Mark Grothman, a Madison, Wisconsin native, began ballet training at 11 with Charmaine Ristow. At 17, he joined Joffrey II Ballet, spending the summer of 1985 with the company before moving on to Boston Ballet as an apprentice. The following year, he danced with Fort Worth Ballet before joining American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as a corps de ballet member in 1987.

During his 11-year career with ABT, Grothman toured extensively, performing in full-length classical and contemporary ballets. He danced featured roles, including the title role in Don Quixote and the second pas de deux in Merce Cunningham’s Duets, working alongside some of the industry’s most renowned choreographers and artists.

After retiring from performing in 1998, Grothman dedicated the past 24 years to teaching ballet. He has been an instructor at Walnut Hill School for the Arts for 11 seasons and recently joined the faculty of Boston Ballet School. He is now part of the newly merged Boston Ballet School’s Professional Division at Walnut Hill, where he continues to mentor aspiring dancers.

Beyond ballet, he is a designer and project manager at Ki3 Design in Natick, MA.

My class builds on the basic format of a typically structured classical ballet class. Barre work is comprehensive and quicker than many technique classes for this age group. My focus is to get to center work quickly while building on the foundation of the barre work and then trying to break the typical patterns used by many teachers as to how steps are put together and musical progressions. By moving quickly through the barre there is ample time to repeat center combinations to help the dancers get comfortable enough with the choreography to work on the finer details of the application of technique. My center is movement driven and is designed to really stress the dance rather than just performing a series of steps in a row. My philosophy is to train smart, dynamic dancers who can take any class and be able to hit the ground running.