Two ballet students - one who is taught at Coquitlam's Place des Arts, the other a Port Moody resident and graduate of Dr. Charles Best secondary - are soaring high after successful summers.
Last week, Jeannine Haller, 16, got word she'll be part of the professional program at Canada's National Ballet School, an invitation that came after she was in the Toronto school's intensive in July.
"I am heartbroken to be losing my best student, but so thrilled for her because [the National Ballet School] is the right place for her to flourish and bloom as a dancer," said her long-time teacher, Lucienne Anzykowski, in an email to The Tri-City News. "Dancers at this age don't get accepted into professional training schools easily."
Also kicking up his heels is Daniel Alwell, 19, who recently learned he won a $4,000 scholarship from the BC Arts Council for his tuition at the Vancouver Community College, where he is now in his second year of a two-year dance diploma program that is co-ordinated with the Arts Umbrella on Granville Island.
This summer, the Dublin native joined two summer intensives: a five-week course with the Banff Summer Arts Festival and, a week later, a two-week session with theNederlands Dans Theatre.
A provincial festival dance champion who has performed inTheatre Under The Stars (Oklahoma!) and Royal City Musical Theatre (West Side Story) as well as in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Alwell was recommended to study in Banff by Emily Molnar, Ballet BC's artistic director who works at Arts Umbrella.
There, Alwell was on full scholarship while he and 25 other ballet students workedwith some of Canada's top choreographers including Lindsay Fischer, Jean-Yves Esquerre and Aszure Barton.
In Holland, Alwell beat out 350 other applicants to be one of 60 summer students; he was also part of the Dutch program last year with an Arts Umbrella contingent.
Alwell said he plans to return to Europe after graduating next May - hoping to win a place with a contemporary dance company - because "there are so many more opportunities over there for a dancer.... I'm really excited to see where my career will go once I finish up my diploma in Vancouver."
