our legecy

Lynn B. Welters, Founder & Chair of The Board (Emeritus)

Trained under renowned American and international ballet and dance masters including:

Ann Parson - National Ballet
Karel Shook – Co Founder Dance Theater of Harlem
Jugen Schneider – Former Director American Ballet Theatre
Janina Cunovas – Prima Ballet Mistress Australia Ballet

Vagonava Classical Ballet Teacher Training Certificate
Bolshoi Ballet Teacher Training in Moscow, Russia

EXPANDING A TRADITION

For over 50 years, Lynn B. Welters has been carefully molding her legacy, to define a new standard of bringing the art of dance to the lives of all children. Throughout her extraordinary career, Ms. Welters has carefully nurtured and modified her approach to meet the needs of each student exclusively. As a result, she has inspired all of her students to work hard, not just with dance, but throughout all areas of their lives, academically, socially, etc.

After having her own school in the early 1970’s, the Lynn B. Welters School of Ballet, with personal and professional endorsements from Alvin Ailey ( Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Robert Joffrey ( Joffrey Ballet), Leon Danielian ( American Ballet Theater), and Karl Shook ( Dance Theater of Harlem).

Ms. Welters soon began her career in the Dance Department at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1978. It was there she would spend the next 9 years perfecting her unique talent as a teacher of classical ballet and beginning pointe and the following years as Chairperson of that department. In her role a chairperson, Ms. Welters began to transform an under-funded and un-unified department with no clear syllabus, piece by piece, into a world renowned state of the art dance department which produced some of the most proficient African American dancers both in classical ballet and modern dance of their generation.

Achievements

Through her meticulous and unrelenting leadership at Ellington, Mrs. Welters' department produced the first African American high school dancers to participate in the Prix de Lausanne Ballet Competition in Switzerland, the first students of color to participate in a 3 month artistic exchange in Moscow, Russia to perform and study classical ballet with teachers from the Bolshoi Ballet and Kalinka Folk Dance Company. She escorted the first delegation of African American students to represent the USA in the Fifth Ancient Culture and Art Festival in Xi’an China, there she signed an Agreement of Friendly Relations between the Xi’an School of the Arts and the Dance Department of Duke Ellington School of the Arts & D.C. Public Schools. Her students also received a personal invitation from Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands to perform at the Mep Festival Het Nieuwe de la Theater of Amsterdam, Holland. These dancers were the first high school students to win First Place in the National Arts and Letters Modern Dance Competition, and Gold Medal winners at the NAACP ACT-SO awards.

She has received the NAACP Community Image Award, was featured on Channel 7 “Education What’s Working”, and has been featured in Who’s Who Among American Teachers , ’96, ’98, ’00, ’03, ’06. In 1999 she was among 14,000 applicants to win the celebrated Walt Disney American Teacher Award.

After graduation from Ellington, many of her students have appeared on Broadway in musicals such as the Lion King, The Color Purple, Fosse, Cats, Eqquix, and also became Rockettes. Several of Mrs. Welters alumnus have performed in the films - Fame, Hairspray, Dream Girls, Beloved, and Avatar. Ms. Welters former students have also attended the following colleges, professional schools, universities and professional companies - Smith, Sara Lawrence College, University of the Arts, Swathmore, Yale, Southern Methodist University, School of American Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Dayton Contemporary , Washington Ballet, Philadanco, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Complexions, and Maurice Bejart Ballet of the 20th Century in Switzerland. Ms. Welters is also among a handful of Americans to complete the course of Russian Ballet Training Certificate for the Agripinna Vaganova Ballet method under the direction of Jurgen Schneider, Janina Chanova, Ballet Master at American Ballet Theater, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Royal Ballet, and personal coach for Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Most recently she was given Commendation for Service to City Dance at Strathmore Music Hall and she was awarded the John F. Kennedy Center D.C. Metro Dance Award for excellence in Dance Education. Recently, Ms. Welters received the Cambridge Award for sound business practices. Her New School of Dance & Arts has been recognized by Jack & Jill of America as a school of excellence. Ms. Welters was recently nominated for The International Women’s Leadership Committee, and National Association of Professional Women. She is currently an Awardee from the D.C. Commission of Arts and Humanities.