GERMANY – STUTTGART, A BEAUTIFUL CITY

Week 1

After the long, long flight I finally landed in Stuttgart, Germany. It was such a beautiful city: the cobble stone roads, the parks, fountains, trees, buildings and my personal favorite the slate shingling on all the roofs. We taxied to the hostel and unpacked and prepared for our first class at the John Cranko School the next morning.

I walked into the studio and it seemed as though all the guys jumped up at once to greet me and introduce them selves, they were all really nice. After some stretching and long chats the teacher entered. The first class was great. Mr. Basuti, the teacher, was giving me lots of corrections and I felt instantly apart of the ballet class. It was so positive in the studio and it felt as though all the boys were pushing each other towards improvement. It was a great learning environment.

We watched a school rehearsal and performance. It was very impressive.

Week 2

We continued with the hard work in our ballet classes. They had this really cool stretching room as well; I don't know how many hours we spent in there just chatting and stretching each day.

This week we got to watch the Stuttgart Ballet company class, rehearsal, and two performances. I loved every moment. The dancers were amazing and the shows were breath taking, it was very encouraging. I'm so glad I got the experience to view this great company at work and performing.

This week we went to the Stuttgart Zoo, a huge pool, saw the last Harry Potter movie, went to the Esslingen Castle, and tried all kinds of German food; chocolate, schintzel, sausage, gelato, some good fish at the Hamburg fish market, pretzels, all kinds of great pastries, their potato salad, they take bread to a whole new level and chocolate again!!

Week 3

The academy A boys that I danced with for the last two weeks finished their shows and graduated a week early. So, for the last week I got to dance with the academy B boys. I had the Artistic Director of the John Cranko School as a teacher, Mr. Matacz. Once again the classes were great. He pushed me really hard and I felt some big improvements even in just that short week working together.

This week we got to see yet another Stuttgart Ballet performance. We also went up the TV tower and got a great view of Stuttgart, we visited the beautiful city Heidelberg for a day, and we also went to a mineral bath that consisted of 5 pools and a big sauna... and then we ate some more chocolate!

Before I knew it, it was time to say bye: to the school, the teachers, students, pianists and studios, to the beautiful city and its super tasty food and to all the great, supportive and some of the coolest friends I have ever met. It was sad to say good-bye but it was truly a life changing experience. We are so privileged to have such an extensive exchange program at NBS and I thank everyone who helped be with this exchange experience at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart Germany.

Mackenzie F
Exchange Student, John Cranko School (Stuttgart, Germany)