Rhonda Ryman-Kane

Rhonda Ryman-Kane is the President of DanceWrite and co-author of the Benesh for Ballet ebook series. Rhonda created the animations for this website and the ebook series. The content of the ebooks is based on Rhonda’s research.

Rhonda began her dance studies in Toronto with Diana Jablokova-Vorps (Vaganova). She danced and choreographed for regional ballet companies in Toronto before entering university to pursue studies in French, Biomechanics, and Movement Analysis. Rhonda completed advanced studies in Benesh Notation (AIChor, London, 1983) and Labanotation (N.Y., 1983), and was elected Fellow of the Institute of Choreology (FIChor, 1986) and the International Council for Kinetography Laban (ICKL, 1989).

From 1991 to 1995 she served as Canadian Consultant to SEAMEO SPAFA, conducting a series of workshops in South East Asia to assist local artists in documenting regional dance forms. She has staged works including Doris Humprey’s Partita, Ann Hutchinson’s reconstruction of Nijinsky’s L’après-midi d’un faune, Anton Dolin’s Pas de Quatre, and excerpts from Bournonville’s Napoli. She has authored and edited numerous publications on dance technique and repertoire including dictionaries on RAD and Cecchetti vocabulary, working with artists and educators in Toronto, New York, London, Bangkok, Singapore, and the Philippines. Her electronic publication, Ballet Moves II, uses DanceForms computer animation software to represent dance movements and repertoire, including Dolin’s Pas de Quatre and Danny Grossman’s Curious Schools of Theatrical Dancing. 

In 2010 Rhonda retired from the University of Waterloo (UW), Ontario, Canada, where she taught courses including Dance History and Appreciation, Notation and Reconstruction, and Principles of Dance Technique for over thirty years, directing UW’s Option in Fine and Performing Arts from 1996 to 2005.

Since 1995 Rhonda has been an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program in Dance, York University. She served as External Examiner for The Benesh Institute from 2009-2013 and has been a member of the Benesh Technical Advisory Panel (BenTAP) since 2015.