“We take a lot of responsibility in preparing the next generation as part of keeping this art form alive.”
SAB TEACHING APPRENTICES 2023-24
An exciting part of each Winter Term at SAB is welcoming the new Teaching Apprentices. This year, we’re thrilled to announce this year’s Teaching Apprentices: Harrison Coll and Olivia MacKinnon, New York City Ballet (NYCB) Soloists and SAB alums; and Michael Crawford, an alum of SAB’s National Visiting Fellows Program and master teacher, choreographer, and retired dancer. This exciting program is a paid, one-year apprenticeship designed to introduce current professionals to the School’s curriculum and teaching practices. Harrison, Olivia, and Michael observe SAB’s permanent faculty teaching students at all levels and engage in curriculum review sessions with Katrina Killian, our Senior Manager of the Children’s Division. Artistic Director and Chair of Faculty Jonathan Stafford also shares our methods for teaching classical technique to children at each stage of development. They teach classes at a variety of levels and receive direct feedback on their progress as teachers throughout the year. In September, Harrison, Michael, and Olivia talked with us about how they came to join SAB for this program and their enthusiasm for teaching.
HARRISON COLL
Harrison Coll was born in Manhattan and began his dance training at the age of four in a creative dance class for boys. In 2003, he became a full-time student at SAB. Harrison joined NYCB in 2012 and became a Soloist in October 2018. He worked as a creative collaborator for two Broadway musicals, including the 2018 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel.” Harrison is featured as a Jet in Steven Spielberg’s film “West Side Story” and is appearing in the new Bradley Cooper film “Maestro.”
MICHAEL CRAWFORD
Michael Crawford is from Takoma Park, Maryland. After studying at the Maryland Youth Ballet, Kirov Academy, the Rock School, and San Francisco Ballet, he was accepted into the Kennedy Center’s master class series. Mr. Crawford then moved on to the Washington Ballet and went on to study and perform in the Professional Division of Pacific Northwest Ballet. After Pacific Northwest Ballet, he danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jose Mateo Ballet, Ballet Memphis, American Repertory Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, and Oakland Ballet. He also appeared in the feature film “Step Up” and appeared on television in ABC’s series “Forever.” He is on faculty at many studios including Broadway Dance Center, STEPS on Broadway in NYC, Pace University, Marymount Manhattan College, Princeton Ballet (master teacher), Cary Ballet (master teacher and choreographer), and Next Generation Ballet (Recruitment).
OLIVIA MACKINNON
Olivia MacKinnon was born in Mobile, Alabama, and began her dance training at the age of three at the Mobile Ballet. At the age of 11, she performed with Mobile Ballet’s Company. During the summers of 2008 and 2009, Ms. MacKinnon attended the School of American Ballet’s five-week Summer Course, and she enrolled as a full-time student in fall of 2010. Ms. MacKinnon joined NYCB in 2013 and became a Soloist in April 2023.
How did you join SAB as a Teaching Apprentice this year?
Harrison: SAB sent the [New York City Ballet] company members an email asking who would be interested in being a Teaching Apprentice this year. It’s not every year that they send this email because it depends on what’s needed. Since I’ve been in the company, I’ve probably applied like seven times. I let Jon [Stafford] know [I wanted to be a Teaching Apprentice] when I was 24. Jon started teaching me when he was around that age. So, I was like, I want to follow in your footsteps, c’mon!
But it was a while to get here. It’s the right moment for me now because I’m injured so I have so much free time, and it works out perfectly that I can invest myself.
Michael: I got an email in July from SAB. I thought it was a mistake at first. I thought you had to be in the Company to even be considered. After confirming it was correct, I applied, and two weeks later I heard back that I was accepted. Last year I was an SAB National Visiting Fellow. We came in for two weeks, just two weeks. A week in the fall, and then there was a week in the winter where they would watch us teach at our studios and give us feedback. And then, we came back in the spring. The program was amazing. There were long days. It was tough. There was just so much information to learn. We got to teach Level V, and the whole faculty watched us. But the last week, I was a little bit sad that it was ending.
How’s it been for each of you coming in and starting off this year? And what’s been exciting about it? What’s been scary about it?
Olivia: To be on this floor and to not be a student is just so cool because you know, Harrison and I have so many memories here. All those people were our mentors and teachers and now we get to work with them. It’s very special.
“All those people were our mentors and teachers and now we get to work with them. It’s very special.”
Harrison: It’s super surreal. To see that all of the teachers just know [the Children’s Division curriculum] immediately, it was a little intimidating. Because I’ve never taught a class where the steps are already prescribed. I’ve always come up with them on the spot, in the moment. Maybe I’ve prepped a little bit, but I’ve made them up myself. It’s nice for the teacher to not have to waste time thinking about a combination. When [the combination] is already there, you can dedicate so much more time to explaining what needs to happen in the combination and working with [the students] on each thing. It takes the guesswork out of it.
What made each of you interested in teaching ballet beyond your performing careers?
Olivia: I started teaching at the start of the pandemic because I had to give myself a schedule. I ended up teaching a lot of ballet fitness kind of stuff. And then more actual ballet. I had taught ballet before, but it really became a thing during the pandemic. I found a love for it.
Michael: I was always interested in teaching. At the very beginning of my career, I started teaching. Wherever I was dancing, I would approach the artistic director and let them know that I was interested in teaching. Towards the end of my career and going into the pandemic, which pretty much [ended] my performing career, I started teaching full-time. I love it. It’s such a joy. And being here as a National Visiting Teaching Fellow – I had a few friends that did the program, and they loved it. The first year I applied I didn’t get in, but they emailed me and told me to apply again. Katrina [Killian] has this eye for detail – her passion and her energy are so contagious. I follow her around and try to see what she sees.
“Katrina [Killian] has this eye for detail – her passion and her energy are so contagious. I follow her around and try to see what she sees.”
Harrison: Katrina is like a computer that’s had so many software updates. She’s so quick.
Olivia: That’s exactly how she was when she danced too. So energetic, so precise, so quick. She would always do those roles.
Harrison: My experience is so personal. This place is where I learned first position. I cried when I first auditioned because my mom showed me the bag of tights. For the first few classes, I kept telling my mom I don’t want to go back, and she said just keep trying and give it a chance. Within a month I stopped complaining. On my first day of Boys II at SAB, Olga [Kostritsky] goes “I will be your teacher for the next 6 years,” and as a 9-year-old this blew my mind. [The time] flew by because the environment here is so different. [New York] is such a crazy, hectic city, and you can be very stressed out here as a kid. When you come in the studios here, everything disappears except for the music and the dance.
“When you come in the studios here, everything disappears except for the music and the dance.”
I was entranced by it. Olga was the first person to make me think about teaching. I saw what it did for other professional dancers in the company and how it improved their eyes, their ideas, and revamped their technique. You’re in a machine once you join the company and can lose touch with the little details.
Olivia: Sometimes those little things are the most important. That was the other thing that attracted me to teaching – to remind myself of all the things that were taught to me and be next to the teachers that we had [as students] again. I knew it would help improve my own career as well.
To Harrison & Olivia, from training and growing up here – what have you seen is different now?
Harrison: The sheer volume of students coming in and out of the building is amazing. What I see mostly that’s new is varied perspectives and experiences contributing to the pedagogy. We’re coming from a whole new generation, and we’re collaborating with the originators of the syllabus. The school is so fresh right now — a lot of energy and openness. People want to hear what we have to say.
Olivia: [SAB has] started to implement more diversity with who is teaching. There are more guest teachers. Things are becoming a little more human – more checking in emotionally too. More personable.
Michael, what was different or surprising about SAB that you didn’t know before you came here? And what have you enjoyed here?
Michael: I thought it was a closed circuit from students to teachers. I didn’t think it would be as welcoming to outsiders. But I came, and it was quite the opposite.
What would you say to dancers that are aspiring to become instructors?
Harrison: Don’t doubt your ability to convey any sort of enlightenment to your students just because you haven’t taught before. Don’t underestimate how fulfilling it can be when you’re not the one doing five pirouettes in the room but you’re helping someone one else figure out how to do it. Feeling that fulfillment for me was so exciting – especially because it didn’t hurt my body as much.
Olivia: When you start to teach, it shows how much you did listen during all your previous classes. Public speaking – I was getting more used to it during the pandemic. [Dancers] use our bodies as our voice. It’s just a different form [of communicating] and something that I had to get used to. Once I really started putting myself out there with teaching, I realized the [wealth] of knowledge I had inside.
“Once I really started putting myself out there with teaching, I realized the [wealth] of knowledge I had inside.”
You have to put yourself out there. Don’t doubt what knowledge you carry with yourself. It’s cool to see what we’re able to convey. I’m excited to see how it grows more.
Harrison: You get to be on the front lines of who is coming next. After that experience [in the pandemic teaching on Zoom], Olivia came back and got promoted. So, I think it definitely affected your voice internally and your dancing.
Michael: I gravitated toward specific teachers. A list of teachers that were not just teachers for me – they were above and beyond and life changing. Without them, I don’t know where I would be. I would love to be that for someone.
Anything else you would like to share?
Olivia: I’m excited to work on my teaching outfits. I already started working on it. I have my teaching shoes, and Katrina wanted the same shoes as mine, which was the best compliment ever!
Harrison: I’m a Walmart ambassador. I went to Connecticut with a friend and stocked up on all the teaching apparel – tracksuits and such – that I need for the next year.
What would you tell our members?
Harrison: We take a lot of responsibility in preparing the next generation as part of keeping this art form alive.
Michael: I second that. Honored is an understatement.
Fun Facts about the Teaching Apprentices
What is your favorite movie?
Harrison: The Great Race with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood
Michael: Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann
Olivia: The Swan with Grace Kelly
What is your favorite place you have traveled to, and why?
Harrison: Tokyo on tour with NYCB as a new Apprentice. Experiencing Japanese culture and cuisine was a childhood dream realized.
Michael: Bali (culture, food, beaches)
Olivia: Provence. There is beauty everywhere you turn, and I love how all the local artists are so well regarded and highlighted.
What is your favorite after-show meal? What’s a favorite eatery in NYC?
Harrison: After-Show Meal: Smith burger or burrito from El Mitote; Eatery: Absolute Bagel – an NYC institution on 108th and Broadway
Michael: After-Show Meal: Steak; Eatery: Budhakan
Olivia: After-Show Meal: Pizza and Prosecco at Fiorello’s on the Upper West Side by Lincoln Center
What is your favorite ballet or dance piece to watch, and what is your favorite to perform?
Harrison: To watch: “Prodigal Son”; To perform: “Dances at a Gathering”
Michael: To watch: “Symphony in C”; To perform: Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Olivia: I love watching “Dances at a Gathering,” and enjoy performing anything I’m working on at the moment.