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MADISON KEESLER |
Hello again! I am sorry that I haven’t been writing as often as I should, now that summer is over I am hoping to get on more of a normal schedule so expect to be seeing more articles in the future!
I finished my second summer program, Stiefel and Stars (S&S) in Martha’s Vineyard. This was my second year at this summer intensive. It is such an amazing program; I don’t even know where to begin. The luxuries that we have while on the vineyard are like no other ballet program I know of. We stay in a beautiful new house equipped with ballet studios on the first floor. Students, staff, and stars live a few steps away from each other which is an amazing experience as well. Johnny Eliasen, Yuri Fateev, John Gardner, Katrina Killian, Amanda McKerrow, Benjamin Millepied, Elizabeth Parkinson, and Scott Wise were all faculty this summer. I got to take class and work with many stars of today as well; Ethan Stiefel, Marcelo Gomes, Benjamin Millepied, Gillian Murphy, Elizabeth Parkinson, Stella Abrera, Sascha Radetsky, Isabella Boylson, Marian Butler, Gray Davis, Thomas Forster, Nicole Graniero, and Melissa Thomas were all there.
Although by going to Stiefel and Stars again this summer it didn’t give me any break I am very glad that I attended. All of the teachers there are so amazing and I feel that they all, in their own way, have helped me grow as a person and dancer. Every year S&S has a performance at the Performing Art Center on the vineyard. This year I performed Konservatoriet, a Fosse piece, and Paquita. Benjamin Millepied also choreographed a world premier called Rebound. It featured Isabella, Nicole, some of the male students, and Benjamin himself. Gillian Murphey and Sasha Redesky were the princple couple in Paquita and they were spectacular, of course. I have to say that personally one of my favorite parts of the performance was Marcelo Gomez. He performed Percussion IV in the Fosse section of our performance and it was wonderful.
I met a ton of amazing people this summer and truly had a great time. Here are some pictures from my summer there, enjoy!
The gorgeous island where we lived…
Here is a picture of some of the students of S&S at the beach…
All of the student S&S
I can only imagine how great he was! I went out there last year to see his choreographic debut, but couldn’t go again this year. You wouldn’t happen to have any pictures of him (or anyone else!) during the performance or rehearsals?? 
Thanks for the write-up!
