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By María Villaseñor
The Salt Lake Tribune
Photograph by Ballet West
12/15/2009
At 10, Tade Biesinger is practically a pro when it comes to “The Nutcracker.” For the past two years, the Bountiful boy has played Fritz — the naughty brother who steals and breaks the titular toy — in Ballet West’s holiday production.
“It’s kind of fun getting in trouble a lot,” he says of his character. He performed in the first cast used for “The Nutcracker” this season, and he is an understudy for the second cast’s “Fritz.”
Each December, more than 250 children dance, tumble and run across the Capitol Theatre stage to help perform the expansive production. It’s a Ballet West tradition to hold an open audition in the fall, during which more than 500 area children try to win a spot in the Christmas classic.
Tade and two younger brothers have all pursued roles. “I wasn’t nervous for Tade so much,” said Clint Biesinger said of his sons’ auditions. “But I was thrilled when the other two boys [made it]; they don’t have near the experience.”
Tade — an avid dancer who takes classes in tap, hip hop, ballet, jazz and more — was the first to perform in “The Nutcracker” and has been in the show during the past three years. Last year, 8-year-old Briggs had a part. And this year, Brooks, 7, has the role of a playful party-goer who gets his bottom smacked. “When they come home from practices, they’re pretty excited,” their father said.
This year’s production seems to have one of the largest numbers of relatives — from cousins to brothers and sisters — performing together. Cati Snarr, Ballet West’s child ballet mistress, runs the rehearsals and sees that for many, having their young children perform is a family tradition. Some “are moms that danced with me,” said Snarr, who performed in “The Nutcracker” when she was 10. “So it’s really come full circle.”
It can be a challenge for children to undergo weeks of practice, but they are eager to be part of the ballet, she said. “They are smart and they rise to the occasion really fast.”
Tade makes sure to help his younger brother Brooks with his moves. “We practice at home with him,” Tade said. His middle brother Briggs opted against trying out for “The Nutcracker” this year because it overlapped with the schedule for new activity.
“He really wanted to play football and this is the first year he could play,” his father said.
The boys’ parents like their children learning more about music, culture, dance and teamwork. It also gives them the opportunity to be surrounded by excellence, their father added. “I don’t care if it’s football or soccer or choir, whatever the discipline is — or dance — it’s neat for our community to give kids chances to be part of something excellent.”
Copyright 2009 The Salt Lake Tribune
By David Stabler
The Oregonian
December 17, 2009
When Michael Kepler Meo becomes an opera singer, he will live in a condo in New York City. He will get up early and take a taxi to work. He will work days and nights. He will travel. Sometimes he will have big chunks of money, and sometimes he won’t.
He will not just be any old opera singer. He will be a heroic tenor, slayer of dragons, defeater of armies, rescuer of maidens. Tenors, you see, “get the biggest parts.”
At 11, Mike already is getting big parts. Last winter, he sang the role of Miles in Portland Opera’s compelling production of “The Turn of the Screw.” Miles is a key role in Benjamin Britten’s cryptic tale of [the corruption and death of a young boy in a rural English manor house]. Mike mastered the difficult music with a mature performance.
“He’s a natural on the stage,” says Rob Ainsley, who coached him for the production. Ainsley, Portland Opera’s chorus master and principal coach, was a boy soprano himself when he was growing up in Durham, England.
“He’s a very, very intelligent child,” Ainsley says. “You ask him to do very complicated musical things and he will go away and practice them overnight and come back at the level you want him to be. He gives you everything you want as a musician.”
When Mike, a Portland Boychoir member, auditioned for the role, he didn’t know what opera was, but word of his Portland success spread to Houston Grand Opera, which hired him for its production of “The Turn of the Screw” next year. Houston will require him to move there for six weeks next month, putting him on a larger musical map.
What else? In October, he starred in a Vancouver production of a key boy soprano role, “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” And starting Friday, Mike will make an unusual appearance in Handel’s “Messiah” with the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Lo, instead of a soprano singing the voice of the Angel, Mike will comfort shepherds abiding in their field: “… fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. …”
Mike didn’t start out winning major solos. He got his start at the age of 6 in Portland Boychoir, led by longtime choir director David York. Says Mike, “I was totally overwhelmed. I didn’t know how to read anything, let alone read music, but I kind of got it.”
From day one, he was serious about singing, recalls his mother, Trudy Meo. “I don’t think he broke eye contact the entire time. Other kids were squirreling around. Not Mike. He was like a laser.”
Mike has a “really wonderful set of pipes,” York says, “and he has a real prowess for performance. He gets energy from the experience, and that continues to fuel his next opportunities. Other boys in the choir sing harmony as well or better than Mike, but to his credit, he’s a team player. He can blow out the choir and he knows that that’s not what good choral singing is about, and is able to therefore temper his performance.”
Each weekday before lunch, Mike, who is homeschooled, practices piano, guitar and voice for an hour and 45 minutes. “If mom hasn’t made lunch, I have to keep practicing,” he says.
Neither parent plays an instrument or sings, but when Mike was 5, his father read to him William Blake’s poem “The Tiger,” which begins, “Tiger, tiger, burning bright.” Mike was so bewitched, he set it to music. He got deeper into music through singing and playing the guitar with Ballet Papalotl, a local Mexican culture and dance organization.
Mike lives in Northeast Portland with his mother; father, Michael; and brother, John, 9, who also is homeschooled by Mom. Dad teaches math at Benson Polytechnic High School.
Mike’s favorite food is Top Ramen — “I gotta love him for that!” says his mother. And he adores Greek mythology. His favorite movie is “Troy,” starring Brad Pitt as Achilles, half-god, slayer of Hector — faster, stronger and more deadly than any other man. At the mention of Achilles, Mike leaps to his feet, raises his arms in a heroic pose and recites Achilles’ speech from the movie:
“Myrmidons! My brothers of the sword! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands! Let no man forget how menacing we are, we are lions! Do you know what’s waiting beyond that beach? Immortality! Take it! It’s yours!”
Says Ainsley, “You know, he reads ‘The Iliad’ in Spanish at breakfast.”
Mike knows he has little time to waste. Boy sopranos have only a few years before their voices change. That’s why Houston Grand Opera grabbed him. “Word travels very fast,” Ainsley says. “Not a lot of boys in the country can do this. Boys are not singing that much anymore. You never know whether the voice will break.”
For that reason, Mike and another boy were both cast as Miles in the Portland production. When the other boy’s voice did break during rehearsals, Mike got the part to himself.
“He was a young Miles, only 10 at the time,” Ainsley says. “Most of the time on a major stage you’re going to put a kid who’s 13, 14, who’s been singing for several years, whose voice is maximum size. (Mike) is capable of projecting. It was a huge feat of precociousness.”
In Houston, Mike will have an understudy. In one of his droll moods, he says, “I have to constantly confirm my dominance.”
But first comes the angel in Handel’s “Messiah” this weekend. It’s only two minutes of singing, but Ainsley, who is conducting the performances, chose him to add vocal variety. “It’s a long, long piece for the audience, so you’re looking for variety, trying to latch on to anything that’s narrative, a hint of plot.”
Says Mike, “I said yes because I need to be saying yes to things. I need to be open to stuff, on the lookout for opportunities. Singing is great; it’s awesome. I think I do better performing for people than practicing for nobody.”
© 2009 Oregon Live LLC
Stephanie Hallett
TheThunderbird.ca
Photographs by Goh Ballet
Dec 2nd, 2009
[Edited]
Live drumming signals the start of a new exercise in Edmond Kilpatrick’s boys-only dance class.
The group of 13 six- and seven-year-old boys wear uniforms of black stretch pants and white shirts, and anxiously wait for instructions. Kilpatrick, a former Ballet BC principal dancer, calls out, “pliez,” and 13 pairs of knees immediately bend.
This program at Arts Umbrella, a well-known arts centre in Vancouver, is one of a rising number of classes catering to boys in the city. Five years ago there were few boys in dance classes – now there’s a waiting list.
“In the beginning … we really had to hustle to get the word out there so the boys would come in,” said Kilpatrick, who has been teaching for more than 20 years and started his boys-only program a decade ago.
Popular reality television shows, such as So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew and Battle of the Blades, which show men dancing and figure skating, are part of the push.
These competitive shows bring male dancers into the mainstream and provide role models for boys interested in dance. Battle of the Blades shows Canada’s ultimate male role model, the hockey player, in the less traditionally masculine sport of figure skating
Michelle Hersey, owner of D’Hercy Dance Co., a company that provides kids dance classes at community centres around Vancouver, said the shows are helping parents to accept their sons’ interest in dance.
More parents are open to enrolling their boys in dance classes – but usually only at the younger ages, Kilpatrick added
Just for boys
Kilpatrick said the dance studio environment is also changing from girls-only colours and themes. Kilpatrick wanted to create a neutral space where boys could dance and have a male dancer as a role model, so he started his boys-only program. “It dawned on me right away that a lot of these places where I was teaching were these pink studios with pictures of babies in tutus everywhere,” he said.
“What they [boys] needed was a neutral environment, not necessarily an environment with blue walls and pictures of trucks on the walls, just a very neutral environment where they could be in a room with seven to 10 other boys just like themselves.”
Kilpatrick’s boys-only classes are held in a converted church in East Vancouver. The dance studio has high ceilings, one mirrored wall, and a large black rubber-matted area for dancing.
Plain language is used to describe movement. Instead of “fly like a butterfly,” it is “circle the room.” “Hop like a bunny” becomes “sauté,” the French word for jump, which is used in ballet.
Michelle Hersey has also adapted her teaching style since more boys have joined her classes in the last two years. She said she includes more “boy-oriented” imagery such as bears, machines and dinosaurs instead of fairies, mermaids and butterflies.
A tougher, more masculine style
Although more boys are joining dance classes, there is still a division in the styles of dance they sign up for, with hip hop more popular than ballet.
“Hip hop [is] something that is modeled on television by men and young boys that is popular and cool and has social links to dominance and aggression, which are safe images for males to portray,” Hersey said.
Kilpatrick said boys will take hip hop even if they’re more interested in classical styles such as ballet or contemporary dance because hip hop is considered a tougher, more masculine style.
So You Think You Can and Battle of the Blades help to break down cultural stereotypes about masculinity, which say dance and figure skating are too “girly” for men and boys.
But only a certain kind of masculinity is shown on these programs, said Mary Louise Adams, a sports sociologist at Queen’s University, and the most popular men are usually hip hop dancers.
On Battle of the Blades, a hockey player is paired with a female figure skater and they compete in ice dancing challenges. The hockey player is doing a “girly” sport, but the audience understands it is temporary and he will go back to being a hockey player when the show is over.
But some boys aren’t afraid to do ballet.
At 13, Theo Duff-Grant is a rising star at Vancouver-based Goh Ballet and said he plans to dance for life. He hopes to one day have a career at the Royal Ballet in London. Duff-Grant said boys should just go ahead and take classes if they’re interested in dance.
“I’d say just do what you want and don’t care what they think.”
Copyright 2009: UBC Graduate School of Journalism
Related Article: A field not just for girls any more
By Terry Trucco
PlaybillArts.com
02 Dec 2009
New York City Ballet’s annual staging of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker boasts a multitude of unforgettable moments. Dancers from the company share some of their personal favorites.
As seasoned ballet-goers know¡ªand newcomers quickly learn¡ªGeorge Balanchine’s The Nutcracker boasts more than its share of exceptional sequences, as spectacular as the Christmas tree that rises to the rafters, as tender as the instant Marie’s mother removes her shawl to cover her sleeping daughter.
Given The Nutcracker’s fanciful plot, it’s no surprise the ballet is bursting with moments to savor. In a nutshell: a little girl receives a toy Nutcracker from her godfather at a Christmas Eve party, falls asleep cradling her new toy and dreams of dancing snowflakes, dastardly mice, true-blue toy soldiers, cavorting candies, frolicking flowers, a Sugarplum Fairy, and a life-size Nutcracker who turns into a prince.
What makes this truly memorable, however, is the pitchperfect confluence of Balanchine’s inspired choreography and Tschaikovsky’s lilting score.
New York City Ballet’s dancers have their favorite moments, too. We recently asked several veteran Nutcracker performers to tell us about one such moment in the variations they perform during the second act, and why that moment is special.
Daniel Ulbricht – Candy Cane
“This is such a thrilling piece even though it’s just over a minute long. Candy Cane is literally and figuratively jumping through hoops, and the audience can count along at the end when he jumps through the hoop 12 times in a row. A great place to watch for is in the middle where it looks like he’s actually turning within the hoop. It’s a little whirlwind turn, then all of a sudden he shoots his foot out. It’s almost as if he’s playing a little game, but of course the difficulty is that he’s doing it with a hoop. If it’s done correctly, the dancer will jump up, then jump out, jump up and jump out, almost like he’s jumping across a river. The idea is to kind of suspend time for a moment. When he lands, it’s like he’s being shot out of a cannon.”
Tiler Peck – Dewdrop
“I love to turn, so my favorite moment comes after Dewdrop’s third entrance (she runs on and off the stage five times). She does a series of complicated turns and at the end, I try to hold the pose as long as I can. I love that moment. It’s exhilarating. You can really play with the phrasing to make it completely your own. Each year I try to think of something a little different to do to make the audience hold their breath. I also love the very last entrance where she comes out from the back, then goes straight to the front of the stage. You know you’re done when you get to do those steps coming forward and you can just let everything go.”
Antonio Carmena – Tea
“This piece is just a minute long, but if I had to pick one special moment, it would be the series of seven big split leaps Tea does near the end. The leaps are a lot of fun, especially because I can play with them according to how fast or slow the music is that day. The audience probably doesn’t hear much variation in the tempo of the music, but when you’re in the air, you notice even a hair’s breadth of difference. I like a fast pace because it makes me more excited to do the jumps. But there’s also something fun about the days when the music is slower, and everything goes well, and you feel you can stay in the air a little bit longer.”
Abi Stafford – Sugarplum Fairy
“I really enjoy Sugarplum’s first solo. I can picture little girls in the audience being enthralled by the music and the costume, and I remember being a young kid and being blown away by how magical it was and how I wanted someday to dance the role. The choreography looks simple, very clean and classical, but it’s actually very difficult to do well. It takes a lot of strength and control. It’s very easy to find moments that are very musical where you can add your own little flourish. I see Sugarplum as the queen of the land and she’s invited Marie and the Prince. She’s a benevolent leader, very warm and kind to the children, and she doesn’t see herself as above the others.”
Lance Chantiles-Wertz – the Nutcracker/ the Prince
“The Prince gets to do a lot of fun things, like go up in the chariot with Marie at the end of the ballet, but the pantomime where he tells a recap of how he and Marie have fought off the Mouse King and saved the land is a really important moment. Every movement in the pantomime has a word that goes with it, which I say in my head as I do it. In the beginning part I say “Everyone here listen, and I will tell you the story.” Then I mimic the Mouse King running across and how Marie throws her shoe. But every little finger movement explains something. There’s a part where the Prince says “over there” and points. I love it all, but one of my favorite parts is when I’m showing how I fenced the Mouse King and how we killed him. It’s a lot of fun to do the pantomime and a real honor to be dancing Mr. Balanchine’s choreography. I get a bit of an adrenal rush every time I hear the music playing.”
From:PlaybillArts.com
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The Flier: The Gravity-defying thrill of NYCB’s Daniel Ulbricht
By Frances Loates
Families Upon Thames Magazine
03/01/2008
Some people, it seems, are simply born to dance and young Joshua Webb, aged 9, from Hinchley Wood could not fight the impulse from the moment he took his first step. As Mum Fleur says, ‘It’s simply in his soul’. She noticed his advanced musicality and sense of rhythm when, aged 2 he was drawn irresistibly to music and responded by exuberantly skipping and dancing around the house.
His family was amused yet perplexed; the youngest of three boys, Joshua was growing up in a fiercely macho household. When Dad, a Chelsea-supporting Eastender and all round ‘man’s man’, not to mention his two big brothers saw the way that dance was rapidly becoming Joshua’s raison d’etre they were initially, to use Fleur’s word, ‘mortified’. In actual fact their attitude did Joshua the biggest favour ever in that it prepared him for the adverse reaction which he was to encounter as his life became increasingly devoted to dance.
Thankfully Joshua, a quirky, determined and unusual character was not put off and the age of four he was begging his parents to let him start ballet classes which he did with the Margaret Barnes School of Dancing, based in Surbiton. From then on there was simply no stopping him. He currently attends ballet classes three times a week, as well as an hour of Jazz, an hour of Gym and two hours once a month at Arts Ed School.
Inevitably over the years Joshua has faced unkind remarks and bullying about his passion but, toughened up by the reaction at home, he has leant to cope with it by flaunting his love of dance at all times. As Fleur told us, ‘he now hangs his ballet shoe key ring on his school bag and faces the music! I believe Joshua is a wonderful role model for any young boy wishing to follow their dream. He does not let other people’s opinions stop him from doing what is important to him, yet he is so young.’
Still only 9 years old, Joshua is currently preparing for his RAD Grade 3 Exams. His talent, drive and dedication seem to be leading him to achieve his ultimate goals – to join the Royal Ballet and become a famous dancer. Joshua was recently in a production of ‘Oliver’ run by Stagecoach Theatre Arts at Leatherhead theatre (see picture). Mum was pleased to report back, ‘His Dad sat in the audience and cried emotional buckets of tears as he watched his young son dance in front of so many people. He was the proudest man in the room, how the tables have turned!’
Margaret Barnes School Of Dancing – 020 8390 1953
Stagecoach Theatre Arts – check www.stagecoach.co.uk for your local school. All Boys’ Ballet Company – 01932 256206
–Published by Families Upon Thames Magazine–
By Tisha Johnson | Staff Writer
Photographs by Tisha Johnson.
The Fort Leavenworth Lamp
December 3, 2009
[Edited]
Three young Fort Leavenworth residents are among the more than 200 children in the cast of the Kansas City’s Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker.
Abby and Emily Fedroff and Durante Verzola are students at the Kansas City Ballet School. The children will join the 25 members of the professional company for the production that begins Dec. 16.
Eight-year-old Abby is playing an Angel and a Mother Ginger child and 10-year-old Emily is playing a Mother Ginger child in the production. Thirteen-year-old Verzola is playing the prince, one of the male leads in the ballet.
All three dancers were familiar with their roles before rehearsals began. Verzola was the prince in the Kansas City Ballet’s production last year. Abby and Emily were in their community’s production of the Nutcracker at West Point, N.Y., last year where the family was stationed.
Verzola began dance at 7 with a tap class at West Point when his family was stationed there. The next year he began ballet. His future, he said, is with ballet. Verzola said he wants to pursue a professional career as a dancer.
“I like performing in front of people and showing them this art,” Verzola said. “I think it’s a really special, different and unique thing not everybody can do. It takes a lot of stamina and determination and commitment.”
Having the role of the prince is an honor, Verzola said. It is a big role and a big responsibility, he said.
“You really have to make the audience believe this is all really happening, you want them to be captivated by your performance,” Verzola said. “You have to make sure to stay animated and for every performance act like you’ve never seen it before either.”
With rehearsals for The Nutcracker, Verzola said he is at the school six days a week. Rehearsal is Saturday and Sunday, and during the week, Verzola has different ballet classes as well as a special men’s dance class, Pilates and modern dance.
“It’s a lot of work,” Verzola said.
Every day at the school is a challenge, Verzola said. He said he is always learning how to improve his technique. With all the other competition in the business, Verzola said, it is important to stand out with good technique.
Before coming to Fort Leavenworth, Verzola and his family researched the different studios in the area and what they could offer. When the time comes to move again, Verzola said he and his family would repeat the process.
“I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it, research what kind of schools are there, but I definitely will never quit,” Verzola said.
The oldest of six siblings, he said his parents are very supportive of his art. “Obviously to drive down here every day, especially with my other siblings’ busy schedules,” Verzola said.
Verzola will be in about half of the performances of The Nutcracker this season, the children are split into two different casts and he is part of cast A. Emily and Abby are also part of cast A.
Copyright © 2006 GateHouse Media, Inc.
By Andrew Robinson
Yorkshire Post
November 27, 2009
FICTIONAL Billy Elliot may have faced prejudice and scorn when he took up ballet but real-life Yorkshire boy Thomas Bedford has enjoyed one success after another since taking to the stage at the tender age of four.
At four he won a raft of awards in local competitions in Leeds and his old dance teacher recalled yesterday how she knew that Thomas was “definitely going places” just months after he first trod the boards.
Yesterday the 12-year-old Royal Ballet School student proved himself again when he made his debut in the role of Franz in The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden.
Tickets were so sought-after that his mother Donna could not get hold of one, although his father Bruce and sister Sophie, 13, were there yesterday for his big day.
Before the performance, Thomas admitted he was feeling a bit nervous – hardly surprising as he lined up alongside the stars of The Royal Ballet including Miyako Yoshida as The Sugar Plum Fairy and Steven McRae as The Nutcracker Prince. “I am a little nervous, but I am also really excited to be dancing with The Royal Ballet. Most of my family will be travelling down to London to see me on the opening night so I want to show them, as well as my teachers, what I can do.”
His ultimate dream is to perform for the Royal family.
Thomas started dancing at the age of four after seeing his sister perform ballet. He joined the Mullen Theatre Studios in Churwell, Leeds and later became a Royal Ballet School Leeds junior associate with teacher Melanie Agar.
After a successful audition, he joined The Royal Ballet lower school at Richmond Park, London in September last year. It meant packing his bags and leaving home, which came as much as a shock to his parents as it did to him.
His mother Donna, headteacher at Tadcaster East primary school in North Yorkshire, said: “We were gutted when he went; the house was very quiet and his sister misses him incredibly.” But the decision to move to London had been his, she said.
“I think it took a bit of getting used to. He built up his independence and was rarely homesick. He wanted to do it, he had seen Billy Elliot. It was a big decision for a little boy but he said he wanted to go for it.
“His sister Sophie is very proud. She told him it was an ‘opportunity of a lifetime’- she is an articulate child.”
Watching Billy Elliot helped him focus on the future, said Mrs Bedford, who lives in Church Fenton, near Tadcaster. “After watching, I think it made him look towards what the future might be like. It opened his eyes a lot more.
“Thomas says he wants to be the best he can be. Once he said ‘I’ll be the Nutcracker one day’.”
Mrs Bedford said Thomas had always been open about his love of dancing and had not faced bullying. “He took videos of himself doing ballet into school. He was very up front. His fitness level is incredible so he is the fittest football player on the field. He also has good elevation so he can jump very high.”
While her son quickly took to the rarefied boarding school life, his mother admitted it was a big learning curve for her. She half expected not to like the ballet school – “a lot of very posh cars pull up outside” – but said: “I could not fault it. I still can’t believe he’s doing what he’s doing. He loves it. It’s a very dog-eat-dog world.”
His former dance teacher, Julie Hale, principal at Mullen Theatre Studios, said: “He’s just got the ability but he has worked very hard to achieve what he has. He seems to set his mind on something and works very hard and is dedicated.
“When he comes back to see us, he gives us a hug and is very chatty. It was hard to let him go.”
She recalled that, as a four-year-old it was clear that he had he moves. “He was really bright and I could see that in the first 12 months that he had it and was definitely going places. He was very quick to pick up the dance steps and was winning awards in the baby section at festivals. He always passed his exams with really good marks and always won the award for most promising dancer.”
©2009 Johnston Press Digital Publishing
By THERESA WALKER
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Photographs by ROSE PALMISANO
December 14, 2009
[Edited]
The moms crowd the doorway to peer at the dancers running and skipping around in the baby ballet class. The girls in their pink leotards look like butterflies.There’s not a boy in sight – except for the little guy with the big dark eyes, on the floor by his mother’s feet. He wants to do what the girls are doing. He’s too young for the class, but, at 2, he doesn’t know that. He runs inside the room.
He’s better at it than the girls, but he can’t stay. Not this time, nor all the other times afterward when he bolts away from his dad or his mom to join in the dance.
The next year, Patrick Frenette gets to join his sister Emma in the ballet class. They continue together in their training year after year. For much of that time, Patrick was the only boy in ballet. Kids at his elementary school made fun of him, ostracized him, attacked him.
But he kept dancing.
Emma, 18 months older than her brother, started ballet on the recommendation of an orthopedic surgeon. She was pigeon toed, and ballet is all about turning your feet out.
They lived in Vancouver, where their dad, Matt Frenette, grew up. He is the drummer for Loverboy, a successful Canadian rock band from the ’80s that continues to perform. Their mom, Kimber Frenette, was a self-described military brat who moved all over the U.S. and Europe.
His parents say Patrick loved music and art at an early age. Before he learned to stand and walk, he’d sit on the floor, moving his head in rhythm to whatever music was playing – classical, country, rock. Matt would say to Kimber, “He’s going to be a great drummer.”
But ballet was Patrick’s greatest love. When other kids on the playground practiced drop kicks, Patrick practiced pirouettes.
The other boys played hockey or soccer. And the bullying began almost from his first day at school, and continued, unrelenting, for years. “There was a bunch of boys who really picked on him,” says Jennifer Anderson, his former principal at the French-immersion school. “They just couldn’t understand why a boy would choose to do ballet.”
They called Patrick “Tutu Boy” and other names that he hesitates to repeat. “I don’t know if you can print this,” he says, recalling the slurs one afternoon as he sits with arms and legs crossed on the couch at his home in Tustin, where the family moved last year.
…Patrick and Emma changed schools. Patrick was still the only male ballet dancer on campus, but with other kids involved in various arts, the atmosphere was more tolerant. As part of his school day, he left early in the afternoon for ballet training.
In 2006, when he was 11, Patrick won a scholarship for a two-week summer workshop at American Ballet Theatre in New York City. He returned the next two summers for six-week workshops. Patrick was no longer the only boy in ballet.
“I saw boys exactly like me, my age,” he says, looking up from a huge book about famed danseur George Balanchine that he studies intently just about every day. “There were some who had technique I never even dreamed of having.”
It made him love ballet even more. “Ballet,” he says, “just lets me let loose.”
He kept dancing, kept getting better.
The family came to Tustin so Patrick and Emma could train at the well-regarded Maple Conservatory in Irvine. Emma had met founder and director Charles Maple at an American Ballet Theatre summer program and came home raving about him.
Both get their schooling online. It frees them up for the demands of training, and they avoid the distractions – and social pressure from peers – that might disrupt it.
An untrained eye can see the potential in the long limbs that propel Patrick’s lean 5′9″ frame in graceful but powerful saute’ de chat arcing leaps across the wide dance studio at the end of a two-hour evening class on technique.
Trained eyes see the potential, too. “He has a tremendous future ahead of him,” Charles Maple says. “It’s not only his dancing, but his passion to dance, his curiosity. He designs costumes. He choreographs. He’s like a Renaissance man… I’m just thrilled to be a part of the journey for him.”
That journey will take Patrick to London next July, for two weeks at the prestigious Royal Academy of Ballet. He’ll be there on scholarship.”It’s one of the great schools in the world,” Maple says. “That’s quite a feat to get a full scholarship like that. But he deserves it.”
Part of the training for the boys at Maple Conservatory includes teaching them how to deal with negative comments from other kids, says Maple, 56, who started ballet at 12, and danced as a professional until he was 38. “It’s still tough for boys to do it. Boys need to feel comfortable. What we’re doing is trying to create a sanctuary for them.”
Patrick just turned 15. He volunteers part of his time at Maple mentoring younger boys. He’s eager to be a role model for them. “I just tell them no matter how talented you are, no matter how high you can jump, no matter how much more flexible you are than the other guys, stay humble and kind. Don’t let praise go to your head.”
He tells them to keep dancing.
© Copyright 2009 Orange County Register Communications
The holiday ballet is a rite of passage for many young dancers
BY DANA OLAND
Idaho Statesmen
Published: 12/06/09
Last year, Sebastian Houk danced the roles of Soldier and a “mini-Russian variation” in Ballet Idaho’s “The Nutcracker.” This year, he will be the the ultimate bratty little brother, Fritz, who terrorizes his sister Clara during a family Christmas party. “My favorite part is when I get carried off stage, kicking and screaming. That’s fun,” he said.
What’s even more fun is that for some of the performances this year, he gets to perform opposite his real-life sister, Brenna, 11. As far as anyone can remember, this is the first time an actual brother and sister have played the roles for Ballet Idaho. “It’s fun. I get in trouble a lot for being mean to her, but at least it’s not with my real parents so I don’t really get in trouble,” Sebastian said.
AN AMERICAN HOLIDAY TRADITION
The magical ballet about a young girl who saves the day with her Nutcracker Prince and travels to the Land of the Sweets is an enduring American tradition. It comes in a nearly endless array of interpretations in hundreds of productions across the country.
It is based on the Alexander Dumas’s adaptation of the E.T.A. Hoffmann story. The ballet was originally performed at the Maryansky Theatre in 1892. San Francisco Ballet did the first full-length American “Nutcracker” in 1944, but it was George Balanchine’s 1954 production for New York City Ballet that popularized it into an annual tradition.
IT’S A CHILDREN’S BALLET
Each production comes with performances by a passel of children who will dance everything from Claras and Fritzes to Bon Bons and Lady Bugs, Angels and Chinese lion dancers to mini versions of the adult variations. In the three productions you can see this season, more than 200 Treasure Valley kids will dance in a “Nutcracker.”
Many of the Ballet Idaho’s principle dancers started as “Nutcracker” kids. Phyllis Rothwell Affrunti danced her first “Nutcracker” at 16 as a Snowflake.
“I feel responsible to make sure the kids are having fun, and they see that I’m having fun as well,” Affrunti said.
A DREAM COME TRUE
Today, Cristina Zimmerman, 11, who will share the role of Clara with Brenna, dreams of someday dancing the Snow Queen. Brenna would love to be the Sugar Plum Fairy.
When Ballet Idaho artistic director Anastos first staged this production last season, he opened up the role of Clara to young dancers. In the previous production, a company dancer danced the role.
Last season’s Claras were in their teens. This year, they’re both 11. Costumer Lito-John Demetita had to make new dresses for them because they were so much smaller.
This moment is a dream come true for Cristina. “When I was a little girl – this is cheesy stuff, I know – but I’ve always wanted to be Clara, and this has been a really big honor for me,” she said. Brenna smiles in agreement.
The two young dancers approach the role in distinct ways, Anastos said. “Brenna is more sweet and naive, and that’s Clara. Cristina is very dramatic and that’s another way to do the role,” he said. “I’m so glad I have two girls who are so different.”
Like the grown up ballerinas who will share the three lead roles of Snow, Dew Drop and the Sugar Plum Fairy, they each give their own interpretation. “It’s great to have children doing that, too. And it teaches them they don’t have to imitate. You have to be yourself,” Anastos said.
Sebastian is the only Fritz; he will dance with both Brenna and Cristina.
“Pressure? I feel some pressure, but not much and when we work with the company members it’s really fun,” said Sebastian, an Adams Elementary fifth-grader. “I love dancing but not when my muscles get tight and sore and stuff.” \
All three kids are in the Ballet Idaho Youth Ensemble and take class and rehearse three days a week.
Cristina, who is in sixth grade at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, started dancing at 2; Brenna, an Adams’ sixth-grader, started when she was 3.
Three years ago, she took Sebastian with her for “bring a friend week” at the academy, and he was hooked. “He used to play soccer, but now ballet rules,” their mother, Julie Houk, said. “They’re all very dedicated,” Anastos said.
A SERIOUS TRAINING PROGRAM
Part of that commitment comes from a restructuring of the Ballet Idaho dance academy this year to become once again a serious pre-professional training program. It had drifted away from that more strict idea after directors Jeff and Cathy Giese and Lisa Moon left in 2005 and formed Eagle Performing Arts Center.
Anastos’ changes to the academy are reflected in a more stringent rehearsal schedule for “Nutcracker,” from one day a week last year, to two this year. “Doing anything one day a week is not going to get you very far, whether it’s swimming or ballet,” he said. “‘Nutcracker’ can’t be recreational if you want to do it well. You’re going to be at the Morrison Center performing for 2,000 people. The children aren’t professional, but they need to learn professional ethics.”
Families like the Houks are absorbing the bigger responsibly. “It’s a big commitment for the whole family,” Julie Houk said. She now finds herself volunteering to help at the studio’s front desk, driving kids to performances and carting costumes on occasion.
“Peter wants to prepare these young dancers to potentially become company members,” she said. “But they also learning more than just about dance. They are helping to create ladies and gentlemen, as well as dancers.”
By Diane Parkes
Birmingham Post
Dec 4 2009
Aaron Robison was just a youngster when he first watched ballet dancing, but it sparked a love that has stayed with him ever since, he tells Diane Parkes.
Now a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB), this month Aaron takes to the stage as the Prince in the company’s festive favourite, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
Growing up in Coventry, Aaron, who now lives in Birmingham, was bitten by the dancing bug thanks to his sister Carly. “I started doing ballet because of my sister,” he recalls. “She was doing dancing classes and I would be there waiting for her with my mum and then it was just suggested that I try it. I was about four at the time.” Aaron discovered he had a love, and also a talent, for dance.
As a youngster he joined the BRB Junior Associates and actually performed in his first Nutcracker at the age of nine. “I was one of the children in the show,” he says.
Around this time his family moved to Barcelona in Spain. Although Aaron was offered the opportunity to study at the Royal Ballet’s White Lodge, he wanted to stay with his family so followed them to Spain. There, initially, the dancing fell by the wayside.
“But then we started doing some musical theatre and then we found an English ballet teacher and I went back to dance. I really started dancing seriously from about the age of 11.”
Aaron was inspired by one of the world’s greatest ballet dancers – Rudolf Nureyev. “I was a real fan of his,” says Aaron. “When you watch him dance it is just amazing. I had this video of him dancing the Prince in the Nutcracker and I must have watched it hundreds of times.”
Spurred on, Aaron trained with La Compania Juvenil de Ballet de Catalunya and at the Conservatorio de Barcelona before coming back to the UK with a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School.
It was while he was there that he entered a national competition and took the award for Young British Dancer – and was talent-spotted by BRB director David Bintley.
Offered a job back in Birmingham, Aaron joined the company in 2004 and was promoted to first artist last year. “It was a great opportunity as BRB is one of the best companies,” says Aaron, now 23. “It is one of the few companies which has a director who is actually a choreographer and it produces lots of new and exciting work while still doing the classics.
“I had a slow start because I had a few injuries but I have really started to develop as a dancer,” he says. “I have gradually built up a physique which can handle all the work that ballet needs.”
So far Aaron has danced a wide range of roles, from Petruchio in David Bintley’s The Shakespeare Suite to Black Knight in Ninette de Valois’ Checkmate, Benno in Swan Lake and a Mandolin dancer in Romeo and Juliet.
The past few years have also given him the opportunity to tour – both in the UK and internationally. “I had the chance to go to China earlier this year which is probably somewhere I wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t been with the company,” he says. “My favourite place so far has been Japan, where we toured last year.”
Former BRB director Sir Peter Wright created his production of The Nutcracker in 1990 to celebrate the move of the ballet company from London to Birmingham’s Hippodrome Theatre.
Tchaikovsky’s magical Christmas story has remained a stalwart of the BRB canon and has been performed nearly every December in the city over the past two decades, despite the huge logistical processes involved.
The show, which includes scenes involving Christmas trees and a fireplace filling the stage, depends on a team of 50 people working backstage, features more than 200 costumes and takes three days to install.
Since joining BRB as an adult, Aaron has already danced in four years of Nutcrackers, but this winter he has been offered the star role of the Prince. He says: “I have done so many parts in Nutcracker – Drosselmeyer’s Assistant, King Rat, Consorts, Spanish Dance, Arabian Dance, Soldiers, Winds. But when I was told I was dancing the Prince I was really happy because it is a role that I have wanted to do since I started dancing.”
Once he has the Prince under his belt, he is keen to carry on aiming for the top parts. “There are so many great roles I would love to do,” he says. “Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Second Seminarian in Carmina Burana or Cyrano in David Bintley’s Cyrano.
“One of the really good things about BRB is that there are so many opportunities for dancers. I would love to stay with BRB and become a principal – that is my aim.”
Aaron’s family are planning a visit from Spain to see him dance the Prince. “They tend to come over when I have a lead role,” says Aaron, who is fluent in both Spanish and Catalan.
© 2009 Trinity Mirror Midlands Limited.
HEATHER SMITH
Wollongong & Northern Leader
October 15, 2009
WHILE their friends are splashing about in the surf or kicking a football around during school holidays, the Martignago brothers of Figtree will be busy leaping and pointing at the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. Zachary, 11, and Harley, 9, have just been accepted into the prestigious junior interstate/international training program for 2010.
“We’ll have to work five times as hard,” said Zachary. “We’ll have more lessons for longer.”
The pair trains five days a week for two hours a day at the Joanne Grace School of Dance in Fairy Meadow.
Teacher Ms Grace said the program was very difficult to get into, “regardless of whether it’s boys or girls”. They take whoever they see talent in and who fits the mould,” she said.
Ms Grace said the announcement came as a surprise. “Zac wasn’t accepted when he applied two years ago but, two years on, his technique has come a long way.”
She said the training program was a stepping stone to the Australian Ballet. “What this means is many years of hard work but the boys both have a desire to achieve and work extremely hard. Their passion for dance really shows in how hard they work.”
Mother Joanne Martignago said she was in awe of their commitment and talent. “They both have a strong passion for dancing and spend many hours a week training and attend many eisteddfods,” she said. “The bond between the brothers is inspirational and they encourage each other all the time.
“They have a younger sister who also dances and would love to follow in their footsteps.”
Mrs Martignago said dance was a family commitment and they loved every minute. The boys train every morning before school and do their homework in the car on the way to practice.
As well as ballet, the brothers – who have been dancing since they were two – study modern dance, jazz, tap, singing and drama. They both play soccer and jog with their Dad.
Harley said their friends at St Brigid’s Catholic primary school at Gwynneville were all pleased for them. “They said ‘well done’ and ‘congratulations’,” he said.
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