Kramer (Pruitt) Kreiling is Kansas City Ballet School’s Administrator at the Bolender Center. Along with being among the frontline staff to greet students and guests at the Bolender Center, she also teaches a number of classes for a wide range of students including creative movement classes on up to adults taking Studio classes. But if Kramer seems familiar, it could be because she’s been around KCBS since she was 9.
A Stong History
Kramer has seen a lot of changes for the school as well. When she started taking classes, KCB was located where the Kauffman Center is now. Then the organization moved across the street to 1601 Broadway, what’s now Quixotic’s Offices.
During her time, she danced in several Kansas City Ballet productions including the role of “Clara” in Todd Bolender’s The Nutcracker, and MidWest Youth Ballet became Kansas City Youth Ballet. Kramer was part of the youth company from its inception in 2007 through 2011 when she graduated from high school and KCBS. After college, where she earned her BFA in Dance in 2014, she began teaching classes at KCBS and eventually worked her way up to an administrator position.
“I never really questioned leaving the dance world,” Kramer says. “I can’t exactly pinpoint a moment, but it was just always the thing that felt ‘right’. Though I now just take classes for personal enjoyment, I still feel fully immersed in the ballet world with my teaching.”
A New Passion
Kramer says: “The first time I stepped into the studio as the teacher, rather than the student, I knew I had discovered my true passion. I absolutely love teaching! I like to say that when I dance it is my selfish act, but when I teach it is my way of giving to others. I am lucky to teach a large variety of classes here at KCBS. Most of my time is spent with young dancers in our Children’s Program and with our Adult Beginners. I have also had the opportunity to teach contemporary, improv, and theraband classes in KCBS’s Summer Intensive and Junior Summer Intensive.”
Kramer enjoys being both a teacher and administrator because she is able to bond with students in the studio, as well as with their families outside of the studio. Making those connections brings her full circle back to her own memories of being a student at KCBS.
