“As some of you are already aware, I have decided to relinquish my share of Pink Kitten Dance School, therefore as of the 1st of July 2013 I will no longer be a partner.
Over the last three years I have enjoyed immensely working with our students and I would like to thank all of you for your enthusiasm and passion. There is probably never a good time to leave a teaching environment and, certainly, ceasing to work with those of you who are my current students is a hard wrench. I have been simply stunned at times by the bravery in your personal process, be that in developing your own performance practice or simply feeling confident enough to stand tall and present in front of others.
In our current society, female models of sexuality are increasingly restricted to a handful of media created product stereotypes. As a vocational educator and artist, regardless of genre, i believe passionately in the transformative nature of performance and its permissive self expression. This is why I am so encouraged by the range of characters created by my students: zombie cheerleaders, Stepford wives, house elves, robots, farmers and wonder woman of steel are some of those that spring to mind.
Whilst running Pink Kitten has been, undoubtedly inspiring, it has taken me away from my own artistic practice, and I am desperate to get back to this, in what ever form it develops. I have tried to combine the two but have found it impossible and would never wish to compromise either aspect of my work.
For some time I have wanted to get back to a more collaborative mode of performance work. I feel that a dance school structure, with its student/teacher dynamics, is not the right context for this.
I wish all students and staff of Pink Kitten well for the future.
Yours sincerely,
Michaela Kenny-Wilde (formerly Dunne) aka Poppy Von Tarte