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December 4, 2006
Thompson Citizen
By Cassandra Kyle
Students of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School thrilled an appreciative audience at Letkeman Theatre Friday night, leaving many bedazzled by their superior dancing techniques.
Concert Hour Ballet, a Northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba tour of dancers about to graduate from the prestigious school, showcased several different forms of dancing. Traditional, romantic, Spanish and modern dances were performed throughout the one-and-a-half hour event. Elaborate costumes paired with leaps and lifts and, at times, what can only be called acrobatics brought the pieces to life.
The dancers’ facial expressions added to the liveliness of the dances, helping to create a world of fantasy for the audience, transporting them from the Northern Lights of home, to the streets of Spain and the hills of Wales. Modern work La Folia, for example, would not have been the humourous and delightful piece it was without the acting skills of the dancers. Laughter from young dancers in the audience filled the theatre as the professionals contorted their bodies into unusual positions and hid in giant hoop skirts, almost playing with the children in the audience.
One particular piece, On My Way, received special praise from the near-capacity crowd. The work, set to Rusted Root’s Send Me On My Way, created a feeling of the warm springtime sun shining down on the audience. The piece was choreographed by Thompson’s own Kelsey Crockett, a student of the dance school.
Crockett left Thompson in the sixth grade to study at the world-famous ballet school, returning home to her family for holidays and special events. Creating On My Way, she said, reflects her journey of leaving home for dance, yet remaining close with her friends and family here.
“I was driving around in Thompson and was listening to the song and knew that I wanted to use it,” said Crockett, 17. “I knew right away what dancers I wanted to be in it and how I wanted it to look.”
Crockett said the theme of friendship ties the work together. The prairie greens and yellows on the costumes of the dancers represent her home province, and heighten the youthfulness of the piece. Seeing her friends leave the school after graduation and go in different directions also helped to inspire the choreography, she said. Crockett plans to graduate this spring, “if everything goes well and I pass,” she said with a laugh.
“When I was young and just beginning my studies (in Winnipeg) it was really hard because I was really young and was away from my mom and my family,” she said, adding that over the years the idea of her family so many miles north got a little easier.
“I talk to them a lot, and my mom comes down to Winnipeg to visit. They’re hip parents and use MSN (Messenger) so I chat with them over that,” she said.
With the end of her ballet studies in sight and her choreography career starting off with a praised work, Crockett said she isn’t sure what her plans for the future are, but knows she will keep doing what she loves.
“I’m not too sure what I’m going to do yet, but dancing is definitely in the future,” she said.
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