Madame Karkar was the recipient of the first
honorary degree from the Isadora Duncan International Institute
to teach Isadora Duncan to children. In the September 1998 issue
of Dance Magazine, she was featured in the “Great Starts
Series” as on of the great American dance teachers.
She also has been recognized on a local and
regional basis, having been chosen one of the Wausau YWCA’s
Women of Vision; honored by the Chamber of Commerce Women in Business
Owners with the Athena Award as Business Woman of the Year; and
awarded the Wisconsin Dance Council’s highest honor—the
Career Distinction Award.
Under Madame Karkar’s direction, CWSB
has staged and performed such ballets as Hansel and Gretel, A
Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, Viva Vivaldi, Les Patineurs, La
Fille Mal Garde, the second act of Swan Lake, Peter and the Wolf,
Pas de Quatre, excerpts from A Chorus Line featuring Leslie Woodies,
and The CanCan featuring Wayne Stewarte.
In spring 1987, CWSB presented a gala performance
with principal dancer Laura Young. On June 1, 1995, Stephen Stills
presented a benefit performance for CWSB.
Over the years CWSB has played host to many
professional dance companies for workshops and performances, including
Joffrey II, Milwaukee Ballet, Et Toi Tu Danses? Ballet Wisconsin
and the Hartford Ballet.
CWSB’s annual Summer Program has become
a showcase for world-renowned artists, including Shamil Yagudin
of the Bolshoi Ballet; Irina Kolpakova, formerly of the Kirov
Ballet and currently Ballet Mistress at American Ballet Theater
in New York; Vladilen Semynov, Ballet Master of the Vaganova School
and Ballet Internationale; Gabriela Komleva of the Kirov Ballet;
and Catherine Kingsley of the Royal Ballet of England. Students
of CWSB have been awarded scholarships with the Joffrey School
of Ballet, Chicago City Ballet, and the Ruth Page School of Ballet.
Students also have gone on to join professional
companies including Patrik Kasper, Karissa Stich, and Melissa
Anderson (Milwaukee Ballet); Jeanene Russell Perry (Boshoi Ballet
and North Carolina Dance Theater); and Kelly Kohnert who appeared
in Cats and The Hot Mikado and with the Radio City Music Hall
Rockets . CWSB attracts students from near and far, including
such far away places as United Arab Emerates, Taiwan, Kenya, Germany
and China.
CWSB’s annual production of the Nutcracker
was declared in Newsweek Magazine as “…one of the
Nation’s nine most notable Nutcrackers”; cited as
“…the most enchanting…” by Midwest Express
Airlines Magazine; and pronounced “A Nutcracker to Remember”
in Wisconsin Trails, Great Weekend Adventures. Local residents
voted the production one of the most memorable shows at the Grand
Theater in City Pages “Get With the Program” 2003.
This past summer CWSB students, Wausau Dance
Theater members and Guest Artists Alexander Roycman, Jeanne Bresciani,
Jeanene Russell Perry and Yumelia Garcia traveled to Germany at
the invitation of Moritz Landgraf Von Hessen, and performed for
the Darmstadter Residenz Festspiele in Darmstadt as well as the
Schloss Fasanerie Barock-Castle in Eichenzell - Fulda.
Central Wisconsin School of Ballet is the official
School of Wausau Dance Theatre.
|
