Temple Kemezis

For the last 14 years, Temple Kemezis has worked in New York City as a professional dancer, with repertoire including classical, neoclassical, and contemporary works. She began her training at the School of Nashville Ballet and continued with teachers Dennis Marshall and Marjorie Grundvig in Seattle, Washington. Summer intensives include Boston Ballet and American Ballet Theater (NYC), Alonzo King’s LINES Professional Workshop, and the Northwest Professional Dance Project. She has performed with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Dances Patrelle, Texture Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Neo, and Sensedance, including a tour to Peru, among others. Her classical repertoire includes Coppelia, La Sylphide, Paquita, The Nutcracker, and Francis Patrelle’s Romeo & Juliet and others, as well as many new works including those by Cherlyn Lavagnino, Pascal Rekoert-Valdez, Gemma Bond, James Canfield, and Catilin Trainor.

In 2016, she had the pleasure of joining the cast of Isaac Mizrahi’s Peter and the Wolf with choreography by John Heginbotham. Temple has had the honor of performing at such revered venues as Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Festival, New York Fashion Week, the Guggenheim Museum, and Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center. In 2015, she co- founded the Higher Ground Festival in NYC with Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba, HGF has brought over 150 Northern Manhattan artists together through its Meet & Greet Series and performances and has produced 38 interdisciplinary collaborations presented free to the uptown community. www.creatinghigherground.com

Temple’s approach to teaching is influenced by the Vaganova technique however additionally utilizes concepts of achieving natural alignment of the body without force. She chooses this approach to build correct classical form that is accessible to all body types. Also important in her teaching is the emphasis on musicality being the foundation for the classical technique.