Master Class

Covenant Ballet Academy welcomes legendary ballet artists Maria Youskevitch and Kirk Peterson for a special ballet class and Meet-the-Artist. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024

2:00-4:00PM Ballet Class - Open to CBT Amethyst, Emerald & Onyx levels

(Emerald & Onyx girls bring pointe shoes)

4:00-5:00PM Meet-the-Artist and Q&A - Open to ALL CBT ballet levels!

Limited enrollment: RSVP by April 18! CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST FACULTY

MARIA YOUSKEVITCH is the daughter of legendary ballet star Igor Youskevitch and Anna Scarpova Youskevitch, stars of the Maryinsky Ballet & Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. She began her training with her mother Anna, and then became a student of Bronislava Nijinska (Vaslav Nijinsky’s sister). She also trained with the great Maryinsky ballerina Olga Preobrajenska, ballerina Julia Sedova, and, of course, with her father, the great Igor Youskevitch. Maria also benefited from training by Ludmilla Schollar, who along with Maria’s mother was one of the original teachers for Ballet Theatre’s first school in New York City, as well as with notable ballet master teachers Anatole Vilzak, Vera Nemchinova, Igor Schwezolf, Leon Danielian, William Dollar, Fernand Nault and Yurek Lazovsky. Maria performed with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Massine’s Beau Danube and as Clara in their Nutcracker. And, as a young 13 year old, Maria was personally coached by Alicia Alonso in her appearance as the Coppelia Doll in the Alonso/Youskevitch production of Coppelia. She was a soloist with American Ballet Theatre (ABT), Maryland Ballet, and in Igor Youskevitch’s concert group, Ballet Romantique. Other premier choreographers she has worked with include Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, David Blair and George Balanchine, and performed in works by Michael Fokine and Alvin Ailey. Maria has more than 44 years of ballet teaching and coaching experience. 

She began teaching at the Igor Youskevitch School of Ballet, was company teacher, rehearsal assistant and senior faculty member for the Hartford Ballet. She was ballet mistress for BalletMet and Nevada Dance Theatre, coached for the New York International Ballet Competition, and has taught at prestigious schools such as the David Howard Dance Center, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, the JKO School at American Ballet Theatre, Maurice Bejart’s Mudra, Richmond Ballet, the Virginia School of the Arts and more. She was on faculty at ABT and is a ABT certified instructor in the ABT National Training Curriculum. She was a principal faculty member at the Princeton Ballet School for almost 20 years. 

KIRK PETERSON has had a long and distinguished career as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and San Francisco Ballet. He was also a principal dancer with London Festival Ballet, Harkness Ballet and the National Ballet of Washington. Peterson had an extremely distinguished 17 year career with ABT as a principal dancer, choreographer, Artistic Director of ABT II, ABT Ballet Master, Principal Character Artist and Master Teaching Associate for the main company, ABT II, the JKO School at ABT and the ABT Summer Intensive. Peterson began his ballet studies at the age of three in his native New Orleans, where he studied for fifteen years with Lelia Haller, a distinguished pedagogue from the Paris Opera Ballet. In addition to ABT, Mr. Peterson was also a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, London’s Festival Ballet, Harkness Ballet and the National Ballet of

Washington. Peterson’s extensive repertoire included all the full-length classics and he appeared in a wide range of works by the world’s renowned choreographers of the 19th and 20th century. Peterson was also Artistic Director of the Hartford Ballet for five years. As a choreographer, Peterson has created over 50 ballets that have been performed by San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Washington Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, BalletMet, San Francisco Opera and The Royal Ballet School and Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. He is a specialist in re-staging the full-length classical repertoire, was nominated

for the prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse in Moscow for Othello, created for Alberta Ballet, was resident choreographer for Cincinnati Ballet for six years and he is also a repetiteur for the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust. Additionally, Peterson collaborated with Michael Smuin on two Broadway productions. The first, Anything Goes, starred Patti LuPone and in 1990, he was co-choreographer with Smuin of a lavish musical based on James Clavell’s novel Shogun. Mr. Peterson also appeared in and served as ballet master and consultant for the

feature film Center Stage. He also staged all of the classroom scenes for the film.