The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Nutmeg Ballet’s Joan Kunsch completes 26th audition tour
Choreographer, poet seeks talent across the country
TORRINGTON — “When a dancer auditions for Nutmeg Ballet, Nutmeg Ballet auditions for the dancer,” said Joan Kunsch, associate director at Nutmeg.
“I don’t just sit down and make notes as a judge,” said Kunsch, who just returned from her 26th annual audition tour across the country. “I teach. I want each dancer who is auditioning to be able to walk out of the audition understanding something better or be able to do something they were not able to do when they walked in.”
Call it a free sample of the world-class training that Nutmeg Ballet has to offer. If the auditioning dancer is on the fence about which ballet school to sign with, this mini-lesson often seals the deal, Kunsch said.
An award-winning choreographer and poet, Kunsch has guest taught and choreographed in Oslo (Kirkenaer Ballettskolen), Stockholm’s Swedish Ballet School, Reykjavik’s National Ballet School of Iceland, London (White Lodge, Royal Ballet School, RAD Teacher Training), Canadian cities and throughout the United States. Students she has co-trained have joined more than 70 professional companies.
“Nutmeg is competing against a lot of really bigname professional companies,” she said of her multicity talent search. “A lot of times those schools have a big-name company attached. Primarily, Nutmeg is a student training organization. So here’s the selling point: I tell the kids and the parents, ‘You are going to get individual attention from our international faculty. You are going to be seen for all the strengths and weaknesses that you have and we’re going to address those so that you can use the strengths and do something about the weaknesses and ultimately be eligible to perform in a professional company.’”
Kunsch started her tour in November at White River Ballet Academy in White River Junction, Vt. She then traveled to New York City; Boston Ballet at Newton, Mass.; St. Louis, Mo.; La Crosse, Wis.; Chicago; Indianapolis; Huntsville, Ala.; Louisville, Ky.; Oklahoma City and Theatre Arts Tulsa in Broken Arrow, Okla.; Colorado Ballet in Denver and Vail Ballet, Colo.; Academy of Dance, Salt Lake City at the University of Utah; and Crescendo Conservatory in the Kansas City area (Overland Park).
And what’s it like to cover so many cities in just a few weeks? Kunsch said, “It’s a unique and whirlwind sensation to drop down out of the sky into a place and be suddenly at depth in each other’s lives, and leave the next day and go up in the air and drop down and have the same thing happen hundreds of miles away.”
According to Sharon Dante, Nutmeg’s executive director, “Joan has the stamina of a 16-year-old and brings Torrington and Nutmeg to the attention of thousands of dancers and students every year.”
Kunsch is not merely scouting for new talent to bring to Nutmeg. She is also serving as a placement liaison into a professional company after a student graduates.
“I am taking in as many rehearsals, company classes and performances as I can along the way, because then I have a word of advice for the current Nutmeg students as to which companies are looking for which type of dancer for their future,” she said.
“I really make a promise to myself and a promise to current Nutmeggers and their parents that I will only accept dancers they would want to know, or want their children to know, as friends for the rest of their lives. So by asking them a question or two just for fun, either before or after the audition, I get to know them and see the whole shine of their integrity,” Kunsch said.
Of the hundreds of auditioners she met, many will enter one or more sessions of Nutmeg’s 2018 summer intensive and/or the fall 2018 curriculum of ballet training at the Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, she said.
While Kunsch was covering the East and Midwest, fellow Nutmeg dance instructor Tim Melady was touring about 15 other U.S. cities. He will be featured in next week’s column.
Area parents interested in having their dancers audition may contact Nutmeg Conservatory at 860482-4413 or going to www.nutmegconservatory.org.