photo by Claire Daly
It’s every ballerina’s dream to dance in iconic productions such as Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, but not every ballerina gets to.
As hundreds of spectators take their seats at the historic Virginia Theater for the Champaign-Urbana Ballet’s production of Swan Lake on May 3 and 4, they will see ballerinas who have realized their dream.
What they won’t see, though, is what girls and boys, young men and women, have dedicated themselves to and sacrificed for behind the scenes to make the production come to life.
Just like many of their ballet peers, 11-year old Lily Belle Rice from St. Joseph and Mahomet residents 12-year old Elizabeth Hall, 13-year old Kiera McCoy and 13-year old Rosy Odum*, began dancing at a young age; in fact, even before they can remember.
They do remember, though, working their way up through roles in the C-U Ballet’s annual Nutcracker performance. Once students reach 8 years old, if they are ready, they can become part of the trainee program where they learn ballet technique, terminology and history.
The trainee program also gives students the opportunity to be cast as mice, soldiers, dragon legs, party girls or as part of the cavalry in the Nutcracker. Trainees generally are not part of the Company’s spring production.
“They move up,” Champaign-Urbana Ballet Executive Director Kay Greene said. “If they hang in there and take classes, and keep getting better and better, that’s a natural upward climb that they take. Sometimes they are soldiers for a while, and then all of a sudden, they are into something else big.
“Dragon legs is kind of a covered role, though. They all like to be the dragon legs, doing their little dance.”
As students become apprentices, the ballet students work towards becoming active members in the Junior Company by honing in their ballet skills while also taking on more responsibilities through personal care, leadership and volunteering within the organization.
“I think it helps build their confidence; as they start, they move up,” Greene said. “They’re always reaching for something because they’ve been around a while now, and they watch these older dancers, and they are kind of mentors for them, and so they want to reach for the stars, too.
“They want to strive for that. I think that’s important to have a goal, getting stronger and building confidence as they go.”
Rice, an apprentice, began her day Saturday by washing windows at the C-U Ballet facility located on W. Clark Rd. in Champaign.
But contributing to the organization is not something that is left on the shoulders of 11-year old students. Greene said that families full of adults and children of all ages help with maintenance, supervision and developing costumes and sets for each production.
Rice also recently gained a new skill when she successfully sewed her first ribbon onto her ballet shoes.
The C-U Ballet staff believes that if the dancers can learn how to do little tasks that help them build confidence and a sense of responsibility, then the students will be able to do anything they put their minds to.
“If you can sew a ribbon in a shoe, maybe a few years down the road, you can sew a new costume,” Ballet Mistress Tobey Martinez said.
McCoy said the training is already translating into her personal life.
Recently, she had a hole in a pair of jeans she wanted to wear. She was able to grab her sewing kit and mend the material instead of discarding it.
“I would have never known how to do this if I didn’t know how to sew pointe shoes,” she said.
Students are also responsible for taking care of their own costuming. They learn how to apply calamine lotion to their shoes to take off the shine so that they aren’t distracting to the audience while also making sure that they keep their white swan costume free from oils.
Planning costume changes is something that company members figure out and help with during a performance.
“They have quick changes backstage,” Greene said. “It’s far better having a dancer changing a dancer than it is for me to be back there and change a dancer. They know how much time they have, they know the music, they know how you get in and out of it. They learn a lot.”
McCoy said the responsibilities that she’s had to undertake through her dance instruction have translated into understanding real life consequences.
“You have to make sure you have everything there,” she said. “If you’re going to school, you have to make sure you have everything in your backpack. If you don’t have a paper, then you’re going to get a bad grade.”
The rigors of being a ballet dancer are not lost on just life lessons, though.
The C-U Ballet productions demand a high-level of commitment and excellence in order to take on such classic performances.
Many times students are at the ballet studio multiple times a week and on the weekends. Hall said she puts in about 17 hours of training per week after school.
But it takes that time to put on “one of the most revered classical ballets,” Greene said.
“It’s unusual to see it in a community this size.”
Martinez understands the mental mindset the young dancers need to be in as they take the stage.
“It’s a very intense ballet,” she said. “It’s a very physically demanding ballet for all the dancers. There’s a lot of positions where you have to be just so or you have to hold a position for 10 minutes at a time, then you have to get up and you have to dance. It’s a ballet that requires a lot of focus.”
McCoy will play both a swan and a maiden during the Swan Lake performance. She said balancing the two characters is sometimes difficult.
“As a maiden I have to use a lot of facial expressions and I have a more talkative role, but as a swan you have to have a very serious face and remember not to smile,” she said.
But playing multiple roles as young students do in the Nutcracker leads to emotional maturity for the dancers in the junior and senior company.
With a team of trained professionals behind the students, they work to overcome personal downfalls and create a bond of camaraderie that carries into what spectators witness as the dancers are on stage.
Being part of a group of dancers that go out in groups usually helps Hall overcome stage fright. And Rice, who only had three rehearsals under her belt as of last weekend, is looking forward to perfecting her performance over the next week so that her nerves will calm down.
McCoy, plans to look to her friends backstage to help her get into character.
“When you’re backstage everyone tries to ease up the moment,” she said. “We just make lots of jokes backstage, and we just try to make people get ready to smile. When you’re on stage, you’ll see your friends backstage and you’ll just smile.
“When you’re with these girls and you dance together, you form a family. It’s just an amazing place to go every day.”
*Odum will not perform in Swan Lake. She suffered a broken arm, and is recovering.
