Schools

Video: Springhurst First Graders Dance Classic Holiday Ballet

Ballet Ambassadors' "Ballet-in-a-Day" professional dancers Cierra Cotton and Andrei Kisselev teach 115 six and 7 year olds to perform "The Nutcracker Ballet."

Wielding iPhones, iPads, Androids and even real cameras, parents swarmed the elementary school gym Wednesday to watch their kids perform in the "Nutcracker Ballet."

Part of Ballet Ambassadors’ "Ballet-in-a-Day" program for elementary schools, kids were given brief workshops to learn the steps Wednesday morning and then they performed their new skills for friends, family and teachers in the afternoon.

Professional dancers Cierra Cotton and Andrei Kisselev led the workshops and then directed the enthusiastic students during the show.

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Read the dancers' bios below:

Andrei Kisselev trained in his native Russia and performed for several years with the legendary Moiseyev Dance Company. He went on to join the cast of "Riverdance on Broadway" and later toured with the show for five years. He received a rave review in the New York Times for a performance with Rebecca Kelly Ballet. Andrei holds a degree in education from the College of Art in Vladimir, Russia. He is a Professor of Ballet at Manhattanville College.

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Cierra Cotton is a 2011 graduate of the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program in Dance. She has performed works by Robert Battle, Troy Powell, Elisa Monte, Francesca Harper, George Faison, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Christopher Huggins, Earl Mosley, Paul Taylor, Joyce Trisler, and Scott Rink. Cierra also performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey’s “Memoria” in 2009 and 2010.  In September, Cierra participated in the Table of Silence Project with Buglisi Dance Theatre, which culminated in a performance on the Lincoln Center Plaza, in honor of the victims of 9/11. She is currently working with the Francesca Harper Project and has performed with Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn, under the direction of Jamel Gaines. She is currently on the faculty at the Downtown Dance Factory and an assistant/substitute teacher for the Ailey School’s Junior Division, Bounding Boys & First Steps Program.

Editor's note: I tried my best to stay low and not to get in the way of any parents' shots.  So if there are some wayward ponytails blocking some of the footage, I do apologize.


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