Seneca Daily Messenger
Big Town Training is Small Community
David McAllister

DANCE VIRTUOSOS VISIT SENECA
As a young boy in the fourth grade, Pavel Gurevich was asked to stand up with his fellow classmates in the middle of a mathematics class. The students had no idea who the people barking these demands where. One by one the students were asked to sit down until one boy and three girls remained. The examiners then told the three students they would become dancers.

This was not good news for Pavel but this is how things were done in Minsk, Russia back in the 80's. As a young boy Pavel dreamed of being a scientist but his perfect body proportions and flexibility put him on a different path. Between 1987-1995 Pavel studied at the Belarus State Ballet Academy under Alexander Koyadyenko, who trained with the same teachers as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev. After graduating with high honors he danced with the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre as soloist. In 1995 scouts from the Milwaukee Ballet company made Pavel an offer he could not refuse. So he and his family (father, mother & brother) packed up and moved to the USA and made Wisconsin their home. In 2003 Boston Ballet enticed him away and there he remains today. He has no regrets being forced to dance, especially since he works for a company who can afford to pay him four figures a week. If you attended any of the Nutcracker performances in the past two years at the Brooks Center in Clemson, you were privileged to see him in action. For the third summer he will return to Foothills Dance Conservatory in Seneca to work with students in this area and some who will be traveling from as far as Charlotte, NC and Spartanburg, SC.

Also joining Mr. Gurevich for the third year of Summer Dance Camp will be Jessica Kreyer, soloist of Ballet Memphis. For the past two years Ms. Kreyer has performed the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy at the Brooks Center and both she and Pavel are slated to return for this year's production in December produced by Foothills Conservatory for the Performing Arts (FCPA). Classes begin July 10th and run through July 28th. Students will study modern/contemporary dance, jazz dance, classical ballet and variations. For further information please call 864 888-0300.