Kirsta Sendziak began her dance training and education in Buffalo, NY with Clare Fetto of The Festival School of Ballet and Elaine Gardner of Pick of the Crop Dance. She attended Hampshire College, completing a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Psychology. Dancing for over 25 years, and in Boston since 2003, she has taken instruction from Anna Myer, Margot Parsons, Rebecca Rice, Marcus Schulkind, and Wanda Strukus. Kirsta has performed works by Elaine Gardner, Marcus Schulkind, Kelley Donovan and Dancers, Josie Bray and Wanda Strukus.
In 2009, Kirsta became Co-Director of The School of Classical Ballet, incorporating modern and jazz dance techniques into the curriculum. She became Director in 2011, and her incorporation of tradition and innovation into SOCB classes has been featured in articles in Harvard Magazine (January-February 2016, “Raising the Barre”: SOCB’s philosophy of educating children to focus on dance as a component of whole-child development), and Dance Studio Life (December 2016, “The Power of the Page”: SOCB Summer Intensive writing component).
Work Study Victoria Torres recently sat down with Kirsta Sendziak to learn more about The School of Classical Ballet and her involvement with The Dance Complex community.
Q: Can you just start off by describing the work that you do at the Dance Complex? What does the day to day look like for you?
A: I’m the director of the School of Classical Ballet here at the Dance Complex. The school offers classes in ballet, modern, jazz, tap, hip hop to students ages 3-18. We hold classes every day, the weekday classes are in the afternoon time slot between 3:30-6:30 and then we have classes in the mornings and afternoons on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Basically, my role as the director is to oversee the whole school in addition to teaching, I teach about 12-13 classes per week. My day to day would be spending the morning and early afternoon doing administrative work, bookkeeping work, answering emails, putting together newsletters, answering phone calls, all of that kind of administrative stuff. Then coming into the Dance Complex in the afternoon and teaching 2-3 classes per day, or if it’s a weekend, I spend most of the weekend teaching, and trying to take Sunday off.
It’s a lot of customer service, it’s a lot of interacting with parents and students. We also have four other instructors that teach at the school, so it’s coordinating their classes and making sure that they know what’s going on with their students if anyone is going to be absent or if there are any problems arising. It’s also coordinating with the Dance Complex and booking the studio space. I also have to coordinate for our June performance and making sure the venue is booked for that, usually at the Cambridge Ridge and Latin School. It’s deciding on music, choreography and costumes, everything like that.
Q: Can you describe your journey as an artist and a professional? How did you get to be where you are today?
A: I started taking ballet when I was seven and danced ballet, modern and jazz. In college, I double majored in dance and psychology. I was interested in dance therapy, but during the summers I taught at my high school’s summer camp. When I moved to the Boston area after college, I decided to try performing which I did as a freelance dancer for a couple of different choreographers and companies. It was great, but I always had a love for teaching.
A friend of mine was a teacher at the School of Classical Ballet because the school has been around since 1985, and around ten years ago one of the original directors wanted to sell the school and wanted my friend to take it over. My friend didn’t want to do it by herself, so we decided to take it over together. We did that in the summer of 2009, but she moved away in the summer of 2011, so that’s how I ended up being the sole director of the school.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to work in dance or arts administration?
A: Try to get as much experience as you can. For the administrative aspect, there’s more customer service involved than people realize. I think if you spend all your time working in an office that’s not something you’ll get to experience. Try to find a customer service job, whether that be retail or food service, because that comes in handy more than people realize. Also, be an independent worker. You have to be really self-motivated, and if it doesn’t come naturally to you then give yourself tasks to figure out how to motivate yourself.
Q: What made you fall in love with ballet and stay in love with it?
A: I didn’t really like it when I first started. I found it to be kind of boring because when you’re young it’s so much about the discipline and it’s repetitive, but my mom made me stick with it. Later on, my studio had to take a break because the rent got too high and we had to find another space. It was during that time that I realized I missed dancing. I realized that not only was I starting to enjoy dance because it was more challenging than the sports I was playing, but I also really missed the community and my friends and my teacher. It was about three years in when we took the break so I had spent a significant amount of time with my teacher and my friends. It was kind of being able to take a step back and say “Oh, this is what I like about it.” I also think I enjoyed that it’s an art form and I really appreciate dance as an art form. Also, just the physical movement, once you go and take a class or perform there’s really no rush like it.
Q: How do you feel that sense of community here at the Dance Complex? How do you strive to cultivate that in your classes?
A: The Dance Complex has always felt like a community to me. Growing up doing dance, I feel like not a lot of people understand it if they’ve never experienced it. Growing up, I didn’t always have that support from my friends and family, so being in a space that always supports what you do is a really fantastic feeling. To be around like-minded individuals and people who are excited to dance, I feel like that doesn’t happen in a lot of places in this country. The community, in that aspect, has always felt very welcoming to me.
Cultivating in class is kind of similar, teaching the students a love and a joy for it, so that it becomes something that they can hold on to for the rest of their lives. To let them know that no matter where they go, even if they go to college or move out of the area, they can find a dance studio and take a class and understand what is going on in the class. They will know what all the steps are, know what they mean, and be able to insert themselves into these communities all across the world. Also, teaching them to have an appreciation for each other and to support, encourage and be kind to each other.
Q: The School serves such a wide range of ages, how does the age of the student change how you approach this sense of community in the classroom?
A: For the younger students, technique is taught but it’s not really the focus. The focus for them is really the discipline. We’re trying to teach them how to behave in a dance studio, so we don’t really encourage talking, distracting or touching each other. Sometimes it feels like I’m doing the impossible, but they start to understand that while you’re in a class with ten or twelve other students you’re also responsible for your own improvement and your own body. As they get older I like to give them exercises that give them the chance to support each other. They’ll partner up and watch their partner do a step and give them corrections, both positive and corrections for improvement, and then switch off. Something like that helps to create a supportive environment because they’re helping each other and they also get to know each other. Any exercise where they get to partner or build a combination together and then have to problem-solve. Sometimes I’ll have them create a combination and teach it to the class it helps them appreciate teachers a little bit more.
Written by Dance Complex Work Study Victoria Torres
