Kansas City Ballet

And so you should go listen to them.

But With the exception of one, which is Kansas City Ballet, and they do this thing called a choreo lab that is where you actually get to go and choreograph.

All of the other choreographic workshops are very similar to a company experience.

You go for a week or two and you simulate life, the life of a professional dancer.

But yeah, no, I, I consider it a huge plus.

Uh, I still, uh, ask for help, uh, like Ramona Pansegrau out of, uh, Kansas City Ballet musical director, conductor there.

B- helps me with a lot of things, 'cause, you know, you, you start getting rusty if you're not a, you know, with it all the time.

But, uh-

She joined Oklahoma City Ballet as the director of the Yvonne Chouteau School and Studio Company in 2020.

Rachel previously was a principal of Kansas City Ballet School, where she created and oversaw their pre-professional day program.

She worked as a children's ballet coach and staged children's roles in company productions, including Devon Carney's The Nutcracker, which toured to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She's a graduate of the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C., where she attended on scholarship.

She joined Ballet International in Indianapolis.

She began dancing at just three years old, exploring ballet, tap, jazz, and musical theater before dedicating herself to classical ballet at the age of 10.

She went on to train at Ballet Royale of Minnesota, perform with Twin Cities Ballet, and attend summer programs, including with American Ballet Theatre and Kansas City Ballet.

Today, she's in her fourth season as artistic director of Minnesota Ballet Collective, an organization that she founded in 2023.

Minnesota Ballet Collective is committed to empowering advanced ballet dancers through creativity, collaboration, and artistic growth.

I have to be here at this point." And sometimes it doesn't work out like that, and I love what you said about just kind of letting go and just leaning into the joy of it and kind of the artistic expression and letting it unfold however it unfolds for you because sometimes we, we try to exercise such tight control over it.

Um, so I think that's really important advice.

I also read that you did, um, you've done a couple of ballet intensives, and one of them was at American Ballet Theatre, and you've also taken intensives at Kansas City Ballet.

How did those experiences with different ballet companies and, and, you know, ABT's case and Kansas City as well, much bigger companies, kind of expand your understanding of yourself as a dancer?