Charles Maple enthusiastically teaching. Photo by Dave Friedman
Charles Maple, former soloist with American Ballet Theatre and principal dancer with Basel Ballet, has opened his own ballet school, the Maple Conservatory of Dance, at 1824 Kaiser in Irvine, the studios of the late departed Ballet Pacifica. Kathy Crade is his partner and administrative director. Maple, who grew up in Los Angeles, has taught at a number of different local studios, and co-founded American Ballet Intensives, a program of concentrated study taught at different studios.
Within a week of Ballet Pacifica’s closure, Maple was meeting with parents who didn’t want to lose a serious ballet school at that site. The conservatory is offering open classes through the summer, and will begin a more formal conservatory program in the fall. Crade said Wednesday that some of the permanent faculty would be moving here from New York. Maple is currently devising a systematic curriculum for the conservatory. Maple is in Alabama right now, overseeing American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive there. Already, Maple is calling upon his ABT friends. ABT ballet mistress Susan Jones will teach a master class at 2 p.m. Saturday. John Selya, a former ABT member and in the original cast of Twyla Tharp’s “Movin’ Out,” will give a master class at 11:30 p.m. Sunday. And former principal dancer Susan Jaffe will teach an intermediate-level class from 1-3 p.m. on Aug 5 and an advanced level class from 3:30-5:30 p.m. the same day. Master classes are $30 each. For more information, call 949-660-9930.
The Maple Conservatory has proven to be beyond what anyone had expected when BP folded. What Charles Maple and Kathy Crade have accomplished in only four months has been incredible and their ballet school is a “jewel” of a place for quality dance training in OC for all ages & interests. Not to mention that their master class series is still continuing with LINES Ballet’s Alonzo King and his ballet master, Arturo Fernandez, coming to teach a couple of master classes at the Maple Conservatory on October 14 while LINES Ballet is in town for OCPAC’s Fall in Dance performances! I for one, can’t wait to see more offerings from the Maple Conservatory!