Hird now serves as Sarasota Ballet’s director of education, overseeing all of its programs. Among them are the Margaret Barbieri Conservatory — a full-time, pre-professional program designed to prepare 11- to -18-yearold students for a performing career in classical ballet and the Sarasota Ballet School, which provides professional instruction to students between the ages of 3 and 18. “Our ballet school now includes adults as well,” Hird said. “I’ve added some extra classes for our adult students to get them engaged with the organization.” Those classes, he added, include Intro to Ballet, a five-week course designed for beginners or those who are returning to ballet after a break; Adult Open Classes, offering those with some previous ballet experience several levels of technique to choose from and the flexibility to drop in whenever they like; and Weekend Workshops, providing special opportunities for adult students to dance over a long weekend and including a ticket to see the Sarasota Ballet perform. 54 SCENE | MAY 2017 “We also have our Dance — The Next Generation program, which is set up for those who are most at risk of dropping out of school to participate in a 10-year, full-scholarship program in dance,” Hird said. “I also oversee all outreach work, which entails going into schools to perform or having school groups come to us for matinees.” Hird added the main purpose of Sarasota Ballet’s educational programs is to train future dancers for its company as well as to give anyone the opportunity to experience the joy of dance. This includes mastering not only the range of skills needed to perform ballet, building a work ethic that serves students in life outside the classroom. “Our classes help students in their academic work as well, because it gets them to develop time management skills,” Hird said. He added another aspect of the ballet’s education expansion lies in recruiting new talent at dance competitions. “We need to continue to build on the quality of the work that we have already,” he said. “I want to increase the quality
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