New York’s Dance Guru

“Like the top teachers who came before him — Stanley Williams, Maggie Black, David Howard — Wilhelm Burmann, who has presided over this particular 90-minute class for nearly 20 years, is easily the most revered New York ballet teacher of his era. That his class is packed with ballet stars who forgo company class in favor of his instruction is a testament to his remarkable ability to see the problem, be it a wobbly pirouette or a sagging ankle, and fix it. What you see in his class is raw, exposed dancing in which members of American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and the Dance Theater of Harlem learn together, dance together and, most thrillingly, egg each other on.”