Alex Bloomstein is a lawyer.
Alex Bloomstein is also the artistic director and owner of Ballet Arts Studio in Beacon.
Yes, you read those two sentences correctly.
Bloomstein, who danced professionally for more than 12 years before opting for the more lucrative and stable profession of law, took over Ballet Arts a year-and-a half ago from Valerie Feit, who ran the studio for 20 years. And though he doesn’t regret his decision to take up law after getting married and having a family, he always knew that he couldn’t completely give up on his love for dance.
“I always stayed involved on some level,” said Bloomstein, who travels from Colombia County five or six times a week after practicing law to work at the studio. “I was teaching off-and-on. I even worked for a bunch of newspapers as a dance critic. It got to the point where I was unhappy just being a lawyer. I never got dancing out of my blood.”
Ballet Arts School is a conservatory-level ballet school that has been serving the Hudson Valley for decades. And Bloomstein couldn’t be prouder to be associated with such a prestigious institution.
“Valerie ran a very good program,” he said. “I’m just trying to maintain what she developed over the years.”
Pulling double duty
Though Bloomstein enjoys practicing law, he is particularly grateful that his practice affords him the ability to do more with the school.
“For example,” he said, “I was able to hire (choreographer) Michael Shannon. That’s a real perk.”
Shannon, who was the first foreign-born dancer to become a permanent member of the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia, came to the school this year and figures heavily in Bloomstein’s future plans for the studio.
Bloomstein’s colleagues are impressed by his commitment to two wildly different undertakings.
“I don’t know how he does it,” said Mary Del Vecchio, a ballet teacher at the school for 16 years. “I think he’s still feeling it through. We’re still ironing things out since the transition (from Valerie). But he does work well with his faculty and takes a lot of input.”
Right now, Ballet Arts School is preparing for its major production of the year, an extravaganza titled “The Classical Mystery Tour: From Baroque to the Beatles,” which is slated for May 31 at the Bardavon at 2 and 6:30 p.m. The first act of the show will include performances from the whole school. The second act will primarily consist of members of the studio’s Dutchess Ballet Company, a pre-professional dance troupe for teens. Both Bloomstein, whose background is in modern dance, and Shannon have choreographed pieces for the production.
And while Bloomstein is looking forward to the show, he is also intent on increasing the studio’s profile in the community.
“We do some community outreach performances,” he said. “Every year we do a performance at the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie and it’s a fabulous experience. We also have a Fairy Godmother/Fairy Godfather program. We get community organizations to act as sponsors and then we use that money to purchase half-price or free tickets to a performance for social services programs in the area (like Battered Women’s Services, Grace Smith House and Mill Street Loft). But we want to do a lot more.”
Despite all this terrific work, both Del Vecchio and Bloomstein say that what they’re most proud of is the school’s sterling reputation for professionalism that helps produce more well-rounded human beings.
“I see good things happening in the future,” said Del Vecchio. “We really stress the conservatory aspect because there isn’t another studio around here that has that distinction. Our students need to wear certain things, need to keep their hair slicked back. There’s a certain way they have to carry themselves and they often carry that into adulthood. Some girls dance into college and others lead so-called normal lives. But it warms my heart when I see students later in their lives who remember us kindly and with respect.”
Bloomstein agrees.
“The studio really helps students develop a strength of character and a sense of themselves that they carry through life,” he said. “The experience here translates across the board and you can only get those kind of results from the work that happens in a conservatory-level school.”
For more information about Ballet Arts Studio, visit balletartsstudio.com.