Kmiec returns as director of ballet school

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Virginia Hartman has stepped down as artistic director of Ballet Western Reserve and has been replaced by well-known dancer and choreographer Stas Kmiec, who briefly held the post a few years ago.

“For the past three years, Virginia has served as an able ambassador for BWR, establishing an artistic vision for the organization that will serve us well moving forward,” said Sabrina Shapiro, president of the BWR Board of Directors. “We wish her well in her next challenge. And with Stas back at the helm, I know that we will not miss a beat moving forward. The energy and excitement he brings to our programs is tremendous.”

Kmiec, of New York, is returning to Youngstown, where he was the director of BWR for the winter/spring season in 2010-11. During his previous stint at BWR, the school’s facility in the Morley Building was given an interior renovation and exterior branding, groundwork for outreach and adjunct programs were established, and a series of “Let’s Move Youngstown” programs were initiated.

Most recently, Kmiec has been active in choreography and film work in New York, serving as an instructor at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and Ballet Arts, and artistic director of the Sarabande Repertory Dance Ensemble and the Lublin Ensemble.

Kmiec has danced with the Boston Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, toured and performed on Broadway with both Rudolf Nureyev and in the American Dancemachine.

He traveled to the Soviet Union with Stars of American Ballet, and has performed in numerous Broadway and national touring theater productions.

Ballet Western Reserve is the only nonprofit dance education program in the Mahoning Valley.

The 50-year-old school provides training in multiple areas of dance, including ballet.

It is the only school in the area that uses the prestigious American Ballet Theater curriculum — modern, tap, jazz, hip-hop and lyrical.