June 10, 2025
What Lucy Moses School dance faculty member Parsla Vintere loves most is seeing people discover the joy of movement, whether they’re three years old or 80+. Many students have grown up in her classes, from Pre-Ballet through Ballet Company for teens and beyond. “Some students have been with me over 25 years,” she notes. What’s most rewarding for Parsla is figuring out how to adapt her teaching to the needs of individuals of different ages, backgrounds and experience levels, leading to uniquely personalized and valuable experiences for students.
A Lucy Moses School faculty member since 1989, Parsla trained at the Riga Ballet School in Latvia and performed with the Latvian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Leningrad Theatre of Contemporary Ballet in Saint Petersburg. Many of her students don’t know that she is also a professional psychologist with a Ph.D. in Learning Processes. A therapist who works with older adults, she has conducted research studies in the relationship of verbal behavior, movement and conceptualization in young children as well as error-based learning with college-age dancers.
Parsla’s favorite choreographers? Maurice Béjart and Pina Bausch, whose approach to dance as theater has informed her own teaching. Storytelling is key when putting together the year-end performances with young dancers. The students fully participate in the creative process, choosing and researching their own roles and crafting the story. “This is something people don’t realize when they see the finished product,” Parsla says. More than just achieving a perfect pirouette or arabesque, they’re flexing their artistic and imaginative muscles in ways that build a foundation for whatever path they choose. “It’s very important for people to know that Kaufman Music Center is a place where kids can find themselves,” she emphasizes. “If they come to dance class even once or twice a week and enjoy themselves, that will carry on for the rest of their lives. I tell my graduates, you will always be creative, whatever you do.”
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