HOLIDAY CLASSIC HITS THE STAGE
Local ballerina makes it to the big stage with Royal Winnipeg
Yayoi Ban, centre, plays the role of Josephine, Clara’s aunt, in dress rehearsal Wednesday for the opening of The Nutcracker. The holiday classic, as performed by Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, is playing at the National Arts Centre until Sunday. See a story about a local cast member, Ottawa’s Jesse Petrie, in and watch video from rehearsal at OTTAWACITIZEN.COM.
Every Christmas when Jesse Petrie was a little girl, the family would attend performances of The Nutcracker at the National Arts Centre.
The now 19-year-old ballerina is a member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and she’s dancing on the Southam Hall stage as part of the popular holiday production. The annual show continues until Sunday.
In the Royal Winnipeg production, Petrie is a maid, a mouse, a snowflake and a flower.
“I always wanted to be a ballet dancer and I started dancing when I was three yearsold,” says the recent graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s professional program.
In fact, The Citizen first featured Jesse a decade ago when the National Ballet School held tryouts at a Rideau Street dance studio.
She was among 150 other aspiring young dancers doing their best to impress the judges and she ended up joining the school’s summer program at age nine.
Petrie, who went to All Saints Catholic High School in Kanata, trained at the School of Dance on Crichton Street and with Elite Dance Studio. Five years ago she auditioned for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school and was accepted.
“When I went to the School of Dance I fell in love with ballet and they actually explained to me that I could actually have a career in ballet, because I had no idea,” she said in an interview.
“It is difficult to have a career and living away from home is extremely hard, especially for me because I’m so close to my sister, Sydney, who is 16. But it also takes a lot of dedication.”
She said she’s been in a Royal Winnipeg Ballet show each of the last four years. Her favourite role was playing the lead in a production of The Snow Queen. “It was the first time I had a leading role,” she says.
When she was a child studying dance in Ottawa, Petrie performed in a Royal Winnipeg Ballet version of The Nutcracker at the NAC, playing one of the party girls in the opening scene. Today, she is savouring the enjoyment of performing in the show in front of her family and friends.
“The Nutcracker is always so much fun because it’s such a story ballet and you know there are lots of little girls in the audience who love this show. When I do The Nutcracker I feel that I’m performing for the next generation of ballerinas.”