Principal Professional Artist, Courtney Moody, shares about her favorite teachers and dream collaborations
Courtney Moody began her professional dance training with the Studio of Classical Ballet under Diane Partington. She later studied under Richard Sias of the National Ballet of Canada, as well as at the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School under Ariel Serrano. In 2014 and 2015, she was invited to be a Trainee with BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, on scholarship. She also had the opportunity to visit the National Ballet School of Cuba, where she participated in the Encuentro Internacional de Academias para La Ensanza del Ballet. To date, she has performed roles such as Diana in “Diana and Acteon,” the Sugarplum Fairy in “The Nutcracker,” and the Pas de Trois in Auguste Bournonville’s “Le Conservatoire,” as well as performing as a guest artist with other organizations. She is also a published poet with work forthcoming in YellowJacket Press’ Burgert Brothers Anthology, Chasing Light, and will receive a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Central Florida in May of 2020. This is her second season with the Brandon Ballet.
You’re a full-time college student earning your Bachelor’s degree in creative writing. What made you decide to focus on college as well as dance?
I’ve always enjoyed learning, and my parents always emphasized the importance of education to me, which I’ve taken to heart. Plus, as a dancer, you’re always aware that your dancing has a deadline. Whether that deadline is imposed by your body or your mind, there’s a time when dancing makes way for other things. Even dance-related work, such as choreographing or directing, requires external skills.
Not only does education provide for your life when dancing is done, but it also can add to your dancing ability. Dance is all about telling stories, whether concrete or abstract, and you can’t tell a good story without proper research. People connect with a character that is more than just a dancer doing leaps and turns and holding their leg up; audiences need to see a life on stage, and I find having outside interests allows you to bring more of that to each role.
Do you prefer performing or rehearsing?
Rehearsing! I love the process of learning something and slowly working at it day to day to make it better, changing little things here and there to make it beautiful. The feeling of figuring out a step and slowly refining artistic nuances is rewarding for me.
Do you have a dream choreographer you’d like to work with?
Either Trey McIntyre or Cathy Marston. I’ve admired McIntyre’s work since high school; it’s always so musical and unexpected. I value the experimental qualities he incorporates too. He even had a ball pit in a recent work!
Marston’s approach is the most narratively motivated I’ve seen. I love that return to the storytelling aspects of dance, especially as a writer. She recently created Jane Eyre and it looks amazing. I’d love to work on something that’s so focused on communicating character and story with the audience.
How do you spend your days off?
Usually I’ll either be at church, working, catching up on school, or just spending time with family, including our two terriers. This semester I’ve also been working as a rehearsal director for a small organization that gives young dancers a chance to be in a ballet production, their first encounter with classical ballet for many of them.
What would you do if you weren’t a dancer?
I would either be a full-time English teacher and writer, or I’d go to Ringling college to pursue work as an animator.
What’s your favorite part of dancing with the Brandon Ballet?
I think my favorite part is the opportunities. Since we’re smaller, there’s not only more opportunities for larger roles that you wouldn’t do for ten years or so in a large company, but there’s also the opportunity for close training and coaching. We get to have our technique refined each day and work closely with Doricha Sales on choreography and making sure everything is working in a way that suits both us and the production. It’s a really great atmosphere.
What teacher have you learned the most from?
It’s hard to choose just one, since I’ve had so many over the years. I think the one I learned the most from was Delia Ballart. She’s Cuban, and when I first had classes from her she only spoke Spanish. Despite that, I still gleaned so much from her, especially in my pointe work. She always pushed me to practice more and more, even when I wanted to relax on a break, and it paid off for me. Whenever I want to just sit down after a not-so-great run, she’s the one in my head yelling, “Go practice!
Photo by Richardo Romero 
Pictured L to R: Eden Frazier, Courtney Moody, Katherine Thacker 
Photo by Richardo Romero
Courtney will be performing in Brandon Ballet’s upcoming Nutcracker production as the beloved Sugar Plum Fairy alongside Complexions Contemporary Ballet dancer, Jared Brunson, at Riverview High School Dec. 7th and 8th. She will also make appearances in Doricha Sales’ Elegie and Karina Elver’s new work, What’s Up? in Brandon Ballet’s Yuletide Ballet Celebration in Sun City, FL Dec. 15th.
