JOEY LEVINSON

Joseph Levinson began his ballet training at the age of 10. His early training was at the San Francisco Dance Theater with Jody White (Junior division, Chrysalis pre-professional company), Penelope Lagios Johnson (director of the adult company). The unique training with Jody White included not just Classical dance but also acting, art, mime, modern dance, jazz, flamenco and an understanding of ballet as being a part of the larger world of Theater as a form of Human expression.

He continued his training in New York with Marjorie Mussman, and David Howard who got him his position as soloist with the Northern Ballet Theater in Manchester, England under the direction of Robert de Warren. Among other soloist roles Mr. Levinson was noted for the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that De Warren created on him. After Northern Ballet he returned to the U.S. where he danced as lead dancer with the Colorado Ballet under the direction of Martin Fredmann. While with Colorado Ballet, Mr. Levinson added to his training by working with such renowned teachers and coaches as Larisa Sklyanskaya (Bolshoi Ballet soloist, SFB teacher), Marina Stavitskaya (Kirov Ballet soloist, SAB teacher), and Jurgen Schneider(ABT coach/teacher) Victoria Rockhill Schneider (teacher, Harid Conservatory) to name a few.

As a dancer Mr. Levinson has guested throughout the United States and Japan. He has danced such varied roles as Basilio in Don Quixote; Billy, in Billy the Kid; Puck, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet; Quasimodo, in Esmeralda; Petrouchka, in Petrouchka; the Faun, in Afternoon of a Faun; the Rose, in Spectre de la Rose; Franz, in Copellia; as well as works by Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Peter Pucci, Robert North, Taneo Ishida, Eugene Loring, Igor Youskevitch, and many more.

After a 20 year professional dancing career Mr. Levinson has continued to teach, coach, and choreograph in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan.

As well as teaching classical dance Mr. Levinson is a certified Pilates instructor through Turning Pointe Studios in California. He worked in the Dancemedicine department of the Center for Sports Medicine in San Francisco for 16 years where he was supervisor. As a Pilates Instructor, he specializes in working with dancers to recover from and avoid injuries, and to help refine a dancer’s technique. He is now working with the San Francisco Ballet company as their in-house Pilates provider.

It is Mr. Levinson’s deep understanding of classical dance training combined with his understanding of using Pilates based technique for dancers that makes his approach to both the teaching of ballet and his bodywork uniquely useful to his students.