CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) - It exceedingly likely that no one in the hifalutin world of big-time ballet has ever heard of the hayseed hamlet of Adna. Brenna Witchey and Delanie Hill are doing more than hoping to change that - they are working hard to make it so.
The sprite ballerinas first met at the Adna Grange Hall where they were enrolled in youth dance classes when Hill was 5 years old and Witchey was just 3. Now 14 and 12 years old, respectively, Hill and Witchey are only a few weeks away from taking their hard-earned skills to the Joffrey Ballet Academy in Manhattan for a week-long immersion in the upper crust of big-city ballet dancing.
During the school year, Witchey attends St. Joseph Catholic School and Hill goes to Adna High School. Both girls are 4.0 students. A typical summer winds up being a bit of a break from their busy school year schedules when they practice 3-4 days per week and 1-5 hours at a time. The short summer break always ends in August though, when practices for the mid-winter Nutcracker performances begin again. This summer, though, the girls are going to work on their craft through the break with what promises to be a first-rate fleet of fancy feet instructors.
Hill and Witchey will leave for Manhattan on July 8 and stay through the 14th, although they wish they could stay longer. In years to come, the girls hope to earn scholarships that could help pay for additional time in the extensive program, which can stretch all the way out to an eight-week commitment.
After performing in an audition and ultimately getting accepted to the Joffrey Ballet Academy in Manhattan for the very first time this year though, the girls are simply excited to get their respective feet in the door.
“I think there’s different teachers from around the U.S. going there,” said Witchey. “It’s always good to learn new things from different people.”
Finishing the thought of her friend, as they frequently do, Hill added, “Sometimes it’s hard to adjust to but sometimes it’s helpful because different people learn differently.”
Through their years of studying and practicing ballet, Witchey and Hill have seen firsthand the struggles that all students inevitably encounter when trying to master increasingly difficult skills. They noted that ballet is so humbling and demanding that most dancers don’t stick with it for very long.
“A lot of girls just do it because their parents put them into it,” said Hill.
Witchey remembers her first struggles and understands why someone who isn’t in love with ballet wouldn’t want to keep at it for long. However, Witchey says that she has never had a time that she wanted to walk away from ballet entirely.
“As I got older I realized that it’s my passion,” said Witchey. “I feel like dance is not a competitive sport, it’s more of a competition with yourself. You wake up and look in the mirror and want to be better. You never want to be the one falling down out there.”
Both girls gave a verbal curtsy to their various dance instructors throughout the years for putting them in position to practice ballet with the very best of their peers. In particular they noted the efforts of Danielle Brosco, Becca Barney and Sierra Kimball from the Southwest Washington Dance Center for always trying to teach with positivity. As a recent high school graduate, Kimball has found purchase with Witchey and Hill as a relatable role model and an inspiration to keep working hard to hone their skills.
“She was really good about teaching us and helps you along the trail instead of pushing us down the trail,” said Witchey.
Throughout the year, the girls usually wind up in two large dance productions as well as a tour of local school and nursing homes. In fact, June 24 marked their end of the year recital. While they enjoy the intricacies and crowds of the larger performances, Hill and Witchey agree that the school and nursing home tours are rewarding in a special way.
“Most ballet performances are in big cities and not everyone has the money to go whenever they want,” said Hill. “It’s pretty exciting to do a performance that you know might be the only performance they will see in their whole life.”
As a sort of eccentric endeavor, there are naturally plenty of misconceptions about ballet that bother Hill and Witchey. For one, they say nobody truly understands how difficult it is to properly perform an “on pointe” toe turn or a graceful fouette’ jump turn. Secondly, they lamented that most lame imitations of ballet are simply painful to watch. Their biggest pet peeve is that no true ballerinas ever touch their hands to their head while they are turning, jumping, standing still or otherwise. That’s just silly.
Mostly though, the girls feel like the people don’t appreciate exactly how taxing ballet is on a person’s body.
“People retire pretty early because dance can be very hard on your body. Dancers usually retire in their 30s,” said Hill, as Witchey waited in the wings to piggyback with her own comment.
“Most people feel like ballet isn’t a sport, like it’s just people in tutus and looking pretty. But it’s really hard,” said Witchey.
“That’s one of the hardest things is trying to look pretty while you are doing it because it’s so hard,” added Hill, as she and Witchey burst into simultaneous laughter.
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Information from: The Chronicle, https://www.chronline.com
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