KCB School Teacher Profile - Lisa Thorn Vinzant

	Lisa Thorn Vinzant Photographer Steve Wilson.

Lisa Thorn Vinzant loves to dance, but she also loves to teach.

Kansas City audiences would remember Lisa Thorn’s performances. She lit up the stage, but she also spent time teaching students.

Lisa received the majority of her training as a scholarship student at North Carolina School of the Arts. While dancing at the School of American Ballet in the summer of 1988, Former Kansas City Ballet Artistic Director, Todd Bolender, asked Lisa Thorn to join the Kansas City Ballet. During her career as a dancer with the Kansas City Ballet from 1988 to 2005, she danced in a variety of principal roles, created by choreographers such as Ailey, Balanchine, Bolender, Tharp, Cunningham, and DeMille. In 2004, Lisa became the Associate Ballet Mistress for Kansas City Ballet—a role she held until the spring of 2008 when she became a mother.

Lisa wants to pass the love of dance on to her students. “I want them to be able to appreciate it from a variety of angles—from technical abilities to musicality to breadth of movement. My goal is to help each student understand how to become the best dancer with the body they were born with.”

Every student could benefit from a little advice from a former Company dancer. What attributes helped Lisa throughout her career? “Having a sense of humor. Patience lots of it –it’s easy to get frustrated when you’re trying to master certain steps. Being able to laugh at yourself and move on. And, most importantly, loving what you’re doing,” she says.

And, the best advice she can give aspiring dancers: “I really think the pathway to improvement is the ability to change, to learn how to change your approach or what your body is doing,” she says. “It can make a world of difference to a dancer if they are able to change. I encourage my students to think about being open to change.”

Lisa is looking forward to teaching the Level 7 class at the downtown campus. The KCBS is very excited about her joining the faculty.

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