AS Ballet NYC provides the best dance training in NYC, bar(re) none. Sonia Melo, the director of the studio and the premier teacher of the classes, is the best teacher with whom my daughter, Dorothy (age 13), has ever worked. While my daughter has been accepted to several prestigious dance programs in NYC, including Alvin Ailey, she decided to train exclusively at AS Ballet because of the type and quality of training offered there. It has been a great choice. Ms. Melo has, in only 6 weeks, completely overhauled her technique, has fixed her overall position and has undone years of improper work and training. Additionally, she has offered Dorothy guidance and opportunities, now and into the future, that will help her to make her dream of being a professional dancer come true.
When it comes to building a wonderful (and technically correct) dancer from the feet up, Ms. Melo is persistent, driven and determined to make each dancer the best that they can be. My daughter came to AS Ballet from a studio in TX, wanting to move into a new level and to prepare for a career in dance. While Dorothy has a great dance body, her technique and body positioning was holding her back from reaching the next level. Ms. Melo's training, fun but very FIRM, has changed all of that. Ms. Melo takes each dancer and corrects them from the tip of their little toe to the placement of the muscles in their face. She has corrected the type of half-pointe and pointe shoes that Dorothy uses, taught her why the shoes she is now using are better and how to break those shoes in properly. She has even taught her a better way to sew on her ribbons! And she has made corrections in how Dorothy makes her hair bun. There is no detail too small or seemingly insignificant for Ms. Melo to address. She wants her dancers to be the best that they can be and she truly believes that good dance encompasses, not only the dancer as a whole, but the smallest of details, as well.
Ms. Melo works very well with all age groups and seems to particularly enjoy providing the smallest of her dancers (approx. age 3/4) with a truly fun, but technically correct, beginning dance experience. The kids in these classes seem to be having the time of their life, but in addition to having fun, they are learning the proper technique to give them a strong foundation in dance as they grow, without having to relearn and undo, as my daughter has had to do. With the older classes, Ms. Melo is quite demanding and her expectations are high, but she teaches with a wonderful sense of humor, love, enthusiasm and even compassion for the difficult work she is asking (or demanding) from her students. In the process, her students, not only learn excellent technique, but they learn HOW to work as well. The way that she teaches changes the student's physical body, producing from each student their best possible physicality for dance. My daughter was blessed with extremely long limbs and with being naturally very thin. However, her posture and lack of proper muscle development were problematic for her. Since beginning her training as AS Ballet in the first week of January, my daughter has developed lean, long muscles and is beginning to look like a professional dancer, physically, rather than just a tall, long-limbed, skinny girl. The transformation has been nothing short of astounding.
AS Ballet demands excellence from their dancers and provides a serious, yet fun, atmosphere - as well as all of the training necessary - for each dancer to truly reach their full potential and beyond. Since the NYC branch of AS Ballet (based in Bern, Switzerland) is new, now is a great opportunity for the aspiring dancer to get in on the ground floor of what will definitely become the premiere dance studio of New York City. read more