Mission: The Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts exists to provide quality arts education and performance by nurturing and encouraging artistic expression in children and adults. Our service to the community ranges from recreational to pre-professional dance and performing arts curriculum and programming designed to provide physical and aesthetic benefits, heightened self-respect, discipline, and confidence.
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Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts
at the Valéncia Arts Center
The Valéncia Arts Center:
With three dance studios, a black box theatre, a recital hall, four music practice rooms, a costume shop, and administrative offices, the Valéncia Arts Center offers quality facilities for quality programming. The VAC primarily exists to be the home of the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts. Additionally, the Center provides a community based facility for music recitals, theatre workshops, and visual arts exhibits, while nurturing relationships with the SMU Theatre Department and Cotter High School. The VAC also functions as an incubator for small emerging arts and cultural groups.
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Vision: Our vision includes fostering an appreciation for the full spectrum of the arts. We continue to reach audiences by building relationships with professional companies, choreographers, and teachers. Long-range goals for our curriculum include the development of theatre and music divisions.
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School History: The Conservatory began over 30 years ago in a one-room studio under the direction of Stefannié Valéncia Kierlin as The Ballet School. Today, the Conservatory is located at the Valéncia Arts Center on the Saint Teresa campus of Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. The Conservatory is an affiliate program of SMU and works closely with Cotter High School, offering accreditation for classes.
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What types of performance opportunities are available for students?
In addition to classes, a large portion of the learning experience for all Conservatory students is performing. Students may audition for MCA's performing company, the Dance Repertory Company. A community favorite for three decades, the DRC presents two concerts per year, and performances feature Classical and contemporary ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance. The company performs the full length Classical ballet, The Nutcracker, every other holiday season, and the production has become a holiday favorite in the Winona area community. The company's other Classical ballet repertoire includes Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Paquita, Cinderella, and Excerpts from Swan Lake. The company also presents many original works encompassing contemporary dance forms. All DRC productions are choreographed and staged by Conservatory faculty and are performed in the Saint Mary's University Page Theatre.
Younger students have the opportunity to perform with our junior company, Dance Repertory Company II. Debuting in the DRC annual Spring Concert in May of 2004, this company was created exclusively to give younger students more opportunities to perform on stage. DRC II performs in a showcase every other December, opposite the Nutcracker season, along with Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts' Young Choreographers Showcase in the Valéncia Arts Center Academy Theatre. All DRC II productions are choreographed and staged by Conservatory faculty.
MCA's Young Choreographers Showcase serves as an opportunity for our intermediate and advanced choreography students to showcase their work in front of an audience. On top of that, it provides them with valuable educational experiences through creating and casting their work, making rehearsal schedules, running their own rehearsals, and learning about a multitude of production elements. Furthermore, the Young Choreographers Showcase creates another performance opportunity for intermediate and advanced MCA students.
Besides MCA's biannual productions, our students have opportunities to perform in smaller, less formal showcases throughout the summer. Each of MCA's Summer Dance Day Camps concludes with a showcase performance that is rehearsed seperately from students' daily technique classes during the Camp. MCA's Summer Intensive also concludes with a showcase performance, rehearsed separately from technique classes. Summer showcases are choreographed and staged by Conservatory faculty and guest artists, held in the Valéncia Arts Center Academy Theatre, and are free and open to the public.
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Where have students gone upon graduation from the Conservatory?
Alumni of the Conservatory have been accepted to and have continued their arts education at a variety of universities and colleges including: the University of Utah, Butler University, the Juilliard School, the University of California at Riverside, Texas Christian University, Wichita State University, St. Olaf College, and the University of Minnesota.
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