Meet Mari Di Lena, Rachael Kosch and Allison Sale join RCD Faculty ~ the new dance faculty at Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance
The ballet and jazz faculty at RCD is growing. Join us in welcoming these three new faces to Ridgefield for the 2013-14 School Year.
Mari Di Lena - After her first year of ballet with Carmen "Montoya" Peers Mari was struck by a car and was unable to walk for several months. It was then that she realized her desire to dance and the next year at 10 years old, she was accepted into the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School and began studying with Margaret Craske and Alfredo Corvino. She was soon awarded a scholarship to the school, became a member of the Met's Children's Chorus and danced the leading roles in the children ballets produced by The Little Orchestra Society. At 17 she became principal dancer with the future Maryland Ballet Company. She also danced with Manhattan Festival, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet Guatemala and was then invited to Germany by the Dortmunder Ballett as first soloist. After a long career as a dramatic and classical ballet dancer she joined Pina Bausch's Wuppertaler Tanztheater where she was often responsible for giving company class. She left the company to marry the Requisiteur, Herbert Kuhn, and start a family. Soon she founded the Radevormwalder Ballettschule, which she directed for 20 years. She taught extensively at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen-Werden and taught company ballet classes for the Daniel Goldin Dance Theater in Muenster for years. After returning to her home in NY in 2008 she has taught Master Classes at Bennington, Purchase, Adelphi, and Sarah Lawrence, for Ballet School New York, the Joffrey School and for the Jose Limon Company. She is now on the faculty of the renown 92nd Street Y and this year will be reconstructing a piece of Pina Bausch at Juilliard.
Mari will teach at RCD on Saturdays: Pre-Ballet II, Pre-Ballet III and Ballet III
Rachael Kosch has been making ballets for families since 1993 when she co-founded The Kangaroo Garden, -classical music and dance and stories, with actress Adriana Sananes and musician Pablo Zinger. She teaches Creative Dance to children with her husband composer Michael Kosch at Westbeth Center for the Arts. Mrs. Kosch works with New York Theatre Ballet where she teaches and choreographs. She choreographed 24 dances for The Festival of the Vegetables, which played at Metropolitan Playhouse each winter from 2007 - 2012. Rachael Kosch has been teaching dance to children since 1986. She trained at the Joffrey Ballet School from 1970 – 1975. She attended Herbert Berghoff Studios and was in numerous off-off Broadway plays as a child. At Bennington College, she discovered her affinity for dance composition under the inspiring tutelage of Wendy Perron. In 1986, she graduated from Columbia College, Chicago with a degree in Choreography and Teaching where her mentor was Shirley Mordine. Since returning to her native New York City, from a ten-year period of teaching and building her repertory in Chicago, Rachael has been training at, and teaching children for, both the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, and with Diana Byer and the late Sallie Wilson at Ballet School New York. She choreographed, costumed, and produced The Ugly Duckling, a new ballet in July, 2013 at the Metropolitan Playhouse.
Allison Sale is an NYC based freelance artist. She began her training at Dancensations Dance Center, Alexandria, VA, and continued at The Kirov Academy of Ballet, Washington, D.C. Ms. Sale graduated with Honors and Excellence Awards from The University of the Arts, BFA Dance. In college, she was featured in works by Twyla Tharp, Paul Selwyn-Norton, Christopher Huggins, Ronen Koresh, and MOMIX. Additional performance credits include Amsterdam (Dansgroep Amsterdam), Costa Bravo Spain (American Dance Company), Cali Colombia (Diversity in Dance), and Santiago, Chile (UArts); as well as with choreographers Debbie Allen (Kennedy Center), Itzik Galili, Earl Mosely, Troy Powell, and Nathan Trice. She recently performed at Jacob's Pillow with Nicholas Andre Dance, and with Alexis Convento + Artists at many NY venues. She is currently touring with Seattle based company, zoe|juniper, dancing in NY and Philadelphia with Dance Iquail, and performing installation art with Gabriel Forestieri's Project Limb. She will perform in The Metropolitan Opera's production of Prince Igor this winter. She has been teaching Contemporary, Ballet, and Jazz for the past three years at Dance Dimensions, New Milford, New Jersey. She has also taught adult classes at Peridance Capezio Center (NYC), Koresh Dance Company (Philadelphia), and Velocity Dance Center (Seattle), and taught master classes in Lancaster, PA, Ridgefield CT, Ashburn VA, Alexandria, VA.
Allison will teach at RCD on Fridays: Jazz V, Jazz VI and Musical Theater
For class schedule and registration information, visit our website, ridgefielddance.org