Ballet 4 Irish Dance

Ballet 4 Irish Dance explores the relationship between Ballet and Irish Dance in a new and inventive way, using ballet as a tool to enhance students Irish Dancing in all aspects. With a focus on injury prevention, Maddie Russo teaches students new exercises to perform as a warmup and cool down in addition to their regular Irish Dance classes. This will not only increase their turnout, strength and the pointe of their feet, but it will also give them more of an elevated edge in the classroom and at competition.

Maddie Rae Russo is a dancer originally from Delaware. She has spent the last four years living in New York City and working as a professional dancer and has performed all over the North American Continent as a soloist dancer for Norwegian Cruise Lines. Her technical background is in ballet, which she has studied for over ten years with Priscilla Payson who trained and performed with the Royal Academy of Ballet. Maddie was a Youth America Grand Prix finalist in 2014 performing at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Within the last two years she has worked alongside some of the best Irish dancers in the country, in the show Celtic Fyre, where she first developed the program!