Leap to Greatness for Dance Students

As the pianist worked the keys of the black piano, the ballet mistress stood with her back to her young pupils, scrutinizing their images in the mirror as they tried to duplicate her fluid movements.

And so it went through nearly two hours of pirouettes, stretches and bends for 23 dance students from Hamilton High School Academy of Music and Los Angeles High School for the Arts.

But Wednesday’s session was no ordinary practice. It was an opportunity for the students to learn some of the Russian dance tradition from an authoritative source: Natalia Spitsyna, ballet mistress for the Kirov Ballet.

As she guided the youngsters through a series of warm-ups, the silence in the rehearsal room at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was nearly palpable. And with good reason. The students were in awe of their guest teacher.

“Intimidation was definitely a part of it,” said Mikael Boyd, 15, a 10th-grader at Hamilton. “But from my personality, the intimidation just makes me work harder.”

The Kirov is in town for 14 performances of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” at the Pavilion. The first performance is Tuesday--the 100th anniversary of the work, which Tchaikovsky created for the Kirov, then known as the Maryinsky Ballet.

The High School for the Arts and Hamilton students were selected for the one-day class by the Los Angeles County Office of Education because of their strong dance programs, said Lindsey R. Nelson of the Music Center.

The center’s education division arranged for the class with Spitsyna. After a long career as a dancer with the Kirov, she has worked as a teacher for the last seven years.

Watching the master class with an approving eye was Don Hewitt, dance professor at Cal State L.A. and ballet master at the High School for the Arts, which is on the Cal State campus. Hewitt said he talked to his students about the Kirov before the master class, trying to emphasize that ballet is not just a matter of music and movement: “The history is really important for them to know. It’s an honor for them to be here.”

They didn’t need much persuading.

“You can tell she’s really been dancing all her life,” said Opal Enriquez, 17, a Hamilton senior. “It’s a great experience to work with someone so professional. We have a lot of discipline, but it’s not nearly as much as this.”

And the respect was mutual.

It was “a great pleasure” to have a class with the students, Spitsyna said through an interpreter.