About ARDA

"It's poetry to do a simple thing."

(William Christensen)

ARDA HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

Artistic Director Alison Armbruster Russell grew up on Long Island, and began formal ballet lessons at age seven. Dance developed into a vital part of her life. The idea of opening her own school was a distant thought that became a reality in September 2005.

"I am not anti-performance," she says. "I am anti-recital. The recital becomes a monster....it takes over, everything revolves around it, from the costumes to the rehearsals....what about technique class? Class is for CLASS, meaning, to learn technique. Rehearsals are for REHEARSALS, meaning, to learn choreography in preparation for a performance. When vital class time is eaten up for recital rehearsals, students suffer."

Alison Russell was an original Seiskaya Ballet scholarship student, having trained intensively under the tutelage of Mde. Valia Seiskaya. In 1986, she graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan, and pursued a professional career in musical theater. Her performing credits include the European tours of West Side Story, Chicago, and Cabaret. Ms. Russell continued her education and training at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in dance in 1994. She has performed throughout New York, and in Toronto, Tampa, and Chicago with New York City based FREEFALL, an original dance theater company headed by fellow Tisch graduates Lynn Marie Ruse and Lynn Brown.

Ms. Russell has accumulated over twenty years of teaching experience. She was an adjunct professor of dance at SUNY Stony Brook for nine years, while teaching ballet and modern dance to children and adults at several Long Island studios. She has guest taught at the American College Dance Festival, the University of Rochester, and Motus Dance in Sienna, Italy. Ms. Russell is currently an adjunct professor of dance at Dowling College.