My daughter will be attending Cedar Island, along with BlizzardQueen, this summer. When talking about Ms. Farrell's abilities as a teacher, I think it is important to note that both of her summer programs, at Cedar Island and Kennedy Center, are small and intimate programs. Her lucky students get a very rare opportunity to work one-on-one with a ballet legend.
I do not know of any other dancer, of this stature in the US, that has been willing to give this much of their time and of themselves in order to train the next generation. I know of many ballet luminaries that guest teach at summer programs, several of which my daughter has been fortunate enough to take classes from. But, in none of those cases, was the teacher willing to get to know each student, spend time with them after classes were over and in the evenings, etc. In none of those settings were the classes small enough where the guest teacher really even had much of an opportunity to get to know the specific needs of the dancers nor did teachers of this stature work with the same students on a daily basis. It is far more common for teachers of this stature to come in and teach for a week or perhaps one class a week, but certainly not every ballet class for the duration of the program!
By conducting all of her own auditions across the country, she makes at least one class with her available to anyone who is interested. I often hear that her audition class for her summer programs is the favorite audition that many dancers attend during the audition season. Again, I know of no other ballet luminary that offers such an opportunity.
Ms. Farrell could certainly have a multitude of guest teaching opportunities. I daresay that they would likely offer her greater financial gain than her two programs do. They would certainly require less of her time in preparing, planning, and carrying out the programs! I think this says much about Ms. Farrell and her desire to pass on her knowledge and experience to others.
I am very grateful to her for taking the initiative and for her willingness to give of her time to create these unique training programs. It is just one more aspect of her personality that makes her so fascinating to those of us who admire her work. My daughter can hardly stand the excitement she feels when she thinks about her upcoming summer with Ms. Farrell!