Coaching For Excellence and Debunking Misinformation
Kathryn M. Robbins on Her Training Philosophy
By Madison Huizinga, Former DWC Blog Editor
Photo by David Cooper
Operating in a history-rich artistic genre like ballet has its benefits and drawbacks. While there are benefits in upholding the traditions of classical ballet training, there is also a need to push for more up-to-date information about important training aspects, particularly those relating to nutrition and mental health. Kathryn M. Robbins, the owner of The Sylvia Joyce Wanner School (previously known as The Ballet Workshop of Port Angeles) and director of KMCoaching Seattle, is passionate about technically progressing dancers through coaching workshops and helping demystify widespread misinformation in the dance realm. Click here for more information on KMCoaching’s Young Professionals Intensive 2023 being held August 21-25, 2023 at The Francia Russell Center at Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Ms. Robbins’ dance journey began in Toronto, where she only began serious ballet training at the age of 11. At age 15, it was The Joffrey Ballet School that would introduce her to the professional world of dance. She would go on to become an apprentice at Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and perform on tour with Vancouver Goh Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Due to injury, and a desire to step into pedagogy, she stopped dancing in her early twenties. She shares that her goal in dance was always to teach, after first performing at the highest professional level that she could, as she saw the value in bringing the first-hand perspective of a professional dancer to her role as a teacher. She opened her first all-junior private academy, Vancouver Junior Professional Division, in 2005.
Before transitioning into teaching full-time, Ms. Robbins shares that she did a lot of independent research, using her Cecchetti certifications to help build her base of knowledge. She attended consecutive teachers' course summers at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she honed in on what type of content she wanted her teaching curriculum to contain, drawing inspiration from the renowned Marcia Dale Weary. She continued to stay connected with CPYB and is now a frequent guest teacher at their summer intensives.
After years of research, Ms. Robbins would base her Vancouver ballet school’s syllabus on what she learned at CPYB, combined with principles from The Royal Ballet School’s teacher program, the Paris Opera Ballet School’s demonstrations, and ABT’s curriculum. “I was sort of getting a sense of all these different training methods and what I thought was useful from all of them,” she says of honing her own syllabus. From 2009-2015 her students would win consecutive medals at YAGP and in 2013, she was named Outstanding Teacher at the YAGP New York Finals. After running her ballet school for nearly eleven years, her syllabus produced graduates who would go on to dance with Princess Grace Academy, English National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Dresden Opera, San Francisco Ballet, School of American Ballet, and The National Ballet of Canada, to name a few. In 2015, Ms. Robbins founded KMCoaching as a professional coaching/workshop outlet for Seattle-based students and relocated to Port Angeles, Washington where she bought an existing dance school, The Ballet Workshop, founded in 1970.
“The kids here are doing wonderfully,” Ms. Robbins says of The Sylvia Joyce Wanner School. “I’m very happy with where I’ve landed at this point in my life.”
Ms. Robbins’s parents are renowned sports coaches and educators, which helped instill an appreciation for excellence in athletic coaching and achievement in her. The way her parents superbly communicated athletic skills with students and team members greatly resonated with her growing up. “I latched on to them as mentors,” Ms. Robbins says, sharing that her parents involved her in coaching gymnastics and participating in dance.
“Ballet is 90% psychology. Dance is so much in your head,” Ms. Robbins says, sharing that the psychological approach to sports training that her parents often utilized was something that she was inspired to translate as a classical ballet coach. Teaching dancers to capitalize on their emotional capacity to invest in themselves and be fully present are aspects of sports psychology Ms. Robbins found particularly fascinating.
“It feels like a private language,” Ms. Robbins says of classical ballet. “I think there’s something so comforting about knowing that people understand this language that you speak.” She also has an appreciation for the rich history and traditions of ballet. “It feels like such a privilege to carry that history with you,” Ms. Robbins says, while also acknowledging how some of the old traditions and ways of thinking have become outdated and unhelpful to dancers of the modern age.
One of the biggest challenges Ms. Robbins feels she has witnessed in the dance world is the dissemination of misinformation about training, including antiquated beliefs about nutrition and body image. Growing up, she shares that she received a lot of conflicting information about diet and muscle recovery, which contributed to nutritional challenges, injuries, and issues with her body image as a teenager. Since she started dancing a bit later than many of her peers, Ms. Robbins was also often told that she could never make it as a professional, which wasn’t true.
“We still have very outdated ways of thinking [and] looking at things…which I think this generation of leadership is trying to change gradually in the ballet world,” Ms. Robbins says. She hopes to see improved access for dancers on how to take care of themselves, how to pace their training, recover nutritionally, and rehearse effectively. At this point in time, she encourages young dancers to always advocate for themselves and do their own research rather than just take information at face value. She feels hopeful seeing schools and companies talk more about mental health challenges on social media outlets and teachers encouraging open dialogues with their students.
Ms. Robbins also wishes to see a greater focus on keeping Washington’s aspiring ballet dancers performing at a national level and being prepared to audition for international schools and companies. In her teaching and coaching philosophy, she believes in breaking down mechanics, dynamics, and coordination to find the root cause of a challenge a dancer is facing to eliminate incorrect muscle memory or habits that hold them back or cause weakness and insecurity in their performance. She is passionate about coaching pirouette and jumping techniques as separate classes in her workshops and developing dancers who articulate their epaulement and footwork at a high classical standard. Through KMCoaching intensives, Ms. Robbins aspires to help PNW-based students supplement their year-round training with hands-on attention and challenging high-stamina classes, to ensure dancers feel prepared to take the next steps in their careers.
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