| Master
Teacher, Charmaine Ristow,
has an extensive performance background coupled with worldwide
experience in founding, performing, directing and choreographing
for dozens of dance companies. She is also a certified Pilates
instructor and personal trainer.
Ms.
Ristow started dancing at the age of three and continued her education
by studying ballet, choreography, modern, lyrical jazz, and musical
theatre with such notable teachers as David Howard, Xenia Chlistowa
and Edward Villella. She earned her BS degree from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison and has been awarded the Wisconsin Dance
Council's Certificate of Distinction.
She
has taught at the Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Madison Civic ballets,
as well as the University of Wisconsin-Madison Major Dance Program,
Stockholm Academie and Dance Masters of America.
Ms.
Ristow gained invaluable knowledge while rehearsing and performing
with Rudolf Nureyev in "Les Sylphides" in addition to
studying and performing with the internationally acclaimed Jean-Paul
Comelin's Milwaukee Ballet, touring throughout Europe with Stockholm's
Cullbergballetten as well as dancing in the Edinburgh Festival.
She
co-founded, performed and choreographed for the Wisconsin Dance
Ensemble, Choreographer's Consortium, Kanopy Dance Theater, Madison
Civic Ballet, and MetroDance, Inc. Charmaine's students can be
seen performing with numerous major companies such as the Pacific
Northwest Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
Ms.
Ristow has recently been
invited to give Master Classes and set choreography at National
Taiwan Sport University in 2009.
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Hometown's
Community Presence:
Serving as a community health advocate, HD&F's Director, Charmaine
Ristow is joining a national awareness drive by working with several
Verona organizations to bring education regarding prevention of obesity,
diabetes, hypertension and arthritis into local schools. Additionally,
a new non-profit arts organization will begin presenting Verona's
own annual "Nutcracker Suite" including dancers and local
celebrities of all ages, levels and abilities, which is open to participation
for dancers from all studios. Auditions will be held the last Saturday
of September, with rehearsals scheduled for Saturday afternoons, and
according to dancers' availability. Lead roles will feature some of
HD&F's professionally recruited dancers as well as giving local
scholarship students their first opportunity to learn to dance and
perform on stage. A fibromyalgia support group is also in the planning
stages.
Hometown
Dance and Fitness Mission:
Classes
limited to six students to provide unique holistic, safe and enjoyable
instruction for all ages, levels and ultimate goals in a nurturing
environment with qualified, experienced teachers in a professionally
prepared studio.
Class
Placement:
Students
are placed in the most suitable class by age, experience, motivation,
self-discipline, previous attendance, maturity, and physical development.
Student's initial class serves as a placement audition. Promotion
is based on assimilation of the current vocabulary and mastery of
movements for each level, which usually requires more than one year's
study. Pointe work begins about age 11 after four year's training.
Students are individually evaluated for readiness, and then biweekly
attendance is REQUIRED.
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