Business Profile: DanceNaiad Professional Dance Training, Bedford Hills
If you’re looking for a dance school that hones the talents of dancers serious about their craft but also caters to those who take dance simply for sheer enjoyment, then DanceNaiad is the place for you.
Instructors at this professional dance training school in Bedford Hills focus on each discipline, allowing students to learn and grow in the dance form of their choice.
Co-owned by Carrie Tron and Lola Von Graff, the school has been part of the community for six years. Last September, operations were moved into an airy 2,700-square-foot facility that boasts two dance studios, changing rooms and a small store that will soon sell dancewear and other accessories.
Tron, a Chappaqua native, teaches a variety of classes, including classical ballet, modern dance and belly dance. She began her ballet training at three years old under the guidance of Istavan Rabovsky, a Hungarian ballet dancer who defected to the West in 1953.
Tron earned a scholarship to the Harkness House for Ballet Arts early on in her schooling, trained with its ballet company and attended the Boston Ballet School.
What sets DanceNaiad apart is its focus on the style of Isadora Duncan, who invented modern dance. There are a handful of schools around the world that teach the discipline, the choreography of which is handed down from teacher to student.
Tron explained that this allows graduates of the program to establish a true knowledge of Duncan’s studies, group pieces and solos, and learn how her style has established itself in dance history.
Tron’s deep passion for the Duncan style led her to launch The Isadora Duncan Youth Ensemble in 1994, a dance company that invites the school’s most talented students between ages 8 and 18. The ensemble has performed around the world.
Tron, who holds a bachelor’s degree in dance performance from Skidmore College and a master’s in dance in higher education from NYU, established the select troupe to preserve the integrity of Duncan’s masterworks, incorporating the dance legend’s unique philosophy, which rejected the confines of classical ballet and featured performances without shoes, hairpins or even a corset.
All of the students in Tron’s ensemble are serious dancers, with many former graduates gaining acceptance to prestigious university and college dance programs.
However, Tron and her staff of five teachers reject the notion of turning DanceNaiad into an ultracompetitive school. Her focus is preserving the traditions and the beauty of dance.
“It’s all about learning to express oneself with a pure force,” said Tron, the mother of two children, ages 13 and 11, both students at the school. “There are no fancy steps involved; in fact, it’s very much stripped of any stylized movement.”
Her other dance company, the Naiad Contemporary Ballet, is suitable for students with a strong technical background in ballet and pointe.
In addition to several levels of ballet class, DanceNaiad also offers ballroom dancing, belly dance, hip-hop, lyrical dance and modern dance. Tron said her passion lies in developing a true love of the art in every child.
“I have a deep appreciation for the classical art form, and I like to think that I prepare all of my students like they’re going to get into Julliard and be professional dancers,” she said.
Tron said students with disabilities have also benefited from the programs that DanceNaiad provides, thriving in an environment where they are not judged.
She is happy to report that many of her graduates return to acknowledge the value of the dance education at DanceNaiad.
“The joy for me is in knowing that I have passed on something special to these children and that I have made some of them excellent performers,” Tron said.
DanceNaiad is located at 774 N. Bedford Rd. For more information, visit www.dancenaiad.com. To find out more about classes offered and the 2013 DanceNaiad Summer Intensives program, call 914-715-9882.
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