Young ballet dancers in Hawaiʻi have a chance to learn from the very best — including principal artists from New York City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet — in a four-week summer intensive hosted by Ballet Hawaiʻi.
At the end of the summer intensive, students and professional artists will perform “Reflections in Motion,” a theatrical dance event, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 25, at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall. The performance features classical ballet, as well as neoclassical works and Broadway-inspired choreography.
“When I first came here, I felt like some of the students were not able to go to [summer intensive] programs that were on the Mainland because of the expense,” said Pamela Taylor-Tongg, the artistic director of Ballet Hawaiʻi, who danced with Atlanta Ballet for many years. “Because of the situation, they may not have been able to find housing or finances. So I thought, ʻI will bring the best people that I know, that I have worked with, that I love working with, to Hawaiʻi.’ And that was 40 years ago.”
She said with a laugh, “I thought I'd retire when I came back. But I had so many resources that I felt would be so wonderful for the students to be able to learn from the top teachers, who were professional dancers. That's really how it began, and little by little, it has grown.”
Dancers start at 7 years old. There are also three levels of classes for older students.
The final performance will include the ballet “Reflections,” staged by Robert Barnett, the former artistic director of Atlanta Ballet, as well as Broadway choreography by Laine Sakakura. It will feature the guest artists Megan Fairchild of New York City Ballet, Lucien Postlewaite of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Courtney Schenberger of Carolina Ballet.
After the show, there will be a “talk back” event, where the audience can engage with the performers.
“I want people to ask questions,” said Richard Vida, executive director of Ballet Hawaiʻi. “I want the professionals, as well as the students, to share their experience: why they dance, why this program is so important, why they love to come to Hawaiʻi.”
Barnett, a former artistic director of Atlanta Ballet, who just turned 100 years old, choreographed “Reflections” and will be there for the talk back event. He is coming to Honolulu for the last week of the intensive “to make sure his ballet is done correctly,” Taylor-Tongg added.
Vida said, “He is a wealth of information about Mr. George Balanchine and all the people that he worked with throughout his many years in New York and as a director in Atlanta Ballet."
Balanchine is considered one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century and went on to found New York City Ballet.
When asked why she loves ballet, Taylor-Tongg is quick to say dance chose her.
“I took ballet and just loved it and never went back,” she said. “I tried to retire a couple of times, but that didn't happen, and I'm glad it didn't.”
Not everyone who plays sports — or even dances — goes on to have a professional career, added Vida. But the training teaches life skills.
“It is an avenue to creating an entire character that you will bring with you for the rest of your life, in whatever you do,” he said. “I am here to teach someone to be a team player, think outside of the box, creativity, tenacity, awareness of one's body and their physicality, and to just create all of the characteristics that are going to make one a successful human being, when they get out there in the world.”
Tickets are $50 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster or at the Blaisdell Box Office.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
