Jennet Zerbe

Ballet faculty member Jennet Zerbe combines her years as a professional dancer with American Ballet Theatre and her extensive knowledge in ballet teacher training to gladly carry forward the legacy of classical ballet shared with her by the great teachers with whom she has been fortunate to study. Zerbe endeavors to guide a dancer’s development as a learner, an artist and an individual, through careful and rigorous instruction in ballet’s best techniques.

Zerbe works with students to develop a thorough understanding of classical ballet movement vocabulary. This mastery enables versatility and freedom of expression in performance; not only in classical works such as "Swan Lake," but also in a postmodern work by the likes of Merce Cunningham, or something as current as former Dean Susan Jaffe’s choreography. Her objective is to train fluent dancers who understand the process of achieving different movement styles through mastering the refinement of classical ballet line and technique.

Credentials

• Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Teachers Workshop
• Maestro Enrico Cecchetti Diploma awarded, England
• Nancy and Murray Kilgour Teacher Training
• ABT certified teacher in all levels of the National Training Curriculum, developed and endorsed by the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet at ABT
• Coached by Elena Tchernichova from the Kirov, Georgina Parkinson of the Royal Ballet and trained with Gilbert Mayer of the Paris Opera Ballet
• Royal Ballet School Graduate Certificate & Advanced Cecchetti Certificate, honors
• Additional Ballet Training includes five years training with Olga Fricker and Sheila Darby, Los Angeles and Margaret Craske, New York
• Pilates Method Alliance, Certified Pilates Teacher
• Kane School of Core Integration, Pilates Apparatus Certification; Pilates Mat Certification; Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Choreography; Advanced Teaching Techniques
• Studied Pilates with Robert Fitzgerald, who trained under Joseph Pilates, and whose focus was teaching dancers and injury rehabilitation

Career Highlights

• Danced for eight years with American Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov, appearing in all of the classical ballets in ABT’s repertoire including 'Dance of the Big Swans' in "Swan Lake," and the 'Lilac Fairy' in "The Sleeping Beauty"
• Danced many neoclassical ballets by George Balanchine, including the first principal couple in "Bourrée Fantasque," as well as the postmodern choreography of Merce Cunningham: appearing in his "Duets" on the PBS series "Dance in America" 
• Participating in the arc of development of students becoming professional dancers
• Dancing the 'Lilac Fairy' with Cynthia Gregory as 'Aurora' and with V.G. in the audience
• Being on stage at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, in the corps de ballet when Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov danced the second act of "Giselle"
• The exhilarating process of rehearsing and then performing 'Odette' in Act II of "Swan Lake" at the Royal Ballet School