Paul Vasterling, from NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts.
February 16th
Second Avenue Dance Company will be taking a master class with The Nashville Ballet's artistic director, Paul Vasterling. Paul was an NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts fellow in 2017.
Taken from The Nashville Ballet:
"Paul Vasterling stepped into the role of Artistic Director of Nashville Ballet in 1998, ten years after he began his association with the company. He came as a company dancer and later served as a teacher, ballet master and choreographer. After several years of artistic turnover at the company, Vasterling applied for the job, a position he has held ever since. In the spring of 2010, at the Board's request, Vasterling took on the additional role of CEO for the ballet.
A choreographer with a deep affinity for music, Vasterling has created more than 40 works, ranging from classical, full-length story ballets to more contemporary one-acts set to the music of local artists. Vasterling's penchant and particular gift is for storytelling, which he has done vividly in such ballets as Dracula, Romeo and Juliet, and, most recently, A Midsummer Night's Dream. His ballets have been performed from South America to Asia, everywhere to great acclaim. Stateside, reviews have been equally glowing, with New York magazine Attitude writing of his work, "America has not lost its sense of value of elegant dancing as art." Beyond his own choreography, Vasterling has edited and updated classic productions of Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, and has expanded the company's repertoire to include works by Salvatore Aiello, George Balanchine, James Canfield, Lew Christensen and Twyla Tharp, among many others. He has also encouraged company dancers who have shown an interest in choreography, giving them the same opportunity to create that he received from artistic directors."