Alumni Update #5: Bethany Green

Is it the “Performing Arts” or the “Abroad” that most speaks to you?  Is there ANY place Bethany won’t dance? These are the things you’re dying to know!  Never fear.  We’ve started asking for updates and well, let’s just say it turns out awesome people continue being awesome even after they’ve moved on from PAA.  

Today’s Alum: Bethany Green, Dance Intern in Spain, ’14

This year has certainly been a full one for me! After arriving in Indiana from Barcelona last fall, I returned to Indiana University to begin my junior year as a ballet major. We started rehearsing our fall show immediately- a three part program that included George Balanchine’s Emeralds, Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, and David Parsons’ The Envelope. In the winter we performed the holiday classic The Nutcracker, which is a favorite in the Bloomington community. Our spring program included Balanchine’s Swan Lake and Rubies, as well as Merce Cunningham’s Duets. These were all incredible performing and rehearsing experiences, and gave us the chance to work with world renowned artists and teachers inn addition to performing on our huge opera house stage. To wrap up the year we put on an evening of choreography created and danced by the dancers of the IU Ballet Theater, a free performance in a popular auditorium downtown. It gave us an opportunity to literally and figuratively let our hair down, have some fun and get creative!

Now that the school year is over I am training for the summer at Ballet Chicago, spending about seven hours a day in the studio working on my technique. It’s tough, but very rewarding to see progress! I am totally loving living in the city and exploring what it has to offer- I’m especially stoked to check out the Taste of Chicago this weekend! At the end of the summer I’ll be returning to my good ole Hoosier home for my senior year, ready for a new batch of wonderful performing opportunities. No matter what I do or where I go, I’ll always be carrying my memories and experiences with me and building on the foundation that PAA and other programs have helped me create. I feel incredibly lucky to have this support system, and am very excited for others to embark on their own fresh journeys!

Thanks Bethany!  We love hearing how great you’re doing and we always love your fun pictures.  Enjoy that last year in Hoosier Country!  (Most people don’t know this, but PAA was unofficially based in Bloomington, IN for a couple years before settling down in it’s permanent home of Northampton, MA.  The more you know.  dee dee dee dee deeeee.)