rom a rocky start as a child in a Norfolk, Virginia ghetto to dancing internationally and taking lead roles in American Ballet Theatre productions, award-winning dancer Danny Tidwell has seen it all, but years of top-flight training in all facets of dance, as well as gymnastics, have taught him that hard work, staying focussed, and mastering technique are key to all dance students.

In Bermuda, Mr. Tidwell ? at 21 the youngest ABT teaching faculty member ? has also learned to be patient because the National Dance Foundation?s intensive summer programme has brought together students of varying ages and levels of progress in a compressed, three-week environment. Therefore, like his fellow instructors, he has had to adopt a slightly different approach when working with the aspiring dancers.

?When you go to a school, it can support the students, but in a three-week programme you don?t have that luxury, so your teaching is more patient,? he says. ?There is more frustration.?

Nonetheless, the talented dancer/instructor has worked diligently on the core techniques of dance with the students, and has a popular figure with them.

?All of the kids have been very receptive,? he says. ?Sometimes it is easier for them to listen to someone closer to their age.?

Of course, like all young dancers, the students have been eager to get into the fancy footwork, but Mr. Tidwell has kept them grounded on technique, which is the core foundation of all dance.

?Kids always want to turn more and jump right away, but I have been helping them to understand how important the technical side of ballet is to every form of dance. Some have found it difficult to process ? they want to get on the fun side ? but ballet technique is ballet technique. It teaches you how to isolate your muscles, discipline ? in fact it teaches you everything most of the time. You are moving from beat to beat, just as in every other dance form.? Summing up his Bermuda experience, and his first time as an American Ballet Theatre summer programme instructor, Mr. Tidwell says: ?Bermuda is beautiful, and its weather is amazingly beautiful. (The experience) been a little different, but nothing negative, and the kids have been great.?