Rock School student Derek Dunn is briefly featured in “First Position,” a ballet documentary about Youth America Grand Prix that began filming in 2010.
Since then, Derek has continued training with The Rock School. Enjoy this video of Dunn performing at The Rock School in 2012.
Choreography by Ashley Canterna.
Photos: Dynamics of Dance at Gesu School
The Rock School’s outreach program, RockReach, visits participating schools throughout the metropolitan area to demonstrate and present classical ballet and contemporary dance. RockReach calls these school visits “Dynamics of Dance,” during which student dancers from The Rock School get to share their love for dance with young students all over the city of Philadelphia.
Rock School Faculty member Gabriele Guma lead the dancers through barre work and warm ups in front of the students at the Gesu School. Guma also explained some of the history of ballet to the young audience and opened the floor for a Q&A after The Rock School students performed.
Photos: Dynamics of Dance at The Philadelphia School
The Rock School’s outreach program, RockReach, visits participating schools throughout the metropolitan area to demonstrate and present classical ballet and contemporary dance. RockReach calls these school visits “Dynamics of Dance,” during which student dancers from The Rock School get to share their love for dance with young students all over the city of Philadelphia.
Rock School Faculty member Gabriele Guma lead the dancers through barre work and warm ups in front of the students at the Philadelphia School. Guma also explained some of the history of ballet to the young audience and opened the floor for a Q&A after The Rock School students performed.
Enjoy some photos from The Rock School’s visit to The Philadelphia School:
Want to see more photos? Check out The Rock School’s flickr page for more photos.
The Rock School and Haverford School Exchange
The Rock School and the Haverford School hold an exchange of students and academic ideals twice every year. During the first leg of the bi-annual exchange, Rock School academic students (RAPA) in addition to numerous other Rock dancers visit the Haverford School and perform on stage for the entire school. The performance ranges from classical ballet to contemporary dance with original choreography by Rock School artistic faculty.
After the performance, Rock Academic Program Alliance (RAPA) students are paired up with student volunteers from the Haverford School for the day. The first half of the bi-annual exchange gives our academic students the opportunity to experience a typical day for a Haverford School student. It gives both parties perspective on the differences and surprising similarities between a ballet conservatory school and an all boys preparatory school.
Stay tuned for when the Haverford boys will be meeting our students again when they come to visit The Rock School and our dancers get to share their typical day of school and dance.
Here are some photos of our RAPA students being paired up with Haverford School students:
Our Rock Academic Program Alliance (RAPA) students performed their own original ensemble choreographed by Rock alumnus Justin Allen.
A photo of two of our dancers performing the classical Pas de Deux from Harlequinade. Our dancers Yukihiro and Samantha won 1st place at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition, at the Philadelphia regionals for Pas de Deux. They’ll be moving to the finals in NYC. :
Photos of Rock dancers Alexandra and Andrew performing their contemporary pas de deux entitled, “Intenso”. These two will also be competing in the NYC Finals for YAGP.
Many of our soloists are moving onto finals for YAGP in NYC:
Here are photos of an original ensemble, again choreographed by Rock alumnus Justin Allen, entitled, “Inertia”. Our students will be competing with this ensemble piece at the NYC Finals for YAGP. The Haverford School students and faculty were the first to see our exciting new piece!
