Work Study Anu Reddy, recently sat down with Dance Complex student Natalia Maldari, to learn more about her experience here at The Dance Complex.
Q&A has been condensed and edited for clarity
Three words to describe Natalia: Dancer, Teacher, Guide
Natalia Maldari has been dancing since she was four years old. “Apparently, I told my mother I wanted to do ballet,” she says. While ballet is her favorite type of dance, she also enjoys modern. She has been a work study at the Dance Complex for several years and currently teaches at three different studios. “After college, I didn’t think I was going to do anything professional with dance, so I stopped going,” she tells me. “But I had been dancing all my life and I missed it too much.” A few months later she started working for the School of Classical Ballet (SCB) and came to the Dance Complex. She has been working at both ever since. She considers both of these communities her “home.”
Q: What are you favorite classes at the Dance Complex? Are there any you want to try?
A: I really take ballet with Roseanne Ridings and Molly Wheat. I also like Jenny Oliver’s modern class, though I only started dancing modern as an adult. I think it’s really important to with different teachers and benefit from their unique styles. I really want to try an African Dance class, but I’m a little nervous. I tried an African dance class in college and I wasn’t very good. I need to work up the confidence.
Q: How did you get involved with the SCB? What has your experience been?
A: After college, I really missed dancing. Kirsta (Kirsta Senziak) hired me right out of college for one Saturday class a week. I really enjoyed working with the students and seeing them get concepts and improve. Kirsta is the most organized person I’ve ever met. We also have a very similar mindset when it comes to teaching dance and I find that there is a lot of consistency across the levels. I’ve been working there for seven years and it’s very rewarding to see my students progress.
Q: Do you have a particularly memorable experience with the SCB?
A: Well, I remember that I had when I started teaching there I was working with the Ballet 1 class (8-10 year olds). After a few months, Kirsta had a quick check-in conversation with me about how everything was going so far and she asked which age students I liked to work with. I immediately responded that loved working with Ballet 1, they were my comfort zone. She took a slight pause and the she said, “You know, the 4 year-olds really surprise me sometimes.” I love working with the young kids now but it was definitely a change.
Q: What’s your favorite Dance Complex memory?
A: Hmm, there are many great memories at the Dance Complex, but this one happened recently. I was at Kristen Wagner’s show and Peter (Peter DiMuro) came out and gave an introductory speech. He said that we were all family at The Dance Complex and you never know who is going to be here. It was funny because I had actually ended up sitting next to Ann Brown Allen and Brian Feigenbaum. It was incredible to hear their commentary on the show. The Dance Complex is really the hub for dance in Boston. It’s great that the SCB practices here.
Q: What are you working on? What’s your goal for the future?
A: I’m working on a lot of things right now. I have a few recitals coming up so I’ve working with my students. I’ve also recently started understudying with Anna Meyer’s company. I’m going to attend a dance teacher conference this summer. It will be nice to get some new insights to teaching. These days, teachers and dancers need to be more versatile and looking at different perspectives helps. My ultimate goal is to go back to school to study physical therapy. I studied French in undergrad though, so I’m currently taking the prerequisite science classes. In the future I want to keep teaching and work in physical therapy to help dancers. No matter what, I’ll be involved with dance in some way, but this new approach will influence the way I teach and dance.