Alene Hochstetter (Owner/Director): As little girls we all nurture dreams of being a ballerina some day, and we look to our mother for encouragement and support for this most tender of aspirations. Miss Alene’s ballerina dreams started when she was just 2 years old as she began learning ballet under the direction of her mother, a classically trained ballerina and irrepressible weaver of stories and magic.
While immersing Miss Alene in creative stories and encouraging the idea of “Happily ever after”, her mother also ensured that she was being challenged by enrolling her in serious classical ballet studies at the Tacoma City Ballet. Miss Alene proved to be an apt pupil and talented dancer; she started pointe-work at the age of 11. Her rigorous training at Tacoma City Ballet flourished into an opportunity to perform in many lead ballerina roles, including the role of Lucile Grahn in Pas De Quatre and the Arabian Princess in the Nutcracker. The Nutcracker’s beauty and fantastical elements make it Miss Alene’s favorite story ballet to this day. Her other professional dance performances include dancing for Siegfried and Roy, Disneyland and Sesame Street Live.
After her professional dancing career, Miss Alene’s creative imagination and love for the classical arts found expression as a teacher at the Pacific School of Music and the Arts in California. This is where she began to learn first-hand how toddlers relate to music and movement, and she soon became Director of the school’s Preschool Creative Arts program which included teaching Fairytale Theatre, Art and Kindermusik. Running Fairytale Theatre was an especially good fit for her personality. She was also in charge of planning and hosting many birthday parties for the school, where she would creatively incorporate costumes, themes, dance and crafts.
That experience led to many more artistic teaching opportunities such as working as a summer camp arts teacher, working for the Girls Scouts, directing children’s musical productions (Annie, Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz) and working at a Montessori school. During her almost 10 years at Montessori she started out as a teacher’s assistant and later became the Music and Arts teacher. She credits her time at Montessori as being one of the most crucial learning experiences in understanding how to relate to and work with young children.
Miss Alene’s artistry found further outlet as she ventured into developing her own curriculum, which married two of her favorite things: magical fairytales and classical ballet. She received so many requests from parents for fairytale ballet parties and had designed so many props and costumes, that she eventually found herself in need of a home for her fairytale ballet creations. Fairytales & Tutus was thus officially born in 2008. Miss Alene’s mother, ever the fan of fairytales and fantasy, continued to be an influence and inspiration, and still contributes to many of the ideas incorporated in Fairytales & Tutus classes.
Miss Alene has studied early childhood development and has been a Licensed Kindermusik Educator since 1996. These studies and certification have allowed her to develop an effective and rewarding Mommy & Me program at Failytales & Tutus. As the mother of two children who are themselves now talented young dancers, Miss Alene is able to carry on her own mother’s tradition of creating magical scenes and stories through expressive dance both at home and now at the studio.
She derives an immense joy from working with children, which is evident from the sweet smile on her face which never fades as she leads children through tales of princesses and magic. Although she loves all the fairytale princesses, Miss Alene’s favorite one is Snow White. Her child-like personality combined with her many years of experience in the classroom have made her a highly effective teacher who knows just how to speak to children and how to relate to their way of thinking and feeling.
Miss Alene is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. For more information about American Ballet Theatre (ABT®), follow this link: www.abt.og.
Written by Andrea Leal. Visit her blog: www.lasvegasmama.blogspot.com.
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