Opening Night of the Leopard Tale

Ballethnic Dance Company The Leopard Tale at the Rialto Theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight is opening night of “The Leopard Tale” it’s a show that you do not want to miss!!!

HLN’s Christi Paul shines the spotlight on the Ballethnic Dance Company

Reaching My Dreams!

  Starting Ballet at age 13, I was facing extra-ordinary odds of becoming a professional dancer. I was born in a country setting called North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. It is a place not so far from Mayberry in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I was supposed to grow up and get a “good job” working in a factory. However, I never saw that as my life, and I would have to be fearless to seek something different for myself.

As far as I can remember, I have always moved and danced well before there was formal training. As a little girl, I was always twirling and kicking my legs. In my neighborhood as children we spent a great deal of time outside. I was always jumping, cart wheeling and spinning. I remember early on receiving a tape-player or boom box, and I started choreographing dances in my basement. Everyone knew that was my favorite pastime. If you came over to my house, you were going to dance because that is what I did. I danced everywhere; I kicked as I washed dishes, as I vacuumed, and at any other chore. My Mom got kicked so many times in the grocery store as I sailed down the aisle with my leg extended to the back (in arabesque) that I was prohibited from lifting my legs in stores. On my ten-speed bike I had numerous crashes because I was coasting through the neighborhood in dance poses. I expressed myself through movement. I was never still for very long.

I begged to watch anything with dance in it on television. Growing up we had the family television and we watched programs together. Everyone hated the shows that I loved, like the 70’s Lawrence Welk Show which had the orchestra playing and folks dancing to polkas. I remembered when I discovered the PBS series Dance in America. When I saw the New York companies dancing I felt like that could be me. However, I did not see dancers of color so it always made me wonder if it was possible for me. I needed validation and training.

Finally, at the age of 13, my parents were able to afford to enroll me in Ballet at Canipe School of Dance. I was sooooo happy; my dream had come true. I was taking formal lessons, although at first only two classes per week. I loved everything about it, and I practiced even more at home. I excelled quickly and knew that this was what I wanted to do forever. I did not know at that time how hard it was going to be because I started so late. Finally, in three years, I was on pointe (dancing on my toes). Those shoes were so precious to me and, because they were so expensive, I knew I had to take extra care of them because I was only going to get that one pair of shoes for the year. I knew that I was very serious about dance and that I had to continue serious training so I talked my parents into allowing me to attend a summer session at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston Salem. They agreed, provided that I worked to save up a portion of the money – which I did.

At this point, I knew that in order for me to have a chance as a dancer I had to make a drastic change. By this time I was in the tenth grade ,and I begged my Daddy to allow me to audition to go to NCSA during the school year. I knew it was possible because my friend Deneen Graham was attending. He said emphatically no and that he would never pay for me to attend there as a high school student. He was not particularly fond of me dancing and thought that it was a waste of time. At that point I decided that I would attend as a college student and the quickest way to get there was to finish high school early. So I set up my plan and took science in summer school one summer and completed my senior English course the summer of my junior year. I graduated high school my junior year in the summer. This was major, and people did not understand why I would do that and not want to “march” with my class. How could I give up my senior year of high school, they all thought? I thought it was a waste of time if I only needed my English credit to graduate. I thought it was the right sacrifice to get started with my career and, besides that, I was behind as a dancer, especially a ballet dancer. Read The Entire Article Here!