ABOUT
CADENZA'S STORY
Cadenza /kÉ™-dÄ•n′zÉ™/, noun. In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display.
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Cadenza Ballet is an adult ballet school located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, dedicated to adults who want to learn ballet. Founded in July 2024, CB started humbly in Leigh's home studio with friends who wanted to dance with her and engage more with technique. The name, Cadenza, comes from music (see the above definition). Cadenza Ballet provides our students with not just technique, but the knowledge of how to make it work for them, to become the best they can be, and provide a sacred, safe space for which they have the freedom to develop their creative expression​.
MEET LEIGH
Leigh Grant is a former elite pre-professional dancer and freelance professional dancer with 42 years of training and experience in ballet.
Leigh has been afforded many wonderful training opportunities as a returning adult ballet dancer, having master classes, and attending intensives with, Skylar Brandt, Runqiao Du, Kathryn Morgan, and many others.
In her youth she trained in her hometown with Dancer's Workshop and Lancaster School of Ballet (LSB), where she performed in The Nutcracker alongside dancers with the Donetsk Ballet of Ukraine. At age 13, she received her first professional freelance contract.
At age 23, injuries precluded her from obtaining a contract with a company. Disheartened, she left ballet for many years and eventually returned to school, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.
At age 36, she realized how much she missed ballet and returned, not knowing where or how she'd fit in. She quickly returned to the ballet studio, this time as a teacher. In 2019, she audited the American Ballet Theatre's Teacher Training Curriculum program in New York City, in the famed studios that she previously entered as a hopeful ballet student two decades prior.
​ Now she is forging a path for herself as an adult ballet influencer and advocate, teacher, and director.
​ She loves sharing her passion, expertise, and experiences with her students. ​