C O V E R
S T O R Y PHOTOS BY ANNE SLATTERY
Dancing Forward
Westside Ballet’s resilient dancers enchant with elegant and joyous performance By Bridgette M. Redman During a year of many changes and hard-earned lessons, the word that artistic director Martine Harley uses to describe the dancers of Westside School of Ballet is “resilient.” “The dancers have been incredibly resilient,” Harley said. “They spent half of last year in quarantine training from home over Zoom with us, and despite that huge adjustment, as soon as we were able to open a studio with an open-air roll-up door, they hadn’t lost anything. In fact, they blossomed. It was as if their determination to keep dancing was enhanced.” Harley compared them to caterpillars turning into butterflies once they were allowed back in the building. “They emerged from their cocoons and were dancing better than ever,” Harley said. “We were so pleasantly surprised at how they had continued to improve despite having to train from home.” Other dancers shared her perspective. Jesse Dean Peterson, 14, said it was very hard at first to keep up the same atmosphere he had when he was dancing in person, but he experienced a lot of growth. “I strived a lot in my dancing and learned a lot of new things,” Peterson said. “I feel like I improved a lot this year.” Samara Koseff, a graduating senior, described the year as “unexpected and simultaneously fabulous and horrible.” “Westside Ballet came back and it was so important to me to be in a space where I could move,” Koseff said. “Doing a final ‘Nutcracker’ performance was
really important to me, but I missed out on other parts we would do, so there were a lot of bittersweet moments. On the whole, it has been a really good year, but it had a lot of bumps.” Nadia Hofer, 12, found Zoom challenging because they were learning to dance pointe for the first time. “It was pretty tough doing it online, but I learned I could do more than I thought,” Hofer said. “It’s really hard with masks, but I learned through it.”
Creating safe spaces for vibrant performances
As a studio that emphasizes giving their dancers performance opportunities, Westside Ballet recently created a COVID-safe performance space — an enhanced black box called Theater Studio Six — to showcase their graduating seniors and other dancers in a spring show. The artistic staff selects pieces for the spring performance designed to showcase the dancers and their skill levels. This past May, they continued that tradition with a workshop performance that featured choreographer George Balanchine and many other gifted classical musicians, choreographers and dancers. “Each year, we do what we call a mixed repertoire for the spring performance,” Harley said. “I select ballets that are individual to the skills of the dancers because we have dancers from 8 to 18 years old. We create a program that has ballets that are appropriate to every skill level.” The workshop limited the audience to friends and family, but it was filmed and will be
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Despite the pandemic, Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica has persevered and announced its plans to dance forward, which included an intimate new workshop performance this past May. released for a public viewing at a date to be announced. This year’s workshop included pieces from “Sleeping Beauty,” “Swan Lake” and “Don Quixote,” among others. There are also Westside Ballet premieres including a romantic “Sylvia Pas de Deux” and “Donizetti Variations” with music by Gaetano Donizetti and original choreography by Balanchine.
Casting a spotlight on all their dancers The private performance bestowed solo and featured work to Westside Ballet’s graduating seniors including Koseff, Maya Zeevi, Zane Tahvildaran Jesswein, Stella Grynberg, and Natalia Burns. Koseff was asked if she had a piece she wanted to do as her goodbye solo and she didn’t hesitate. “‘Swan Lake’ has been my
favorite ballet since I was a child,” Koseff said. “I had a DVD and I’d watch it all the time. The black swan solo was the one I wanted to do. I love dancing tricksters and evil characters, characters I wouldn’t necessarily be. It’s a really challenging solo choreographyand technical-wise, and that was the way I wanted to go out.” Koseff is going to college on a dance and academic scholarship next year, and hopes to dance
