By Amanda Tsao
Staff Writer
With a bite of a poisonous apple, Mira Costa dancers participated in a ballet production of Snow White on Sunday, March 23 held by the School of Dance and Music’s Ballet Company.
The ballet follows the classic Disney movie about a princess named Snow White who lives with dwarves and animals, and falls in love with a prince. Junior Danielle Wenger danced the part of Snow White and junior Ana Thue danced the part of the Evil Queen. Senior Maddy Vogel performed a solo during the wedding scene as well as her parts as the magic mirror and a bluebird. Sophomore Caitlin Kelly was a deer in the forest scenes and a garland dancer in the wedding scene.
“I had an absolutely amazing time performing in this ballet of Snow White,” Wenger said. “Dancing has always been a way I can express myself and even though it takes long grueling hours of practice, there is an amazing feeling I get when I finally finish a challenging dance.”
The dance teachers of the ballet company, mainly Kara Fioretti and Megan Higaki, watched their students in their ballet classes last year and assessed which students would get which parts in the upcoming year’s production of Snow White. Therefore, no formal auditions were necessary, as the teachers know their dancers well enough to assign each dancer’s part in the show.
“I really enjoyed performing in this ballet,” Kelly said. “It makes me really happy when younger students at my studio come up to me and tell me that I inspire them to keep trying to grow as a dancer and keep working hard so they can be like me when they’re older.”
The company began preparations for the production in September of 2013. The dancers attended rehearsals and practices for one to four hours every Saturday since their parts were chosen.
“In the month of March, I sometimes wouldn’t leave the studio until 8:30 or 9:00 at night,” Wenger said. “I practically lived at the studio during the month of March, preparing for the production.”
The dancers of the ballet not only prepared for the production with countless rehearsals, but have been practicing their entire lives for ballets and other dance shows, such as Don Quixote, The Grinch who Stole the Nutcracker and Alice in Wonderland.
“I have been dancing ever since I could walk and kick my legs, and I began taking dance classes when I was three years old,” Wenger said. “Ballet has always been my favorite style of dance.”
Most of the ballet dancers at the Redondo School of Dance and Music will continue dance for as long as they can. Although becoming a professional dancer requires homeschooling and constant traveling to competitions, dancers like Wenger and Vogel want to continue dance as a way to exercise and have fun.
“I continue to do ballet because I love it,” Vogel said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but there is nothing more rewarding than performing your variation in front of an audience and knowing you could not have done it any better.”
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