top of page
About
Kaethe-Birkner-214x300.jpg

Currently, I am a professional ballet dancer with Continental Ballet Company (CBC) which mostly does classical works with the occasional bit of contemporary. I moved to Minnesota in August of 2016 for the job at CBC. Not long after moving, I met Addie Kelzer at Urban Fitness TC and began teaching for her in March 2017.

 

Around 2018, I found that some of my dance students were looking for more or different kinds of group classes. As much as I loved all my individual training clients from Urban Fitness, I missed teaching more group classes, so I started teaching some additional ballet group classes and started some Pilates group classes. I then formed my own personal business, Fitness with Kaethe, as a way to build these and be able to provide more group classes.

When my sister and I were growing up, our parents put us in various sports to keep us physically active. I started playing soccer when I was only slightly bigger than the ball. Later, I became a soccer referee, which paid much better than baby sitting. My mother enrolled my sister and me in taekwondo when I was in middle school. After a number of years, we earned our first degree black belts. We then taught taekwondo when our teacher moved out of state. As much as I enjoyed all of these activities, it was ballet that was, and still is, my first love.

My mother took me to see the Bolshoi perform Swan Lake when I was just two years old. It is a three hour long ballet and, obviously, my mother expected me to fuss or cry at some point, but I did not. I sat in quiet awe for the entire performance. While I don’t remember this, for as long as I can remember I wanted to dance. I began taking ballet when I was eight. I was determined to be a professional ballet dancer, despite not having the “typical” ballet body. When I was eighteen, it became apparent that, despite having had some very good teachers, I had not been well trained through my high school days. This meant, if I was going to be a professional, I had to retrain. This life experience is why I understand what it is like to have old habits that one has to change. It is always more difficult to change habits than to learn something right the first time, but it is doable!

 

While retraining at an older age made a professional dance career even less likely, I was fortunate enough to start as my professional career in 2008. I have now danced with ballet companies in Austin and Dallas, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; and Bloomington, Minnesota. I have gotten to dance everything from corps to principal roles and have really enjoyed all I have learned and experienced. It is the dream of many little girls to be ballet dancers, but I get to count myself among the lucky and determined few to actually be one.

It was because of my love for ballet, and my need to retrain, that I became interested in Pilates. I was introduced to Pilates through my ballet school in high school. When I started retraining, my teachers recommended that I do more in-depth Pilates studying. Therefore, I added equipment classes to my weekly mat classes. Pilates helped me find muscles I never knew existed. In addition to helping improve my ballet, I found I really liked Pilates. When I got my first out-of-town dance job, I needed something to do for a second job. My parents suggested I get my Pilates certification; then I could have a second job and not have to continue paying for Pilates classes. I got my Mat Pilates certification through Balanced Body in summer of 2012. Pilates has not only helped me stay in better shape for ballet, due to its very effective cross training, it has also helped me recover from various injuries and kept me active while I was injured. I enjoy being able to share my Pilates-based knowledge with all my students, regardless of what class they are taking.

While I had done some teaching through taekwondo and ballet, my teaching career really began when I moved to Baltimore in fall of 2012. Since then, I have taught Pilates and ballet consistently. I started teaching deep stretch classes while living in Dallas two years later. I have taught ages three to senior in group and private settings. While kids can be fun and offer a number of different challenges, I learned that, given my personality and past, I understand and work better with adults and enthusiastic teens. I am fortunate enough to have built friendships through my teaching that have lasted despite my various moves over the years. It is lucky to get to do what you love. It is even luckier when it introduces you to people who can become life long friends.

Not only am I blessed with careers that I love and students that I adore, I am also blessed with a loving and supportive family. In addition to my work accomplishments, I have an Associates Degree in English and a B.A. in History and Government from UT Austin. My dance career introduced me to my husband Dan, a theater and sound technician, in 2016. We married in April of 2020. I have a great home with my husband and our amazing roommate in South Minneapolis. In my free time, I enjoy knitting, reading, writing, and spending time (in-person or virtually) with friends and family near and far.

My Resume (coming soon)

bottom of page