Maltese dance students will have the rare opportunity to take classes with a prima ballerina from the Moscow Ballet State Theatre this week.

Prima ballerina Elisabeth Nebesnaya will be in Malta as a guest artist at an international summer school organised by the Central Academy of Ballet from tomorrow until Wednesday. The College of Jazz co-director Justin Roy Barker will also be a guest artist at the summer school.

Ms Nebesnaya is only the first of a series of guest artistes who will be brought over by the Central Academy of Ballet in the near future, marking a new beginning for the dance school. The directors felt the need to expand the academy’s concept by bringing over foreign artistes to enable students to experience vocational training. This is just the start of a new future for the school, as the academy hopes to continue offering more courses with foreign guest artistes as often as possible throughout the year, to build up professionalism in dance in Malta.

The Central Academy of Ballet aims to provide intensive all-round training specialising in classical ballet, enhanced by a variety of other dance disciplines. Dance syllabi taught at the academy are accredited to international societies and students are examined annually by visiting examiners.

Guest instructors, examiners and artistes from various contemporary classical dance companies, such as Henri Oguike, Isabelle Tamen and Amanda Eyles, have been invited to give specialised courses and workshops during the last few years.

This year’s international guest, Elisabeth Nebesnaya, holds a first-class degree from The Russian Arts Academy, specialising in teaching choreography. She is a Distinguished Artist of Russia, a laureate of international competitions, and holder of the prize for preserving classical traditions in choreography. She is a prima ballerina of The Moscow Ballet State Theatre and has played leading parts in classical and contemporary ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Corsair, Cinderella, Carmen and Death in Venice.

As well as being co-director of the College of Jazz Dance, the other guest artiste at the international summer school, Justin Roy Barker, is a resident guest choreographer with the YADA Dance Company. He trained at the London Studio Centre in the UK between 1986 and 1989 and in 1992 was awarded a scholarship to the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg, Russia. He is also an honorary member of The Dance Council of Malta.

Three courses will be offered as part of the summer school: Course A (for grades 3, 4 and 5) will include morning classes in jazz and classical ballet; Courses B (for intermediate to advanced I) and C (advanced II) will include sessions in classical ballet, repertoire and contemporary/jazz, with lessons for Course B concentrated in the morning while classes for Course C will be held in the afternoon/evening. Prices are Lm40 for Course A and Lm70 each for Courses B and C. Classes are four hours long and spread over six days, providing a course that aims to give students an experience of vocational training.

The summer school is open to dancers from the age of nine to professional. Courses B and C will include classes in repertoire as well as classical ballet and contemporary dance. Passing on knowledge of repertoire to Maltese students is one of the reasons why the Central Academy of Ballet hopes to invite several more artistes of this calibre in the near future.

All Maltese dance students are

welcome to apply for the summer school.

Those interested in participating can call The Central Academy of Ballet, 222 St Julian’s Road, Birkirkara on Tel: 2144-8396, 2143-6886, 7906-8682 or 9943-2604 for more information.