Summer Intensive
Welcome to the Civic Dance Centre, official dance school of the Scranton Civic Ballet Company. The Scranton Civic Ballet Company was founded in 1978 by Northeast Pennsylvania's most respected dance instructor, Miss Helen M. Gaus. Originally as a regional resident company, the Scranton Civic Ballet Company is at the forefront of ballet and the performing arts in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Our school makes every effort to instill in its students the discipline and knowledge needed to approach learning in a professional way, whether one's intent is to become a professional dancer or to learn the rigorous discipline of dance to carry oneself through life.
At "Civic," we believe that our role is to guide young dancers through increasingly disciplined levels of dance in a friendly, caring atmosphere. Creative energy, gracefulness, a heightened awareness of music and musicality, and a focus on technique are only some of the benefits our programs have to offer. The Scranton Civic Ballet Company is dedicated to bringing quality dance training within reach of young dancers to make dreams a reality.
The Scranton Civic Ballet Company is a non-profit organization focused on dance education and performance. It is the company’s mission to educate our members and the public in the art of dance while bringing the talents of well-known artists, choreographers, and master teachers into northeast Pennsylvania for the benefit of our students as well as our audiences.
Welcome to the Civic Dance Centre, official dance school of the Scranton Civic Ballet Company. The Scranton Civic Ballet Company was founded in 1978 by Northeast Pennsylvania's most respected dance instructor, Miss Helen M. Gaus. Originally as a regional resident company, the Scranton Civic Ballet Company is at the forefront of ballet and the performing arts in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Our school makes every effort to instill in its students the discipline and knowledge needed to approach learning in a professional way, whether one's intent is to become a professional dancer or to learn the rigorous discipline of dance to carry oneself through life.
At "Civic," we believe that our role is to guide young dancers through increasingly disciplined levels of dance in a friendly, caring atmosphere. Creative energy, gracefulness, a heightened awareness of music and musicality, and a focus on technique are only some of the benefits our programs have to offer. The Scranton Civic Ballet Company is dedicated to bringing quality dance training within reach of young dancers to make dreams a reality.
The Scranton Civic Ballet Company is a non-profit organization focused on dance education and performance. It is the company’s mission to educate our members and the public in the art of dance while bringing the talents of well-known artists, choreographers, and master teachers into northeast Pennsylvania for the benefit of our students as well as our audiences.
ARTISTIC STAFF
HELEN M. GAUS
Founder & Artistic Director
For over sixty years, Miss Gaus, our founder and artistic director, has defined the Scranton Civic Ballet Company with her brilliant choreography, and more importantly, her caring tutelage of our dancers. She is a retired PCA Rostered Artist having worked with school children in Northeastern Pennsylvania for ten years. She spent three years as the owner and operator of the Ballet Academy of Baltimore and has also taught students from the Scranton State School for the Deaf. In addition, she has directed and choreographed local television commercials, special programs and mall shows, as well as various summer works with children in the Musical Theater Camp in Southlake, Texas. Miss Gaus was awarded an “Arts Engage!" grant from Lackawanna County Council on the Arts and Children and Youth Services for a new multi-discipline art camp in June 2009.
Miss Gaus maintains membership with the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England and the Mostly Opera Company in Pennsylvania. She has also received numerous awards including Marywood College Order of St. Genesius, Lackawanna Arts Council for outstanding contribution to the arts, Northeastern Pennsylvania Woman of the Week award from the Scranton Times, the 1983 Chamber of Commerce Award for 25 years of Teaching Excellence, American Heart Association Commitment Award, the Easter Seal Award for 25 years of service and the Achievement Award for MDA, and Northeast Intermediate Unit's Artist of the Year for 2007.
Miss Gaus began her formal dance education with Constance Reynolds. She later became her assistant and taught for nineteen years. She was a featured soloist and ballet mistress with Ballet Theatre of Scranton since their first performance in 1958 until 1978, working with outstanding choreographers such as Hilda Butsova, Stanley Herbett, Henry Danton, Evelyn LeMone, Paul Glover, Michael Falatico, Paschel Guzman and Valerie Deakin.
Miss Gaus furthered her studies in Canada at Queens College, Kingston, Ontario and the National Ballet School in Toronto, as well as various schools in New York City. She has studied under the direction of prominent teachers such as John Burker, Bettina Byers, Marjorie Haskins, Betti Olyphant, Sonia Chamberlain, David Howard, Jack Stanley, Paul Draper, Ernest Carlos, Charles Kelly, Luigi and Roye Dodge.
Miss Gaus has taught traditional ethnic dance for the Polish Women's Alliance. She also taught for several years at the Jewish Community Center, was on the faculty at Marywood College as the director of dance and was the director of the Abington Heights Dance Academy for fifteen years.
ROBERT ZALOGA
Assistant to Artistic Director
Robert Zaloga began his formal dance education under Miss Helen Gaus in 2013. He later became an instructor for the Civic Dance Centre, the official school of Scranton Civic Ballet Company and in the fall of 2020, Robert was appointed as Assistant to Artistic Director of the company. After joining the company's Corps de Ballet in 2014, Robert was promoted to Soloist in 2015, and Principal Dancer with the Scranton Civic Ballet Company in 2016.
Robert has performed many major classical roles which include: Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Franz in Coppelia, Prince in Cinderella Divertissement, El Capitan in Stars and Stripes, Pas de Trois in Midnight Masquerade, Snow King, Waltz of the Flowers Pas de Deux, The Nutcracker Prince and Cavalier in the Scranton Civic Ballet Company’s annual production of Helen Gaus’s The Nutcracker.
Robert has furthered his studies outside of Scranton with famed instructors and choreographers such as Sascha Radetsky, Ethan Stiefel, Peter Stark, Charles Askegard, Elizabeth Walker, Michael Owen, Russel Clark, Denise Lewis, Igor Burlak, Barbra Weisberger, and Barabra Sandonato.
Robert has trained and performed with companies and schools across the east coast including American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet School, School of Pennsylvania Ballet, Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the Performing Arts Institute. While dancing with American Ballet Theatre, Robert performed in the Summer performance of Don Quioxte in the corps de ballet.
Robert has been a member of the Wyoming Seminary Dance Company under the direction of Mrs. Bernadine Vojtko and performed as a Principal Dancer with the company since 2015. While performing with Wyoming Seminary Dance Company, he was a featured guest artist for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic's production of Peter and the Wolf, performing as the Wolf. In the spring of 2020, he was the recipient of the Barbara Weisberger Dance Award (founder of the Pennsylvania Ballet). Robert has been a featured guest performer for the Mostly Opera Company of Scranton since 2014.
Robert joined the Kiss Theater Company as the Assistant Choreographer in the Summer of 2021 for the production of Disney's Newsies The Musical.
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(570) 343-0115
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Click here to view a full list of Helen Gaus' repertory, which include the classics, along with original works.