I’m excited to officially
announce that Steen’s Mountain Ballet is now part of Healthy ‘N’ Fit LLC
Established in the Spring of 2013
By Rebecca Madsen Steen’s Mountain Ballet has been a wonderful addition to our
community. Rebecca has been a true
blessing to our children and it is a hard good bye to make as she and her
family move to great opportunities in Utah.
It has been a privilege to work with her over the past few months as I
dust off my ballet shoes and get ready to teach the beautiful Ballerinas. I will be joined by two other excited dance
teachers, Isabelle Fleurand and Debbie Pfeiffer.
The Dance studio will be
relocated to 90 W Adams just behind Beauty on Broadway, using the
entrance door right next to the Healthy ‘ n’ Fit Women’s Gym.
Remodeling will be begin on that
side of the building Sept 1st and we are planning on holding our
first Ballet Classes of the Fall Trimester on the Friday after fair which is
Sept 18th. Classes will continue to be three month
trimesters; Fall / Winter / Spring and
will basically follow the school calendar.
Schedules and Class times per age group are posted on the Steens
Mountain Ballet Blog site and printed on the Registration forms. Some students will be placed based on skill
level instead of age. Any questions can be sent to Kara at Steensmountainballet@gmail.com
or you are welcome to call my cell phone at 541-589-3773.
Registrations forms can be
printed off the facebook page, requested
by sending an e-mail to steensmountianballet@gmail.com
or picked up at the chamber. PLEASE return your registration as soon as
possible. Along with the registration form Payment
in needed to hold a spot for your student.
Payment can be made by cash or check made payable to Steens mountain
ballet or via debit and credit card.
Isabelle Fleurand and myself
(Kara Nelson) will be teaching the children’s ballet classes on Fridays
Debbie Pfeiffer will be teaching
Adult Ballet Classes; with times to be announce soon.
Below are short Bio’s introducing
your new Ballet Teachers : we are
all very excited to begin.
ISABELLE FLEURAND : Ms Isy
Isabelle grew up in France taking Ballet lessons
from age 5 into her twenties. Throughout her adult life, she kept taking
Ballet, modern dance and African dance classes as often as possible, while
getting a Master's degree in French/English/German translation, an MA in
Geography, and raising four kids. When her youngest, Amelia, was one year old,
Isabelle started exercising more regularly again, taking aerobics, Pilates and
Yoga classes at her local YMCA in New Jersey. In June 2008 she became a
certified group exercise instructor through her YMCA in Northwest Tucson, AZ.
In 2010, while recovering from cancer treatments and surgery, she completed a
200 hour Yoga teacher training and has been a Yoga Alliance registered Yoga
teacher since 2011. She has taught well over 1,000 hours of Yoga classes,
including Kids Yoga at over 6 locations in Tucson, as well as regularly
attending Yoga teacher workshops. She also completed two Fletcher Pilates
Intensive 40 hour licensing courses in four different ballet-based Pilates
techniques in August 2012 and January 2013 and has taught Pilates at several
gyms in Tucson, AZ. Isabelle moved to Harney County in July 2014 and has been
teaching Yoga here in Burns at Zantiva Yoga since the spring. She got back into
Ballet thanks to Miss Rebecca and Debbie Pfeiffer and is so excited at the
prospect of teaching Ballet to our wonderful pre-teen and teen dance community
here in Harney County!
DEBBIE PFEIFFER:
Ms Debbie
Except for a brief ballet class at age 6,
Debbie Pfeiffer (Ms. Debbie) really began studying ballet and other dance as an
adult. She’s now been taking ballet for 17 years and counting. She gained most
of her dance experience at the College of DuPage (COD) in the Chicago suburbs,
where she also took classes in jazz, contemporary, modern, musical theater,
choreography, and dance performance and production. When she moved to Burns,
Oregon, in January 2015, she was happy to discover Steens Mountain Ballet.
Then-owner Rebecca Madsen invited her to teach an adult ballet class in the
2015 spring session.
Debbie has auditioned
for and performed in one or more pieces twice a year in annual fall student
showcases and spring faculty recitals. She has self- and co-choreographed
several performance pieces, which included collaborating with theater staff to
design lighting, costumes, and sound for those dances. She also has experience
in belly dance, ballroom and Latin dance, and Zumba, and is qualified as an
intro yoga instructor.
Debbie has also
participated in master classes with Chicago-based dance companies Hubbard
Street 2 and Thodos Dance Chicago and traveling national companies Paul Taylor
and Diavolo. She had a chance to consult with Thodos Dance founder and artistic
director Melissa Thodos on one of her self-choreographed performance pieces,
and was in the corps de ballet in a college production of the classic ballet Les
Sylphides. And she served as director’s assistant for half a dozen
college dance productions.
Some of the most dance
fun she’s had was participating in a dance flash mob, dancing in a full-scale
community opera production of The Merry Widow, learning
traditional Ceilidh ("kaylee") dancing in Scotland, and taking
Argentine Tango lessons in Buenos Aires!
Debbie looks forward to
helping Miss Kara (Bowman-Nelson) expand SMB’s class offerings. Dancing brings
her great joy, and she believes everyone—no matter what age or skill level--has
potential dance moves in them. Her mission is to help others experience and
express that joy of dance.
KARA NELSON Ms Kara
My family is rooted in Ranching
and Farms in the Grande Ronde Valley. However
my parents lived a while in Columbia Gorge during my school years so I attend
school in Troutdale. I completed my pre-med at Eastern and my BS Pharmacy and
PharmD degrees at the University of
Montana. After working in Montana and Texas I moved to Burns in 2005. I worked at Harney District Hospital as the
pharmacist for 7 years. In 2007 I also began work park time at Blue
Mountain Hospital in Johnday and after the birth of my children; Taya now 6 and Trevyn now 4, I decided to go part
time and currently I work at Blue
Mountain Hopsital two days a week. I
have been very fortunate to become involved with the young children in our community. I have coached soccer and T-ball. I am an awana leader, Sunday school teacher
and children’s church leader. I have
helped in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms as well as doing some in
home day care. I found that I really
love working and playing with children.
My ballet experience began at age
6 at a Ballet Studio in Gresham Oregon.
In my teen years I expanded to Jazz and some modern dance. As a young adult I had the opportunity to
design choreography for dance and drill teams in the Portland area. In college and in more recent years I have
focused on classes and additional trainings on various dance core skills for
over-all health and fitness. I have
taught various types of fitness classes and am a licensed and certified as a
personal trainer. I am excited to rekindle my ballet skills and
watch the “cutest” ballerinas dance their hearts out.
For future offering at the Dance
Studio we would like your input :
Additional Adult classes, such as
Core Strengthening & Flexibility, PiYo, Latin Dance, and HIIT for weight
loss are possibly in the works for this winter. If you have suggestions for types of adult classes
and /or the times and days that you would like to see such classes offered
please let me know. You can send commit
s and suggestions to steensmountainballet@gmail.com
