What an exciting evening!
Posted February 5th, 2010 by Heather Calkins
I was so excited for Tuesday’s Family Series:Cinderella! We had a very welcome full-house at the Esther Simplot Performing Arts Academy auditorium highlighting Act II of this Saturday’s production Cinderella, all in full costume and make-up.
I watched curious kids learning about theater etiquette, Peter spoke about the choreography, we all saw highlights of the ballet in real time and got to meet the dancers up-close and onstage. Just click on the pictures and I need say no more.
Many thanks to our season sponsor of the entire series: Treasure Valley Family Magazine and all the volunteers who helped make it possible. Partners like you make living and working in the Treasure Valley a pleasure and very rich, indeed.
It is very gratifing to watch the “new” Ballet Idaho grow and take flight in just 1 ½ short years, it’s our second season with a new Artistic Director and new company and re-defined Academy of dance. We are here to stay and I invite you to join the movement and keep company with us!
Family Series: All-Italian Program is on April 6th at 6:00 here at the studios! See you at the theater . . .
-Julie Numbers Smith-Executive Director
Rehearsals are going so well for our new production, it’s hard to believe the company just came back from a long post-Nutcracker lay-off. The dancers are in amazing shape! Both my Cinderellas, Phyllis Affrunti and Racheal Nole are fabulous — they are very different dancers. One of the great things about having a number of principal dancers is the ability to see the differences in artistic focus. Both these ladies are working on a very high plane of inspiration — this is one of the best gifts we can offer our audiences here in the Treasure Valley, the ability to see really first class dancers at the top of their form. 
Week two of Cinderella rehearsals begin and the dancers are ready to learn Act III. Class is quiet and it seems that a little mental fatigue and muscle soreness have set in. By Friday I have seen it all… tripped over my broom, had my practice skirt fall to my ankles in some turns, spilled my coffee on James’ ballet shoes. I tell myself that I am “saving my grace for the stage” and that it’s better these things happen in rehearsal! Since there are lots of props for me in this show, I make a mental list with Monica… a crust of bread, a needle and thread, the slipper… Both casts work on the last pas de deux with Alex. It’s beautiful and I’m so inspired watching Phyllis and Jared as they put it together.
Exhausted the morning after finishing six successful shows of Ballet Idaho’s The Nutcracker and attending the cast party, I was already on a flight to Las Vegas, Nevada for another week of performances. Upon arrival in this brand new city, I was excited to start my adventure. The city was filled with lighted up skyscrapers and billboards with a mountainous desert backdrop. However, it was straight to the studio to rehearse with an unknown partner and company of dancers. 
It was our first week of preparing for “Cinderella.” Music by Prokofiev and choreography by Peter Anastos, it is a story we all know and love. The dancers are working very hard and learning lots of new material. It’s nice to be back in the studio and put our bodies back together after the holiday layoff. Behind the scenes, we find new uses for some of the many props used in this ballet… the ribbons that are used to depict the wheels of Cinderella’s carriage are also great for rhythmic gymnastic routines on the break! All in all, we managed to set most of Act I and II which is a great accomplishment in just a week! 
Sunday December 13, 2009
What a long and (almost) happy relationship I’ve had with Cinderella over the years! In 1982, I was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to collaborate with him on the choreography for a new production of Cinderella for American Ballet Theatre in New York. We started work but were interrupted by a dancers’ strike later that year. It was 2 years before we returned to the project. In 1984 our production was given its premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. and was danced by ABT all over the United States, culminating in performances at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
There are ballet dancers and there are doctors, but there are very few doctors who have danced with the New York City Ballet. Afshin Mofid is one of them.
Bus call for the tour to Billings, Montana, was for 6:30 a. m. for a
What an amazing Nutcracker year this has been! Alex Ossadnik and I started on September 12 in Las Vegas, teaching the children’s parts to an entirely new group of kids. The Nevada Ballet Theatre will dance our production right after we finish in Boise. Then we went on to Billings, Montana, where we taught a completely different group of kids their parts in Nutcracker. They will be dancing with our company over the Thanksgiving weekend in Billings. Finally, we taught our own kids here in the Treasure Valley their Nutcracker parts. It was a huge difference from last year, when the production was brand new. Lots of our children were returning to Nutcracker, some even in their old parts. But it’s nice to see kids dance a mouse one year, then a party child the next, then perhaps the Garland Dance. Watching their progress as they grow into ever-more difficult parts is one of the greatest rewards a teacher can have — and our students from Ballet Idaho Academy are shining this year! 
