Todays Local News

Gingerbread Angels

Four young dancers from Escondido studio will perform in City Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’

Four ballet students are practicing tour en l’air, or turns in the air, as they glide across the floor at Lisette’s Dance Studio in the California Center for the Arts, Escondido as instructor Lisette Morris watches carefully.

Morris halts the music to teach a technique. The former professional dancer demonstrates the movement, clapping the tempo with her hands. “OK?” asks Morris.

“And don’t fall like I do?” adds 14-year-old Annalise Washburn of Escondido as the group breaks into laughter.

The light-hearted mood balances the studio’s serious work. The four dancers have been chosen from among Morris’ 90 to 100 students to dance children’s parts in San Diego City Ballet’s professional production of “The Nutcracker” at Spreckels Theatre in December.

In September, 9-year-olds Kate Kistler and Kele Siva of Escondido and 10-year-old Joy Ren of Rancho Peñasquitos joined Annalise to audition for roles in dance scenes in “The Nutcracker,” Morris said. Two weeks ago, they were invited to perform in two of the four casts of the holiday classic. They will perform Dec. 7, 8, 14 and 15.

“From my experience as a dancer, going to an audition is something you have to learn to do,” said Morris, who has performed with the American Ballet Theatre, Orlando Ballet Company and Classical Ballet of New Jersey, among others. “It can be very frightening. They have to learn. It’s a self-esteem builder. They did it themselves.”

The four girls will rehearse at City Ballet’s studios in Pacific Beach, said Jo Ann Emery, managing director of the 15-year-old City Ballet. The company will give 12 performances of “The Nutcracker” this year, including public performances Dec. 7-9 and Dec. 14-16. With four casts, the City Ballet production has 120 dancers and costs almost $200,000, Emery said.

Because the production includes children in the parts of angels and Polichinelles, or little gingerbread children, Morris has been supplying her students for “The Nutcracker” for the past three years, Emery said. Since the roles are brief, City Ballet allows Morris to train them at her studio until a general rehearsal closer to the performance dates brings the entire cast together.

“Lisette is a perfectionist and very professional,” Emery said. “Her students are very well-prepared.”

While they are thrilled with landing the parts, the four ballerinas view it as a step on their journeys to becoming professionals.

“The (most fun) part is being in the bright stage lights and noticing that a million people are watching and feeling that you’ll be really good,” Kele said.

“It’s a feeling of euphoria,” Annalise said. “It’s an art, and art is something beautiful, and dance is very beautiful. But dance is also a sport. People don’t think it’s a sport. There’s a lot of body movement.”

The four students have been with Morris’ studio from two to four years. As their teacher, Morris shares in their success.

But for Morris, the ballerinas’ achievements are part of a longer process that started when they entered her studio and will continue long after they’re gone.

“There are dancers who come in and just do it for fun,“ Morris said. “But there are dancers who are driven to learn. These four, they can taste it. They eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Morris said dancing can be a long road. “They want to be the best at it. They understand what it means to be an artist instead of just getting a trophy,” she said. “You need a dancer for 10 years to make them complete dancers. It doesn’t happen in six months.

Finally I’ve had students long enough to see the fruits of my labor.”