April 26, 2000
Reaching out step-by-step
Ballet company performs community outreach program
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It is proving to be a busy year for members of the Traverse City Youth Ballet Company.
In the midst of their annual spring community outreach program, Reach Out and Dance 2000, the company has already staged a full-length production of the ballet "Coppelia" in November, has numerous dance seminars scheduled for the summer and will soon hold auditions for the fall production of "Nutcracker."
Since the company was founded three years ago, Reach Out and Dance has brought their junior and senior companies to area schools and clubs. Each year they showcase a variety of dancing styles in addition to traditional ballet. For the second year, professional choreographer Judy Harrison put together a modern dance number for the students, using the piece 'Bye-Bye Birdie' from the Broadway musical "Fosse" this time. In addition, the program features both companies in a traditional ballet number to the music of a Strauss waltz and the junior company dancing the story of "King Midas."
"We do this program each year to raise appreciation and understanding of dance," said company manager Ede Meyer. "We find that dance is really misunderstood, people don't realize that it is like any other athletic event you do, it requires years of training and commitment by the dancers."
Since April, the busy company has given a joint concert with Company Dance Traverse and performed at Trinity Lutheran School and Silver Lake Elementary School. Seven more performances between now and mid-May, including the Odyssey 2000 Dance Concert on May 12-13, round out their outreach schedule.
For company members, the series of public performances every spring help them gain skills and confidence, preparing them for the full-length ballets they put on every fall. Performing in a more informal setting and going from gymnasium to auditorium to library helps them be flexible and relaxed when in the spotlight.
"It is great exposure for the kids performing," Meyer said. "You see so much improvement in their performance with this."
Dancers like the chance to get close to their audience and see the reactions they have to the show.
"It's been very fun and a really good opportunity for the audience to learn about dance," said Joanna Mericle, a dancer in the senior company who has been dancing for more than 10 years. "You can tell the kids really enjoy the performance. We went to a couple of communities that didn't appreciate dance, but they liked it when we were done."
Meyer can tell when her dancers have made an impact on the audience because the kids imitate the steps on the way out of the gymnasium. She has watched even the most skeptical audience members, usually boys, mimic the distinctive gestures in the company's 'Bye-Bye Birdie' number as they leave, capturing the nuance of the movement just so.
"This number has really small movements, a wave, a turn of the head or a click of the fingers," Meyer said. "When they leave the auditorium you see the kids imitating some of the motions on the way out and you know they liked it. I bet some of them will audition for Nutcracker."
The Traverse City Youth Ballet Company will give a public performance of Reach Out and Dance 2000 at 11 a.m. this Saturday during the Traverse Area District Library's weekly storytime.