Q&A filmmaker Connie Hochman, former American Ballet Theater Ballerina Stella Abrera, artistic director ABT Studio Company Sascha Radetsky, founder and artistic director Scarsdale Ballet Studio Diana White, and NYC Ballet repertory director Jean-Pierre Frohlich moderated by choreographer Peter Pucci

Monday, Dec. 13 2021, 7:00

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Connie Hochman was a professional ballet dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet where she performed many of George Balanchine’s masterworks. Connie trained at the School of American Ballet and danced alongside the New York City Ballet, with Balanchine at the helm. Decades later, Connie's childhood memories of Balanchine, combined with a desire to understand more, led her on a mission to solve a mystery. What exactly happened in Balanchine’s classroom, where he developed the dancers and the dancing to serve his choreographic vision?

Stella Abrera joined the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre in 1996 at the age of seventeen. In 2001 she was appointed to Soloist, and then to Principal Dancer in 2015. During her 24 years as a ballerina with ABT, her repertoire included leading roles such as Aurora, Cinderella, Giselle, Juliet, and Tatiana, as well as in works by Fredrick Ashton, George Balanchine, and Agnes de Mille. In June 2020, Ms. Abrera retired as a dancer with ABT and was appointed Artistic Director of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.

Sascha Radetsky joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in 1995 and its corps de ballet in 1996. He was promoted to Soloist with ABT in 2003, and retired from the Company in 2014. He also danced as a principal or guest principal with the Dutch National Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Berlin Staatsballett, and several other international companies. Radetsky was named Artistic Director of ABT Studio Company in August 2018. He has served as Director of the ABT/NYU Master’s in Ballet Pedagogy Program since 2016 and is a Company Teacher with American Ballet Theatre.

Diana White, Founder and Artistic Director Scarsdale Ballet Studio, was a ballerina of the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. An internationally sought-after master teacher, she is also one of a select group of former dancers who have been chosen by the the George Balanchine Trust and the Robbins Rights Trust to stage their masterpieces on companies and schools world-wide.

Jeann-Pierre Frohlich began his dance training at the School of American Ballet. In 1965, Balanchine created a role for him in his Don Quixote. In 1972, while a student at the school, he appeared in the premiere of Jerome Robbins’s Watermill. Later that year he joined the New York City Ballet and in 1979 was promoted to Soloist. His Balanchine repertory included A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck), Symphony in Three Movements, Agon and Apollo. Mr. Frohlich became a Repertory Director in 1990, assisting Mr. Robbins in staging many of his ballets, and now maintains and oversees his repertory at New York City Ballet.

Peter Pucci is a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel award winner. He co-directed and choreographed Swag n’ Bach and In the Garden, both of which played in the Dance on Film series He was a principal dancer with Pilobolus Dance Theater and Peter Pucci Plus. Recently he worked on Curse of the Starving Class, directed by Terry Kinney at the Signature Theatre in NYC, and Kurt Elling’s The Big Blind at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has hosted and been a guest speaker for Dance on Film programs since 2009.