Alma Dance School (ADS) in Wheaton, Illinois, is a Cuban method professional ballet training facility for young talents interested in building a strong foundation in ballet and pursuing a career in dance. ADS is owned by, and under the direction of, two Cuban principal dancers and award-winning coaches: Guillermo Leyva and Vilma Machin. Both are former professional dancers and experienced teachers who have coached many students. Under the direction of Guillermo and Vilma, students have entered the prestigious Youth America Grand Prix Competition, winning both New York finals and Midwest regionals. Alma Dance School focuses on developing dancers under the very technical, elegant and powerful Cuban method of ballet. This method allows young students to increase their self-discipline, attention, strength, flexibility and agility, not only in ballet, but in other forms of dance as well. At ADS, they have four ballet divisions that offer classes, ranging from basic ballet technique for new dancers to pre-professional classes designed for students needing the tools and techniques to pursue a career in dance. The skills taught at Alma Dance School could easily lead to a career as a professional dancer or even acceptance into a variety of college programs. The Children’s Division is coordinated by age grouping. The Pre-Professional Division is divided into five levels according to technical ability. The Dance Division and Alternative Dance Division are divided into two levels according to the age and technical ability of each dancer.
As far as Vilma’s opinion about what separates their studio from other studios, she believes that she should start by mentioning a little about their background as this will help you understand why their school is different from so many ballet schools. Guillermo and Vilma had the opportunity to train in one of the best school in the world, The Cuban National Ballet School, where they both graduated as dancers/teachers after completing 8 years of intense instruction. They both starting dancing at the age of nine and they danced for about 5 to 6 hours every day, Monday through Saturday. It was a very complete and comprehensive program which prepared them for their amazing dance career opportunities. After completing the required 8 years of training, Vilma joined the Cuban 
National Ballet Company for 6 years and Guillermo joined Ballet de Camaguey Company as principal dancer for several years. Later, they both came to the United States and danced with many companies, including Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Lexington Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet and Illinois Ballet, to mention a few. They feel the experience they gained throughout their training, dancing professionally and teaching around the world has been a blessing and without a doubt gave them all the tools they needed to make their school special and different from others. At Alma Dance School, they teach the Cuban method of ballet. As professional dancers, themselves, trained under one method of ballet they understand how important this is for dancers in training. In their past experiences teaching and before opening their school, they found that dance studios like to have many different teachers with different styles, like Balanchine, Vaganova, Cechetti, etc. Such variation in training among the teachers can be exceptionally difficult for students; body positioning and even position names change depending on the style. The dancer can become very confused and ultimately, the overall technique suffers. Variations in style aside, the student is best served by learning the pure form of one style, so that they become proficient and structured in a recognized school of dance. It is from this point that the student can learn other styles or modify based upon the wishes of the company to which they are accepted. Unfortunately, the student’s technique becomes confused and can be perceived as undisciplined and sloppy, rather than the consequent of training in many styles. What makes Vilma and Guillermo different is that they both trained under the Cuban method of ballet. This is the only method that they teach in their school. The students are taught a powerful, lyrical and emotional form of ballet. Guillermo and Vilma both have the same vision for their school and they both know what it takes to be a great dancer.
For Vilma, she says her proudest moments teaching would be when she sees the fruition of your hard work through the growth of our students. Seeing a student improve over time, seeing them succeeds in a performance, competition and even getting their dream job as a dancer with a company is a wonderful reward to them. For Vilma and Guillermo, it has been and always will be all about the dancer. They want each and every dancer in their school to have the chance to make their dreams come true. They care for each one of their students as individuals and work with each one to prepare them for a professional career. What completes Vilma and Guillermo is knowing that they have made a difference in every dancer’s life, passing on their passion and their love for their careers to a new generation of dancers, giving them the best available training that will prepare them for the future. They only succeed if their dancers succeed.
Vilma believes that each and every body is different and consequently, each dancer’s body is different; what can be so easy for some is difficult for others; and lack of attention to the posture, hip and body alignment and other physical corrections vary between students. According to Vilma, these are the basics in ballet. In some schools, teachers do not pay close attention to the basics because it can be difficult and tedious. However, it is extremely important for a dancer to have a good posture and alignment of the hips and body before start to teaching them more difficult steps. She says the torso is the very foundation of all movement, so the dancer’s torso must be trained to be strong and well aligned. Movements are then achieved through control of the very core, producing action which is very clean and precise but not rigid. Unfortunately, many dancers grow through the training without learning the importance of this and later they struggle a lot to gain this control.
Their goals for this year are definitely to continue working hard and keep growing their school. They also want to provide the opportunity to many dancers in the Chicagoland area to train in a very professional and healthy environment. It is their desire to expand in the community and that every family in Chicagoland area learns about the benefits of having their children train at Alma Dance School.
Vilma also wants to mention that they are currently working on their not-for-profit professional ballet company (Alma Dance Theater). Their goal for the ballet company is to hire professional ballet dancers and eventually have Alma trained dancers audition for the company. They believe that knowing that once they have finished their training, there will be a resident company available to them will be very rewarding for their dancers. This way, they can audition and potentially get a job with a Cuban-method company. Vilma and Guillermo have so many plans and ideas and only hope that more and more people join them in supporting Alma Dance School and Company to make all their visions and dreams a reality in the close future.
Having a studio of their own has always been their dream. After an extensive knowledge gained through their many years of dancing and teaching, they felt it was time for them to create their own school. They feel that what they learned in their years of training is a treasure and they feel very humble to be able to share this today with so many generations of dancers. Dance is their life. It is all they have ever done and they will ever do for the rest of their lives.
ADS has their Nutcracker performance coming up on December 17 and December 18 at the Elgin Community College (Blizzard Theater). They have great updates in the sceneries, props, costumes and they will have amazing professional principal Cuban guest dancers sharing the stage with their beautiful dancers. There will be two spectacular performances, so the school and all the students are really focusing on this right now. The dancers have been working very hard since August to prepare for this production. They will also have another performance on June 3rd at the Dupage College McAninch Arts Center, where their dancers will once again have the opportunity to share the stage with renowned principal professional dancers.
If you would like more information about Alma Dance School, visit their website at www.almadanceschool.com, email them at info@almadanceschool.com or call them at 630-580-9784. You can also “Like” them on Facebook.
Anyone who has danced at Alma Dance School is invited to comment on our blog.
. . . her proudest moments teaching would be when she sees the fruition of your hard work through the growth of our students.
