What is this?

 Hello World!

Welcome to my new adventure in midtown New York City where I will be teaching a class that I think of as "Ballet Basics for Beginners". This does NOT mean you have to be a beginner to join in. Throughout my life as a professional dancer, a kayaking coach, an office manager, etc. I have often loved taking a "beginner" ballet class to focus on the joy of moving to music, while working on balance, coordination and having space to jump and twirl.

My name is Richard Chen See, and I took my first ballet class at the age of seven in Kingston, Jamaica, where I grew up. Separately one might think of Kingston NY, or Jamaica in Queens, but I am talking about the island in the West Indies. I went on to train professionally in ballet in England, apprenticing at Northern Ballet Theatre for my first professional job... "long, long ago, and very far away". Eventually I would dance for Paul Taylor in his company after stints with various dance and musical theater productions as well as with the Californian companies Oakland Ballet Company and ODC Dance Company. 

Today, I am the director of licensing for Paul Taylor's choreographic works, but this does not mean I haven't had other careers or jobs. I have been an executive assistant in sales management for The North Face (outdoor clothing company), and a kayaking coach/guide for Sea Trek in Sausalito, CA as well as Manhattan Kayak Company right here in NYC. I have taught different disciplines of dance and fitness for most of my life, but ballet has often been an anchor for me, as it is the first physical language I learned, and one whose basic principals have always served me well in other physical disciplines.

As I look around the myriad offices, workspaces, businesses in midtown Manhattan. I can imagine that a lot of people might like to take a rudimentary ballet class and experience some of the joy that thrills us seeing Paul Taylor dancers, Broadway dancers, ALL dancers exhibiting in performance spaces all over the city, and online!