Ballet Master Keeps Dancers on Their Toes

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.

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

As Spitsyna guided the young dancers through a series of warm-ups and dance movements, the silence in the small rehearsal room at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was all but palpable.

And with good reason. The students readily confessed being in awe of their guest teacher.

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

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

The company’s performances of “The Nutcracker” in Orange County and Los Angeles this month are their first American performances of the work.

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 schools’ strong dance programs, Music Center spokesman Lindsey R. Nelson said.

The Music Center’s Education Division arranged for the class with Spitsyna. After a long career as a dancer with the Kirov, she has worked exclusively as a teacher for the last seven years. This is her second trip to the United States.

Through a translator, she offered particular praise for Los Angeles’ December weather. It is “like a paradise,” she said.

Watching the master class with an approving eye was Don Hewitt, dance professor at Cal State Los Angeles and ballet master at the High School for the Arts, which is on the Cal State campus.

Hewitt said he had 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, but also of tradition.

“The history is really important for them to know,” he said. “I think it’s an honor for them to be here.”

The students didn’t seem to need much persuading. “You can tell she’s really been dancing all her life,” said Opal Enriquez, 17, a Hamilton High 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.”

The respect was mutual. It was “a great pleasure” to have a class with the students, Spitsyna said, through her translator.