepares them for advancement to the Student Division. Dancers in the Student Division work to refine their technique and dancers in the Pre- Professional Program prepare for professional careers in classical ballet. Many students perform in an annual School Spring Performance at the Byham Theater, and some students are chosen by Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr to perform with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at the Benedum Center. Each year, PBT School students can audition for The Nutcracker, and in 2011 more than 150 were cast in a
variety of roles.
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