The Ballet Arts Academy isn’t your standard dance studio dominated by roaming, sticky-fingered toddlers sporting tap shoes one minute then ballet slippers the next.  You won’t find rows and rows of multi-sized trophies and spangle-clad, bare-torsoed youngsters smiling out from group photos. 

Instead you find a peaceful historic space with plenty of “scope for the imagination”.  High ceilings, hardwood floors, worn ballet shoes and comfortable chairs in the lounge, sparse décor– the graceful simplicity of a ballerina.  BAA instructors teach classical ballet and espouse the classical ideal.  They do it remarkably well.  Seven of their students were accepted into summer intensive courses at the Washington School of Ballet and the Kirov Academy.

Jayne Stefani-Keating, Ms Jayne to her students, has had a long and illustrious classical dance career both in the United States and Europe.  But, after having two children she let go of her art, until an old friend convinced her to dance in New York again.

“My husband was great about it,” remembers Stefani-Keating.  “He was very supportive.” 

Deborah Stanley is also a long-time supporter of Stefani-Keating.  When life eventually brought Ms Jayne to Charles County, Deborah Stanley was one of her earliest students.  Stefani-Keating gives Stanley much credit for persuading her to open the Ballet Arts Academy in 2005.  Stanley is the academy’s administrator and an instructor for its youngest students. 

As my tour through the studio began, Stefani-Keating shared that she fell in love with the building when she first saw it.  It’s no wonder that she did.  Their space in the Old Waldorf School is a nearly perfect for classical dancers.  The classrooms each have a wall of windows that give the space a light airy feeling.   The old wooden floor of one room becomes a stage when the sectional-mirrored wall folds back to reveal the audience in the great hall.

The whole place echoes with a history of instruction and almost audibly begs to be utilized in this elegant way.  Ms Jayne and Ms Deborah gave abundant credit to the Waldorf Jaycees for all of their help in restoring the building. 

After two years of establishment, Stefani-Keating and Stanley feel they have a good core of intermediate dancers.  Their new non-profit status makes them eligible for grants and funding which will allow them to accommodate more students.