PORT ANGELES — There is no luck in ballet. It’s all about preparation meets opportunity.
So says Kate Robbins, also known as Miss Kate, teacher and owner at the Ballet Workshop.
She and 80 dancers are about to present their new production of “Swan Lake” in two shows in Clallam County’s largest performance space Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
This is an extra-thrilling moment for Faerin Tait. The 12-year-old ballerina will dance two roles this weekend: a white swan in the corps de ballet and the Hungarian duchess.
She, along the Ballet Workshop’s top students plus a pair of guest artists, will turn the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave., into a place for white and black swans, maidens, a prince and one overlording villain.
Tickets are $10 for those 14 and younger, $18 budget, $28 general and $38 premium.
They can be purchased at jffa.org, www.brown papertickets.com, Port Book and News at 104 E. First St. in Port Angeles and The Joyful Noise Music Center at 108 W. Washington St. in Sequim.
In this story presented by the Ballet Workshop and the Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts, the Prince, under a sorcerer’s spell, falls in love with Odette, who is an ethereal swan by day and a beautiful human by night. Our sorcerer is up to more tricks, though, and brings Odile into the Prince’s life. She’s an evil black swan who looks identical to Odette. Much drama ensues, all of it graceful.
When the Ballet Workshop presented “Swan Lake” in 2016, Robbins was working with a different group of dancers. They weren’t experienced enough yet to take on the famous trio dance in Act I’s courtyard scene. Robbins removed it.
Everything is different this time.
“We now have two boys and four girls age 13 to 14 who were hungry and ready, so I restored [the scene] and made it a quartet,” she said, adding that this passage has some of the toughest dancing in the ballet.
“[This is] the most technical and stamina-intense our local kids have taken on to date. They’re going to wow everyone.”
These local performers include Ryan Andrews, Sydney Frymyer, Nathan Harlan, Ava Johnson, Isabella Knott and Courtney Smith, while the guest artists are Ashley Coupal from the Orlando Ballet as the Swan Queen and Isaac Wright of the National Ballet of Canada as the Prince. Robbins’ brother Noah Long, who teaches at the Ballet Workshop, dances Rothbart the villain.
Preparation for “Swan Lake” began the first week of January, on schedule.
“Typically, we stage shows in 10 weeks. We lost 1.5 weeks of rehearsal due to the snowpocalypse, but we recovered,” Robbins said.
The production is a traditional one with Tchaikovsky’s score and the classical costumes — yet it’s distinctly Ballet Workshop.
“I think a lot of people’s preconceptions about going to the ballet is that it will be long and boring. The ballets we stage here,” Robbins said, “are designed to surprise. Our ‘Swan Lake’ is condensed from the original 2.5 hours to 90 minutes,” for a story line as taut as those en pointe feet.
Robbins added comic relief too, with a flock of gray cygnets, baby swans portrayed by 3-, 4- and 5-year-old dancers.
They appear when least expected.
In an email, Faerin wrote that she did feel nervous when she was cast in the show’s senior ensemble. This meant not only that she’d wear a real tutu for the first time, but also that she’d dance with performers she’s looked up to since coming to the Ballet Workshop. Faerin has studied there for four years, and just this year began pointe class.
Learning the role of the Hungarian duchess means taking on choreography several levels above what she’s been studying, Faerin noted. She also said the other senior dancers have encouraged her at every step. Then the preteen finished her email with poise and seriousness.
“All of us at Ballet Workshop are regular kids who go to school during the day and learn these roles in our off time,” she wrote.
“We are a family of dancers who are working hard to make this our best show yet.”
For more information, see jffa.org or call 360-457-5411.
________
Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.
Port Angeles’ Faerin Tait, 12, has joined the Ballet Workshop’s senior ensemble for “Swan Lake” this weekend. (Bob Spink/RTS Photo)
