Brilliant Broadway hoofer Ann Reinking has won major awards for her acting, directing and choreography. Actor and comedian Richard Kind is equally at home performing onstage, in films and on television.

Susan York combines steel, porcelain and graphite in complex and alluring art installations sought by museums, galleries and collectors. And pianist Joel Fan is always flying all over the place to perform concertos, solo recitals and chamber music.

This distinguished quartet will share their skills with New Mexico middle- and high-school students this weekend in master classes at the National Dance Institute of New Mexico's Dance Barns here in Santa Fe. The three-hour sessions, from 1 to 4 p.m., are presented by the New Mexico School for the Arts. While applications are necessary for admission, the fee is only $20.

The foursome may be distinguished, but they're certainly not stand-offish. In fact, they can't wait to work with the students. As Fan said in a telephone interview from New York, passing the torch — and making sure it burns even brighter in the process — is one of the big things that the arts are all about.

"I'm really committed to passing on what we've learned as artists," Fan said. "Things like music, dance, acting — these are things you can't learn from a computer or Google. You've got to learn to dance or paint or act from a person.

"Talent is not just about talent. Talent doesn't exist without opportunity and influences. Giving people the opportunity to be pushed, and exposed to outside influences, is wonderful.

"We've all had it, whatever profession we've chosen," Fan added. "There's been somebody who's been influential and urged you to look beyond the box. That's a constant process as you become a professional."

Set to open in Santa Fe in fall 2010, the New Mexico School for the Arts is a state-chartered residential high school funded through a public-private partnership. The curriculum will include in-depth work in many arts disciplines, as well as standard academic subjects.

"It's really fantastic," Fan said. "What a great story and great mission, and the people involved are great." He gave his first master class for the school several weeks ago in Albuquerque, thanks to Santa Fe Pro Musica artistic director Thomas O'Connor. Fan often performs with Pro Musica, and O'Connor is an NMSA board member.

According to Annica Graham, the school's arts enrichment program producer, master classes are planned for this summer and are being considered for the next.

"What we're interested in doing is to work with communities and arts organizations, with the resources they have, and to work with as many artists as possible," Graham said. "As to how many events might be scheduled in the next year, it depends on the partnerships we can arrange."

SFSA's first master classes took place at the end of May at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. They included dance, painting, music and acting. After the Santa Fe session, the school hopes to arrange another in Las Cruces later on. And from Aug. 17 through 21, a weeklong intensive will take place in Santa Fe, with artist-teachers to be announced.

Like many creative entities around here, New Mexico School for the Arts has its general plans for the first 2010-11 school year in place, but is still seeking the right location. It will need not only educational facilities, but dormitories and a kitchen.

"We're not quite sure yet where we will be," Graham said. "We have a lot of options right now, and we're diligently investigating all of them."

For more information, visit nmschoolforthearts.org.

Contact Craig Smith at 986-3038, csmith@sfnewmexican.com.



IF YOU GO

What: Master classes with Ann Reinking (dance and musical theater); Richard Kind (improvisation for theater, film and television); Susan York (studio instruction in installation art); and Joel Fan (piano and musical interpretation)

When: 1-4 p.m. Saturday

Where: National Dance Institute of New Mexico Dance Barns, 1140 Alto St.

Fee: $20

By application only, online at nmschoolforthearts.org, or 467-7852



A DISTINGUISHED QUARTET

JOEL FAN: The pianist has performed in venues and with organizations including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. A native New Yorker, he graduated from Harvard and earned his master's degree in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, studying with Leon Fleisher. A member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, Fan has appeared here for Santa Fe Pro Musica four times in the last five years. His CDs are issued by Reference Recordings.

RICHARD KIND: Equally busy in the theater, films, and on TV, Kind just finished filming a starring role in the Coen brothers' A Serious Man and appeared as Dr. Pangloss in the New York City Opera production of Candide last year. He played Max Bialystock in The Producers on Broadway for a stint beginning in December 2004. Kind is known to TV audiences for playing Paul on the ABC series Spin City and Mark on NBC's Mad About You. Recent guest TV appearances have been on Scrubs and Still Standing. He voiced the grasshopper, Molt, in the Disney film A Bug's Life.

ANN REINKING: A native of Seattle, Reinking began studying dance as a child. She later studied for three summers at the San Francisco School of Ballet, and also received a scholarship to study with Robert Joffrey, founder of the Joffrey Ballet. Her first job in New York, just out of high school, was with the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall.

In 1997, Reinking swept Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire awards for her choreography for the City Center revival of Kander and Ebb's Chicago. She was choreographer for Fosse, which took the 1999 Tony for Best Musical.

SUSAN YORK: The Santa Fe artist, a native of Rhode Island, earned her MFA in 1995 from the Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Her installations include exhibits at Santa Fe's Lannan Foundation, Klaudia Marr Gallery, Janus Gallery and Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, plus exhibitions 2D a gallery in Marfa, Texas.