Ms. Vegh’s professional career has been distinguished, long and varied. Following a number of years as a performer, she has devoted her attention to the education of dancers: as a teacher and as a director of ballet schools/programs. She is currently working in three related areas:
Director, Maria Vegh Ballet Centre
For more than a decade, the Centre has provided a setting for Ms. Vegh’s work with promising, serious dancers. It is not a ballet school in the usual sense; it has no schedule of classes. The emphasis, rather, is on private, individualized instruction and coaching; the identification and correction of technical issues; the development of technique, line and musicality; injury prevention. Ms. Vegh is highly regarded for her ability to evaluate young dancers, and for creating individualized programs that speak to particular needs. Nearly all students who study here are fully-enrolled in other dance programs throughout the Bay area. Their work here permits individualized attention not normally available in the usual classroom situation.
Ms. Vegh has former students dancing, or teaching in, companies throughout America and Europe, including Ms. Joanna Berman, recently retired principal ballerina of the San Francisco Ballet.
I do not think there is a more dedicated, talented professional in all the American dance scene than Maria Vegh. Maria’s students have been seen, both as performers and as teachers and directors, in many dance companies throughout the United States and abroad.
David Howard
Founder
David Howard Dance Foundation
Master Teacher/Leader of Teacher Training Seminars
Ms. Vegh continues to travel throughout the U.S. and Japan as a master teacher. She is the author of To Dance, an instructional program and syllabus, which she uses in training seminars with ballet teachers. She has produced a 3-tape video sequence entitled Sculpting the Ballet Body, as well as a fourth tape entitled Introducing Ballet to Children: A Different Approach. She also serves as an advisor to ballet schools and companies upon request, and is a member of Regional Dance America’s Advisory Committee.
Artistic Director, Wells Fargo Center’s The Nutcracker
Initially approached in the summer of 2007 by Ms. Darlene Walley, producer of the
Wells Fargo Center, The Nutcracker, Ms. Vegh agreed to direct this delightful Christmas
tradition. Collaborating with Ms. Walley and choreographer Viktor Kabaniaev, the
production starred the gifted, internationally celebrated Rasta Thomas and Tina Kay
Bohnstedt, a live orchestra, and the Santa Rosa Children’s Chorus. For the first
time, casting was done in open auditions, a most-promising step in creating a truly
countywide offering.
Ms. Vegh can be reached at:
Maria Vegh Ballet Centre
471 Rainsville Rd.
Petaluma, California 94952
(707) 765-4530
mtvegh@yahoo.com
Ms. Vegh, impressed with the sense, dedication and effort demonstrated by the large
cast, agreed to direct 2008’s production, which again featured Mr. Thomas and Ms.
Bohnstedt, joined by Adrienne Canterna and Thomas’s company, Bad Boys of Dance. A
quite remarkable production.
Further information is available at www.santarosanutcracker.com
