News

11.10.2007 - NCDC Students Work With World Renowned Choreographer

The NCDC students had a wonderful opportunity to work with choreographer Leonardo Barbu, Mr. Constant’s long time friend and professional colleague from Germany. Furthermore, some were selected to perform in his choreography “Pulse” at the annual "Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival" in Palm Desert, CA in the professional division.

Mr. Barbu graduated from the National Ballet School in Bucharest, Romania where he later joined the National Ballet for two years before moving to Germany in 1991. He then performed as a soloist with different Companies and acted as Ballet-Master in Germany, Japan, Canada and Romania. Most recently he was Assistant-Choreographer and Ballet Master with the Dessau Theatre (Germany) and is presently a freelance choreographer for different Companies and festivals internationally

11.09.2007 - Leonardo Barbu and Jen Bradford were accepted into the 2007 Choreography Festival in Palm Desert California

NCDC Pre Professional Company members traveled to Palm Desert California November 10th-12th to participate in the the festival. They performed the piece “Pulse” choreographed by German choreographer Leonardo Barbu in the Division I on Saturday night. The young dancers had the opportunity to share the stage with the Sacramento Ballet and 12 other professional companies in an eclectic evening of dance. Sunday evening they performed “Solitary Confinement” and El Circulo Del Amor choreographed by Jen Bradford. Solitary Confinement danced by Brendon Feeney won a 2nd place Grand prize for choreography.

Renowned Teacher Leads Ballet Master Class at NCDC

In September, the students of the Northern California Dance Conservatory had a unique opportunity to enjoy a series of Master Classes conducted by star-dancer and Professor Cristina Hamel, good friend and professional colleague of Mr. Constant.

Ms. Hamel studied at the National Conservatory of Choreography in Bucharest, Romania and worked with Ballet-Masters of the “Mariinsky Theatre” (Kirov) in St. Petersburg, Russia before becoming Prima-Ballerina with the Bucharest National Opera House in Romania, where for the next twenty-three years she danced the majority of the classical roles, as well as promoting neo-classical and modern repertoire in the country. During this time, she was also guest artist with other dance Companies and toured internationally, performing with many other celebrated personalities of the dance world.

From 1980 she acted as Ballet Mistress in France with the “Theatre Capitole de Toulouse”, - in Italy with “Teatro alla Scala” (Milan), “Atter Balletto” (Reggio Emilia) and “Torino Ballet”, - in Germany with the “Berlin Opera House” (Deutsche Oper Berlin), “Bonn Opera House” and “Düsseldorf Opera House”, - and for the next twelve years as Professor of Dance with the “Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance Cologne” (Germany).

In 2002 she has moved to France and is constantly invited as Professor of Dance and Ballet Mistress with many schools and large professional Dance Companies nationally and worldwide. She has also produced several pedagogy DVDs that are distributed by Sud Reportage, France. Over the years, her students have been dancing with major dance Companies and have broadened the art of dance as teachers. She is member of national and international dance juries, as well as member of the National Dance Confederation (CND) in France. In 2002 she has received the Medal of Honor from the Romanian Government for a life dedicated to the advocacy of dance internationally at its best.