CHANCE TO DANCE
Area kids audition for New York City Ballet’s SPAC season
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Local kids spent their Sunday afternoon dancing for a chance to perform with New York City Ballet this summer during the company’s upcoming season at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
New York City Ballet held auditions over the weekend for area children and teens to dance alongside the ballet professionals in special performances of choreographer George Balanchine’s “Coppélia” and “Mozartiana.”
“It was very important to George Balanchine, the founder of New York City Ballet and The School of American Ballet, to expose children to performing,” said New York City Ballet children’s ballet master Dena Abergel. “He created roles for children in many of his ballets that are both technically and musically challenging, to train them.
“Additionally, he was keen on having all of their family members attend the performances.”
Today, New York City Ballet is still following Balanchine’s example by putting children on stage each summer when the company visits its summer home in Saratoga Springs.
About 180 young dancers auditioned in front of Abergel and assistant children’s ballet master Arch Higgins on Sunday at the National Museum of Dance School of the Arts studios.
Following these auditions approximately 50 of these children and teens will have the opportunity to dance with New York City Ballet during its 2019 sum- mer season, July 16 through 20, at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Among the auditioning young dancers on Sunday was 11-yearold Natalie Mann, who once before was selected to perform
with New York City Ballet in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2016.
“She loves the stage,” Natalie’s mother Lynne Mann said.
Natalie has been dancing since she was just four years old, and has developed a particular interest in ballet. “She always wanted to do ballet,” Lynne said. “I think she just loves the beauty of it.”
Natalie was eight years old when she made her Saratoga Performing Arts Center debut with New York City Ballet. “It would be cool to have another experience,” she said while at the auditions on Sunday.
Later t hat af t ernoon, Natalie and her family were excited to learn that she scored a role in New York City Ballet’s “Coppélia” this summer.
In pursuing this goal, and simply for her love of dance, the Clifton Park resident attends lessons at Dance Works of Troy three times a week with dance instructor David Otto.
Prior to starting the Troy dance school, Otto was a soloist with New York City Ballet and he also got his first big break through the company’s children’s dance program. When Otto was nine years old he performed with the group in “The Nutcracker” and “Don Quixote.”
Growing up watching Balanchine and Jerome Robbins work, Otto believes, was about as wonderful an experience as any child dancer could have.
“To be able to dance in a Balanchine ballet is a treat for any dancer young or old,” he said. “That some of my students have the opportunity participate with the company is the legacy of what Balanchine created going full circle.
“It is an honor for my students to dance with this world class company and a testament to their hard work.”
More information about New York City Ballet’s summer season at Saratoga Performing Arts Center is available online at spac.org.