Discover the Heart of Art with Kim McCool

Kim McCool will be featuring Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Director, Courtney Lyon. Courtney Lyon has been with Ballet Quad Cities since 2000. She received her early training from Nathalie LeVine in St. Louis and earned her BFA with Honors in Dance from the University of Iowa. She received additional training from Arleen Sugano, the Joffrey Ballet School, and the Milwaukee Ballet School. Prior to joining Ballet Quad Cities, she performed with the Milwaukee Ballet and served as a demonstrator for Kenneth Laws and Arleen Sugano, co-authors of The Physics and the Art of Dance: Understanding Movement at the Performing Arts Medicine Association annual symposiums. Since retiring from performing in 2007, she has served as Assistant to the Project Manager in 2006, Ballet Mistress and Associate Director of Ballet Quad Cities, and Co-director of Ballet Quad Cities II. In these roles she has been an active coordinator and leader in all of the company’s educational outreach programs. Her choreography for Ballet Quad Cities includes three children’s ballets. She has restaged many works for Ballet Quad Cities. Recently, Ms. Lyon completed two intensive seminars given by John White, former dancer and Ballet Master of the National Ballet of Cuba. In the summer of 2009, Ms. Lyon participated in the Kennedy Center's Artists as Educators Seminar.