Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Metropolitan Ballet Company celebrates 25 years with gala
Dancers from professional companies will be guest artists
JENKINTOWN » Metropolitan Ballet Company, located in Jenkintown, is planning a dazzling evening of dance, featuring 12 Met alumni returning from San Francisco Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, and Philadelphia Ballet.
The 25th Anniversary Gala Performance is June 4, at 4 p.m. at Muller Theater, on the Abington Friends School campus, Jenkintown. Choreography by Kanji Segawa, Sarah Mettin, and Ashley Walton will showcase contemporary and classical beauty. The performance will be followed by a festive Anniversary Party at the Jenkintown home and gardens of a Met Board Member. Tickets https://metballet.ticketleap.com/ Special honorees are Jessica Lang and Kanji Segawa, internationally acclaimed dancers and choreographers who work with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, National Ballet of Japan, and more. Lang and Segawa have choreographed numerous works on the Metropolitan Ballet Company since they started visiting the Jenkintown studios over 20 years ago. “They’re a big part of what makes Met ‘MET’,” notes Lisa Collins Vidnovic, founder and artistic director of Metropolitan Ballet Company.
Vidnovic launched Metropolitan Ballet in 1996 after performing for a decade with Pennsylvania Ballet, where she was also a Ballet Mistress. At age 14, she re
ceived a full scholarship to American Ballet Theatre in NYC; at 16 she began dancing professionally with Chicago’s Lyric Opera Ballet, directed by renowned Balanchine muse, Maria Tallchief. Vidnovic’s dance career included featured roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and the classical canon.
Vidnovic founded Metropolitan Ballet with a vision to create a pre-professional ballet academy and performing company. Over 150 Met students have earned highest honors at Youth America Grand Prix and scholarships for intensive study with prestigious ballet companies. She has created early opportunities for many choreographers, including Jessica Lang, Kanji Segawa, Ashley Walton, Kate Skarpetowska, Sarah Mettin, TommieWaheed Evans, and Jenelle Figgins (both Princess Grace Awardees). Mettin, a Met Alumna, is now Artistic Associate.
Met’s young dancers know that they are part of
the classical tradition and part of “what’s next” in ballet. The life skills they master through rigorous classical training serve them well in their professional careers, whether on stage or in college and careers in the sciences, engineering, and business.
Met’s Boys’ Scholarship Program — one of the earliest and largest in the country — has provided over $1.3 million in tuition-free training for over 350 boys, since it began in 1999. Metropolitan is recognized as a one of “seven local studios in America cultivating top talent,” by POINTE magazine.