For over 240 years, The Bolshoi Ballet Academy has had a rich history of training many of the world’s greatest ballet dancers, choreographers, educators, scholars, and now RMSA/RMDT’s very own Elizabeth Fernandez is one of them! Three summers ago Elizabeth, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Rocky Mountains School of the Arts and Rocky Mountain Dance Theatre, applied to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Teacher Certification Program. She was accepted and on August 12, 2018 she graduated from their highest level, Level C.
This is no easy task. BBA’s Teacher Certification Program in New York is an intense, progressive 3 year program with eight, nine hour days filled with classes, lectures, and practical final exams in which you must pass to be certified. Bolshoi’s website states, “Participants in the program have the opportunity to engage in a unique and authentic training program conducted by teachers from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow.”
When asked how she would summarize her experience over the last three years, Elizabeth said, “I wanted to attend the Bolshoi teaching program to gain a better understanding of Russian ballet technique and pedagogy. I have gained tremendously as a teacher and dancer from the training I received. Even with an understanding of the difficulty ahead, I would choose to do it again as every moment was worth the impressive changes I have seen in my students”.
RMSA/RMDT can be proud that the executive director of their studio and instructor of their children in small town Cody, Wyoming continues to push herself to learn from some of the most prestigious training programs in the world! Congrats Miss Liz.