Countywide : Teens Take Leap to Get Into School

Wearing a white T-shirt over black tights, Ryan Turley was easy to spot among a group of teen-age girls in leotards waiting for the audition to start.

When the arabesques, pirouettes and sauts started, Ryan, 14, danced gracefully.

“We’re excited about him,” said Colleen O’Callaghan, who was conducting the audition. “We just hope he has enough bushel to lift the girls.”

Ryan, an eighth-grader at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, was among 23 students who auditioned last week for a spot in the classical dance program at Orange County High School of the Arts in Los Alamitos. Less than half of them would eventually be admitted, said O’Callaghan, director of the school’s classical dance program.

“It’s very competitive,” said O’Callaghan, 33, a former dancer with the American Ballet Theater. “We’re looking for a certain level of skill and talent and the ability to adapt to a rigorous schedule.”

Students would be notified of the audition results within a month, O’Callaghan said. Turley was one of 12 students likely to be accepted, she said.

Opened six years ago, the Orange County High School of the Arts provides tuition-free training in the arts, dance and music to high school students from Orange County and southern Los Angeles County.

Executive Director Ralph Opacic said admission is by audition or by portfolio review. Students are also required to write an essay on why they want to go into the program, he said.

The instructors are, like O’Callaghan, professionals who can provide students with in-depth knowledge of the fields they are studying. During the school year, artists, dancers and musicians are invited to conduct sessions with the students, Opacic said.

For the dance students, in addition to academic classes they must take at Los Alamitos High School, they also must follow a rigorous four-hour schedule of dance lessons each day that includes 1 1/2 hours of ballet, O’Callaghan said. The dance course includes modern dance, choreography, improvisation, jazz and ethnic dances.

“We’re building foundations for future careers,” said O’Callaghan, adding that some students have moved on to dancing careers in New York and San Francisco.

For many of the girls who auditioned, enrollment at the Orange County High School of the Arts classical dance program would be the first step toward a professional career, they said. Most of them said they had three or more years of ballet lessons behind them.

Caryn Guillermo, 13, an eighth-grader at Hilton D. Bell Intermediate School in Garden Grove, said she hopes to study in more advanced ballet schools some day.

Dusty Mutch brought her daughter, Sarah, 15, all the way from Silverado Canyon to attend the audition. The commute would be a “nightmare” if her daughter is accepted, but “it’s worth it,” she said.

Edison Guillermo, Caryn’s father, said his daughter is happy despite the schedule hassles. “She enjoys what she does, and I support her,” he said.