At Logrea Dance Academy, we aim to stimulate the mind, challenge the body and help you to discover your inner dancer. Our classes are engaging, effective, and designed for those who seek a career in dance or are looking for the perfect form of exercise. Come dance with us to explore a new world of motion and emotion and get to know yourself in a whole new way.

 

Jean Logrea and Beth Fritz- Logrea, Co-Directors of the Westchester-based Logrea Dance Academy, and Artistic Directors of the Westchester Ballet Company, have been influencing the lives of young dancers for 31 years. Beth Fritz-Logrea joined the Metropolitan Opera at age 16 and subsequently became a soloist with the St. Gallen Stadt Theater and Graz Opera House in Austria. Jean Logrea began his formal training at Scoala de Coregrafie in Cluj Napoca and thereafter became a soloist with Opera Romana Ballet Company and the Graz Opera House in Austria.

 

Under the instruction of Beth Fritz-Logrea and Jean Logrea, the Academy dancers have, upon graduation, moved on to prestigious ballet companies including The Stuttgart Ballet, The San Diego Ballet, Ballet Washington, Ballet Charleston, and Ballet Austin. Students from the Academy have received high-ranking status as well as full acceptance into the best national and international ballet intensives as well as Ivy League colleges.

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A Little More information about the Directors:

Jean Logrea and I (Beth Fritz-Logrea) are the co-directors of the Logrea Dance Academy, which is the official school of the Westchester Ballet Company. I was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. I started dancing when I was 7 years old at a wonderful ballet school in Memphis and performed with the Memphis Civic Ballet. When I was 14, I won a scholarship to the Metropolitan Opera in NYC, given by the great British ballerina Alica Markova, and became her protégé. I then joined the Met ballet company at the age of 16. After several years with the Met, I was offered a contract as a soloist at both the St Gallen Stadt Theatre in Switzerland and subsequently the Graz Opera House in Austria. I have also toured extensively, dancing leading roles in such ballets as Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, and Pas de Quatre.

Jean was born in a small village in Romania. At the age of 7, his innate talent became apparent, and he was given the opportunity to train at the Scoala Speciala in Cluj in Classical Ballet, Character, and Folk Dance. After graduation from high school, he became a principal dancer at the Opera House Cluj, as well as a teacher at the affiliated school for nine years. He then moved to Austria, where he was a soloist with the Graz Opera House. He also toured throughout Europe in such major roles as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, the Jester in Swan Lake, the pas de deux from Le Corsaire, and the Rocker in The Miraculous Mandarin.

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Jean and I met while dancing at the Opera House in Graz Austria. While there, we had a son, Nick, who has danced since he could walk. Nick is now an integral part of the school and business. He also is a Zumba ZES (Zumba Education Specialist) teaching master classes both in the US and abroad, as well as performing with Zumba founder Beto Perez. 

In my free time, I do needlepoint, brush up on my German, which I learned and spoke while in Austria – and I also love to solve algebra problems. If I wasn’t a dancer, I might just be a mathematician. I love working with numbers.

Jean is a sports fanatic – from baseball to football to soccer – and also regularly attends the opera and ballet. You can often find him barbecuing for the family – and watching or doing anything Romanian.

Also, for the last 35 years, Jean and I have been co-artistic directors of the Westchester Ballet Company. WBC now has two major productions a year: The Nutcracker, and our Spring Performance, which we present yearly at the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase. While I now live in Peekskill, Jean and Nick both reside in Ossining– and the Logrea Dance Academy has been at 2 Dale Avenue in Ossining for over 35 years.

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For someone not familiar with our business: What we offer

Although our focus is on ballet, we also teach jazz, tap, modern, and theatre dance. We believe that the basis of all dance is ballet – which is why we stress that all students should take at least one ballet class a week.

Many schools focus on competition. We don’t. We focus on technique. We assess the ability of each of our students before they begin training with us, and then place them in the correct class for their ability. In this way, each student learns the correct technique from the very beginning— which will carry through as they progress, no matter what type of dance they choose in the future.

That said, we’re not just teaching dance at Logrea. Our students learn life lessons like discipline, poise, confidence, respect, teamwork, and perseverance. Many of our students have moved on to prestigious dance companies and Ivy League colleges. Some have taken their dance training and moved on to careers in musical theatre. But, as we tell our parents, whether your child wants a career in dance, or just wants to dance for the joy of it, he or she will learn life skills at Logrea that will last a lifetime.

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