The Way of Dance

Lesandre's Bio

Lesandre Ayrey was born in Australia and started dance lessons in Paris at the age of five. A graduate of the Royal Ballet School, London, she has studied, taught, and performed the world's great dance traditions from the Far & Mid East and Indonesia. Her Indonesian dance teachers include I. Nyoman & Nanik Wenten, as well as Balasundari & Balasaraswati in S. Indian dance. She has been performing and teaching Eastern dance since 1973. Lesandre presently teaches advanced ballet for the California Arts Academy and the Performing Arts Center as well as leads her own troupe in S. Indian Classical Dance, Javanese Court Dance and Balinese Ritual Dance.

The Way of Dance Home

Bharatanatyam

Javanese Court Dance

Balinese Ritual Dance

Curriculum Vitae:

Accreditation:

Graduate, Royal Ballet School of London:

Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Syllabuses

A.R.A.D. - Associate of the Royal Academy of Dancing

Activities in Fresno area 1985 -present:

Guest performer/teacher/lecturer

Director of the The Way of Dance / Natyamritam School

Participant in Fresno's Artists-in-the-Schools program

PACES: School programs in Madera and Fresno counties

Instructor in:

Classical Ballet

Classical dance forms of South & Southeast Asia

Ballet instructor for:

Treasure Island Naval Facility: 1970 – 1978

Alameda Naval Facility: 1974 - 1978

Ballet en Ronde, Santa Rosa: 1983 - 1984

Fresno Conservatory for the Arts, Helena Gramis: 1985-1986

Cynthia Merrill Performing Arts, Fresno: 1986 - 2005

The Dance Shop, Visalia: 1986 - 1987

Ramona's Dance Studio, Clovis, 1986-1988

Severance Ballet School, Fresno, 1991

Fig Garden Dance Studio, Kaye Migaki: 1988

Centerstage Dance Studio, Oakhurst: 1997 – 2003

Fresno City College:

Beginning & Intermediate ballet program, 1998-2004

Performing Arts Center 2004 – 2007

Dancers inC 2007 - present

California Arts Academy 2005 - 2010

Coaching / Choreography:

Piece for annual Fresno Ballet Fall Gala, 1990

("Exultante":Vivaldi Concerto)

'Coppelia', Fresno Ballet, 1991

Moscow Ballet ‘Nutcracker’, 2004

Mentors in Classical Ballet

Mme. Maria Kedrina (Santa Barbara)

Doris Gunsett Academy (Santa Barbara)

Mme. Marie Balon (Paris)

Mme. Yvonne Redgis (Montecito)

Margot Doerner School of Ballet (Santa Barbara)

David Lichine and Tatiana Riabouchinska (Hollywood)

De Cotta School of Ballet (Santa Barbara)

Russell Kerr, Bettina Edwards, Rowena Jackson,

Philip Chatfield, Alexander Grant,

Kenneth Tillson (New Zealand)

Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Nina Stroganova,

Valentina Pereyeslavec (New York)

Michael Panaieff (Los Angeles)

Jean Hart Academy (San Francisco, full scholarship pupil)

Marc Wilde (San Francisco)

San Francisco Ballet School (full scholarship pupil)

Anatole Vilzak, Ludmilla Schollar, Harold Christensen,

Petrus Van Muyden, Carlos Carvajal

Royal Ballet School, London: Ninette de Valois, Eileen Ward,

Barbara Fewster, Julia Farron, Donald Britton,

Joy Newton, Valerie Adams

Maria Fay (London)

Errol Addison (London)

Ruth French (London)

Mme. Svetlanova (San Francisco)

Kenneth Melville (San Francisco)

Alla Sizova (Santa Barbara)

Finis Jhung (Montclair)

Training in Classical Ethnic Dance

South India: Bharata Natyam

Balasundari, Balasaraswati, Luise Scripps,

K. Ramaiah, Katherine & K. P. Kunhiraman

Indonesia:

Court Dances from Surakarta and Jogyakarta

I Nyoman & Nanik Wenten, Martati Harnanto, Maridi, Suharto

Indonesia: Temple Dances from Bali

I Made & Svasti Bandem, Suweca

Indonesia: Sundanese Style (West Java)

Irawati Ardjo

Japan: Buyo-no-mai

Sensei Rokushige Fujima, San Francisco

China: Ancient Dances of the T'ang Dynasty

Nancy Kuo, Chinese Arts Institute of London

Korea: Court Dance, Hi-ah Park, U. C. Berkeley

Medieval and Ancient Greek Dance

I. S. T. D., London

Flamenco:

Lita Andalucia (San Francisco), Renee Garcia,

Eva Amador-Gosselin (Madera),

Anna Young (Fresno)

Middle Eastern Dance:

Ellie Katsoulis (Fresno), Katarina (Berkeley)

Annette Federico (Fresno), Artemis Mourat (Fresno)

Lydia Fortner (Fresno)

Performing experience

Classical Ballet

California Imperial Ballet Company, San Francisco

Les Sylphides (Pas de Deux, Waltz, Mazurka)

Coppelia (Friend of Swanhilda)

La Ronde (Rose Girl)

San Francisco Ballet Company

Beauty & the Beast (Rose Waltz)

San Francisco Opera Ballet, Soloist,

under the direction of Zachary Solov:

Die Fledermaus (Grand Waltz)

Die Meistersinger

Andrea Chenier (Soloist)

Un Ballo in Maschera (Soloist)

Rigoletto, Pelleas and Melisande

Ethnic Dance

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

MIT, Museum of Fine Arts, Fogg &

Isabelle Gardner Museums, Boston

Los Angeles City Museum of Natural History

(Heritage of India exhibit)

Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento

Fresno Metropolitan Museum (Passage to India Exhibit)

Fresno Art Museum (Lecture Series)

Festival of the Chariots, San Francisco and Los Angeles

Rogue Festival, Fresno

Universities, concert series

U.C. Davis, San Francisco , Berkeley, Fresno,

San Diego, Stanford, San Jose, Hayward,

Sacramento, Santa Cruz

Colleges

Mills College, Oakland

Dominican, San Rafael

Lone Mountain, San Francisco

West Hills, Coalinga

Redwoods College, Eureka

Santa Rosa Jr. College

College of the Sequoias, Visalia

City College, Fresno

Schools

San Francisco, Marin, Fresno, Tulare & Madera County

School Districts

Various:

Covent Garden, London

Queen Elizabeth Hall & Royal Albert Hall, London

Bank of America Concert Series, San Francisco

Mauna Kea Resort Hotel, Hawaii

Macy's, San Francisco (Chinese New Year)

J. C. Penney's Fresno (Festival of India)

Central California Cultural Society of India

Hospitals, senior / developmentally disabled centers

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Old First Church, San Francisco

Films & TV:

Subject of film made for

Lincoln Center Dance Archives, New York

WGBH, Boston: Documentary video 1979

KSEE, Fresno: Dance profile 1987