International recognition

Raymond Lukens, Director of the National Training Curriculum of the American Ballet Theatre, has recently awarded a scholarship to Theresa Lungaro-Mifsud, Principal of The Dance Workshop.

Lungaro-Mifsud was accompanying 12 students to an international dance summer intensive at Ateneo Danza in Forli, Italy. Stefania Sansavini, director of Ateneo Danza had invited Lungaro-Mifsud to teach at the beginning of the course – the rest of the week was spent observing classes being taught by Franco De Vita, Ivan Dinev, Raymond Lukens, Peter Parker and Tadeusz Matacz and discussing problems that she is faced with when developing students in Malta.

During the performance held at the end of the course, Lungaro-Mifsud was delighted to learn that three Maltese students, Keith Micallef, Nicola Micallef and Amy Xuereb, were given special recommendations. But the greatest surprise was hearing her own name being called out as winner of this prestigious scholarship.

Raymond Lukens, together with Franco De Vita, designed and wrote the curriculum which is based on the principles of the French, Italian and Russian schools and is intended to suit the stylistic requirements of American Ballet Theatre. It aims to assist dance teachers understand how to develop dancers by using their bodies correctly and by focusing on kinetics and coordination.

Founded in 1940, the American Ballet Theatre is considered as one of the greatest dance companies in the world and since 2006 it has been recognised officially as America’s national ballet company.