The Michigan Theater is gaining many a pair of pointe shoes. The historic building with its lush, red velvet curtains has taken in a new tenant, the Academy of Russian Classical Ballet. Meanwhile, on Main St., longtime local teacher Carol Radovic closed her CAS Ballet School and handed her ballet barres to Ballet Detroit, which also
has launched a satellite school in Ann Arbor.
ARCB artistic directors Jessica and Nikolai Morschakov have provided Vaganova (Russian) classical ballet training to children and adults of all levels in Metro Detroit for sixteen years. (A graduate of the Kirov Academy of Ballet, she danced professionally with the Sarasota Ballet; he’s a former principal of Russia’s Grigorovich Ballet.) In Ballet Detroit Ann Arbor, they’re joined by ballet mistress Natalia Makina and ballet master Ivan Poroshin, respectively a former prima ballerina and leading soloist of Russia’s Perm Ballet Theatre.
CAS’s Radovic has been a staple in Ann Arbor’s ballet scene for more than thirty-five years, teaching Ann Arborites to plie, releve, and carry on confidently in their skin. Rather than pass her space over to a real estate mogul or a cafe, she chose Ballet Detroit artistic director Sergey Rayevskiy. The group will continue to operate out of the Detroit Opera House while expanding to Tree Town.
Both schools offer training at all levels, from children to adults. And Ann Arborites who can’t imagine facing a Michigan winter without “The Waltz of the Flowers” will be relieved to learn that the ARCB, picking up the torch from Radovic, will produce that perennial favorite, The Nutcracker, at the Michigan come Christmas.
