Alumni Spotlight
Harald Uwe Kern - Winner NYIBC 1987 Award for Artistic Achievement
Sometimes I wonder how my life would have turned out had I not been admitted to the NYIBC in 1987. I had always dreamed of dancing in New York, but America was as far away as the moon to me. Even if I had been eliminated in the first round, the competition would still have given me the chance to dance at least once on a New York stage. Performing in front of a knowledgeable New York audience was more important to me than competing.
Harold Uwe Kern with partner Erika Nowak in Flower Festival
Photo: Eduardo Patino
Additional rewards came from the competition's radically different concept which makes it so much more interesting and fair than any other. I learned so much from the teachers in class and the coaches who taught the choreography. These were unexpected and lifelong benefits for which I am truly thankful.
What a wonderful experience it was! I met so many wonderful people who are to this day a big part of my life.
The competition itself was filled with the most wonderful young dancers and it still fills me with pride to have shared the stage with them. You have only to look at the roster to find many dancers who had exceptional careers and became world famous.
After the competition, I was able to stay another week in NY and met more people and deepened friendships. Through some of those people I was able to come back the following summer. In the winter of '88, I did my first Nutcracker tour through New England. By the summer of 1991 I joined the Joffrey Ballet. Things didn't work out as I had hoped, so I left New York to work with Indianapolis Ballet Theater. After eight very successful years, I moved to California to work with Yves de Bouteiller who I met at the NYIBC in 1987. We had a fascinating time running our own company, but the aftermath of 9/11 forced the board to shut it down as they were unable to raise the necessary funds.
Today I am very happy as the ballet master of the Louisville Ballet.
Finally, I need to thank all those people in New York who influenced my life and it's path in so many different ways.
Thank you, John H. Turner, Tobi Leibowitz, Jannett Lentvart, Claudia Terlizzi, Martine Ulrich, Brett Raphael, Maria Grandy, Igor Youskevitch, Maria Youskevitch, Kirk Peterson, and of course Ilona Copen.