38 — Friday, December 18, 1998 — North Shore News Training students Dancers jein staff at Anna Wyman Layne CHRISTENSEN NEWS REPORTER IN the 30 years she’s taught dance in Vancouver, Anna Wyman has seen a change in the quality of arts education her young students receive. Children are not as well versed in baller culture as they once were, says West Van’s doyenne of dance. “Very few students, I’m sorry to say, know who Nureyev was,” says Wyman, shaking her head. Balanchine. Baryshnikov. Nureyev. Makarova. They are this century’s leading lights in dance. Yet they are unfamiliar ames to a new generation of young students whose idols tend nor to be dancers but movie stars an models. Wyman is hoping to change that with the intro- duction of Jacqueline Achmedowa to her school’s teaching staff. The Russian- trained ballet dancer has been teaching at Anna Wyman School of Dance Arts in Ambleside since the fall. She is co-head of the new professional training program, designed to pre- pare the school’s more seri- ous students for careers in the dance arts. She is nor the only new face at the school. Also heading the professional prograra is Achmedowa’s husband, Luke Newton- Mason. Newton-Mason is a for- mer student of Anna Wyman’s who has returned the past two summers to RUSSIAN-TRAINED dancer Jacqueline Achmedowa instructs students in the gram at Ambleside’s Anna Wyman School of Dance Arts. Newton-Mason, also an accomplished dancer. teach the school’s summer program. The dancers met in “93 while both were per- forming with the Vienna State Opera Ballet. Achmedowa, who started dancing at age six in her native Munich, knew by age 10 she wanted a career in dance. At 17 she was srudy- ing ballet in Russia. She was a principal dancer at the Bolshoi Theatre and Munich State Opera before becom- ing a soloist with the ballet in Vienna. . Newton: Mason received his carly training at Anna Wyman and Vancouver's Goh Ballet before studying at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle and later moving to Europe where he danced first with a company in Belgium, then Austria. Both dancers are trained in the Vaganova technique, named for the 19th century ballet mistress Agrippina Vaganova who Congratulations to Sharon Drefs of North Vancouver WIHHER OF THE $500 DUNDARAVE SHOPPING SPREE Thanks to the following participating merchants: CHERAY TREE Berth shore WW. WACUUM SOWIA RYKIEL CAPERS BO'S BESIGH STUDIO BRAMBLES & BLOUNS CURRENT Oundarave Business & Merchants Association combined elements of French, Italian and Russian ballet traditions into a uni- tied method of teaching dance. The school is fortunate to have on staff two dancers with such a high fevel of experience, savs Wyman. “If you have teachers like Jacqueline and Luke who have been professional dancers themselves, vou can bring much more to the stu- dents becatise (the teachers) already have experience on the stage,” she says, Achmeduwa and Newton- Mason plan to make the most out of that experience. “One of our main goals,” says Newton-Mason, “is to educate dancers about what is going on in the dance world.” Already, students enrolled in fall classes have had the opportunity to rake in a performance of the Moscow Classical Ballet’s production of The Dan & ; for career Nutcracker, The dancers® professional connections have allowed the students backstage access because, says Newton-Mason, “we know the dancers ... we've danced with them.” While the dancers* on- stage experience is notable —~ Achmedowa has danced with Nurevev; Newton- Mason has danced solo roles in choreographies by Balanchine — it’s their abili- ties as instructors that has most impressed their emplover. “Teaching is a special tal- ent,” says Weman, who this fall was inducted into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame. “It’s difficult to find good teachers ... extremely difficult.” While dancing in Vienna, Achmedowa studied by cor- respondence with the Kiev Academy of Dance in Russia, earning her professor’s degree as a ballet master, ‘Deresiously of Paine Hardware From Left to Right: Laura, Nazir, Jason, Dan, Wedad, & Deborah She Wew Seam from PEARSON’S HARDWARE Wishes you. the Besé for the Moliday Season * Parts and service on Aladdin Lamps & all Kerosene Heaters Now offering: * Pipe threading * Laminating Assorted Christmas Decorations 988-0838 re:: 387-3435 in dance arts ey NEWS photo Paul McGrath professional training pro- She runs the new program with husband Luke coach and choreographer trom this prestigious school that accepts just 22 new stu- dents a year. When an injury forced the end of his performing career in Austria three years ago, Newton-Mason moved into a new role as a chorcog- rapher, tinding work as assis- tant stage director for the company’s opera produc- tions and as an adjudicator for the Vienna Academy of Musical Dance Theatre. Human Resources Development Canada E+G Both dancers say they enjoy the challenges and rewards of teaching — the responsibility of helping shape a young dancer's future and the excitement of watching that talent grow. The professional pro- gram, which is open by audi- ton to youths ages 1] to 16, is a welcome veature for Wyman, who closed her pro- ressional touring company in 91, Classes start again in January. Développement des ressources humaines Canada Attention North Shore business owners: Human Resources Development Canada needs your help in preparing the Lower Mainland Occupational Survey. Results will give the business community reliable information about wage rates, hiring trends skills shortages and training requirements in the local labour market. It’s easy to take part. Complete the survey by mail, on the internet (www.vgivision.com/ces/lowermainland/) or over the phone. . For more information, please call 669.2374 or 1-888-274-1700.