The dance season has been kind to the hard working, young ballet students at the Armstrong Dance Academy, who all passed their Cecchetti classical ballet exams in December.
Twenty-seven students were examined on Dec. 13 and 14 by Mary Ross, a Cecchetti ballet examiner and director of ballet studies at the School of Dance in Ottawa.
“Primary through to advanced one levels were entered, and all were successful,” said Armstrong Dance Academy owner and teacher Susan Bensmiller, who gives a special mention to student Leah Wells, who was examined in and passed both the intermediate and advanced one levels.
Other dancers to pass the exams included Ashlee McAvoy, Samantha Henri, Yela Jacob, Anna Kalf, Poppy Jong, Denae Penner, Sydney Coward, Chandace Rees, Annelise Jensen, Jenna Mazur, Jaden Corrigan, Anna Konrad, Chloe van der Meer, Clare Agassiz, Kendyl Foster, Emily Gunning, Jolene Kutzner, Aspen Hansma, Emily Groeneveld, Lily Thiessen, Lexi Mason, Annelise Leclerc, Hannah Weeks, Ainslee Page-Sagmoen, Tessa Runka and Ellie Sloot.
The Cecchetti method of ballet is a style of classical, theatrical dance based on the teachings of Italian ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928).
Bensmiller is the only licenced teacher in the Cecchetti method to have a studio in the Okanagan and one of only a few Cecchetti instructors in B.C.
