A Step in the Right Direction : The decision by Channel Islands Ballet to stage its own ‘Nutcracker’ production may help sow fertile fields of dance in the county.

As the curtain rose on the newly formed New West Symphony in June, one thing was clearly missing: plans to stage Ventura County’s annual holiday presentation of “The Nutcracker” ballet.

For the past 15 years, the Ventura County Symphony had been producing the perennial favorite. But when the group merged with the Conejo Symphony in June, plans for the traditional performance were not renewed.

Enter the Channel Islands Ballet Company. For a decade and a half of “Nutcracker” performances, the Channel Islands Ballet had been under contract to the symphony to provide the dancers. The seasonal productions provided the dance company its largest audience. So when the production was dropped, company directors decided to take over the show. The Sugar Plum Fairy ‘n’ gang were given a reprieve.

“This is such a traditional event in the community, we couldn’t let ‘The Nutcracker’ die,” said Kathleen Noblin, owner of Ballet Ventura, the official school for the company. “Plus the show is very important to us. It’s a tremendous venue for our girls to dance in.”

In addition to their usual artistic duties, the ballet company will now have to take care of the business end of the operation, which includes raising more than $100,000 to stage the event. Tickets sales are expected to cover one-third of that amount, but the remainder must be obtained through fund raising.

“We’re going to the community to help us,” Noblin said. “It’s expensive, but it will be an outstanding production.”

Paul Polivnick--currently director of the New Hampshire Music Festival--has been hired as conductor, Noblin said, and musicians are being auditioned to assemble a full orchestra.

Noblin is determined that “The Nutcracker” will survive. It may be a hard job, but she’s accustomed to challenges--and to success. It was three years ago next month that Noblin opened Ballet Ventura.

“The original school for the ballet company had closed down a couple of years beforehand, and without a school to train the dancers, a company can’t survive,” she said.

“I was upset about this, so I kept trying to talk someone into opening a school. Finally, my husband said, ‘Well, why don’t you just go ahead and open one yourself?’ So I did.”

Her first task was to find a partner to handle the creative side while she took care of the administrative end. That’s when she was introduced to Clarissa Boeriu.

Boeriu was a successful ballerina behind the Iron Curtain and a ballet teacher in Rome before moving to the United States. Until then, she had very little desire to work as a teacher in Ventura or to become the artistic director of the Channel Islands Ballet Company, the resident company of the Oxnard Civic Auditorium. After all, Oxnard may be well known for strawberries, factory outlet malls and burritos, but it is not known for ballet. At least not yet.

“If it hadn’t been for my husband getting his job at UCSB and moving here, over my dead body I’d be here,” Boeriu said. But she was here, and she wanted to work in her field, so Boeriu accepted the offer. Now she says she loves her work and it’s become one of the most challenging and fulfilling jobs of her career.

And she hopes the day will come when some of the country’s top ballet dancers will say they began their careers in Ventura County.

Boeriu, Noblin and the board of directors have already taken steps to make the Channel Islands Ballet the first regional ballet company in the county. Regional status is one level away from being a professional dance company.

“If you’re regional, then people know you’re serious,” Noblin said. “You’re used as a steppingstone to becoming a professional dancer.”

Regional Dance America, the governing board that oversees regional companies, has so far accredited only two ballet groups in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties: the Santa Barbara Festival Ballet and, recently, the Santa Barbara Chamber Company.

Representatives from Regional Dance America, having viewed a Channel Islands class and a performance, invited the company to participate in the final phase of accreditation. This entails traveling to one of the board’s two yearly meetings, then performing for and being evaluated by its directors.

If accepted, the company will be required to perform each year at the regional festival, which is held in a different location within the 10 Western states, to retain its status.

“That’s a lot of traveling around, and it takes a lot of money,” Noblin said. “We have the heart and we have the talent, but we just don’t have the funds right now. We have to hold off for a while.”

But the lack of money and title in no way translates into a lack of ambition. Boeriu has her eye on a few young local students she believes are destined to become stars. And she’s not the only one. Several of her pupils have received full scholarships this summer to study at prestigious ballet companies throughout the United States.

When classes began at Ballet Ventura nearly three years ago, five young girls stood in a row awaiting instruction. Today, more than 180 students attend the school. Those with the greatest skill and desire are selected to join the Channel Islands Ballet Company.

The company has 15 members from Ballet Ventura, most of whom want to become professional dancers. So far it is an all-female company. In fact, the school itself has only six male students. During the ballet season, male dancers are recruited to perform the more rigorous male leads.

“What can I say; it is the American mentality,” said Noblin, by way of explaining why more boys are not interested in being trained for ballet.

“Men are supposed to be rugged--going out and putting spikes in the railroad and digging in mines. And God forbid their sons should have an artistic bent.”

The company puts on two major performances each year, and the members star in these while the regular students at Ballet Ventura take on the smaller parts. “The Nutcracker” was performed during the winter season and “Cinderella” in the spring.

In addition to the big shows, the company does a few smaller performances at local schools as part of a community-outreach program. Such an emphasis on performance means that in addition to having ballet class every day except Sunday, the members often spend a few hours rehearsing for the stage. And once it gets closer to show time, not even Sundays are sacred.

“Every time we select a new member, we have a long meeting with her and her parents,” Boeriu said. Being a member not only takes talent, but also a lot of determination, a lot of time, and a lot of support from the family.

“And they need to know that,” Boeriu said. “And I need to know what they want. If a student doesn’t want to become a professional dancer, I’m not going to push her to raise her leg a quarter of an inch higher.

Most of the students, said Boeriu, are learning ballet for fun, as a hobby. “But they do want to learn it correctly. If you’re going to go through the trouble of studying, better to learn it right,” she said.

“But then there are those girls who do want to dance as a career. If this is going to be their bread and butter, then I have a big responsibility toward them. Then I push and push.”

From Giggling Girls to Elegant Ladies

Discipline. Discipline. Discipline. Think of ballet as military school with less comfortable footwear.

This is not a free-form art. The way the toes are pointed, the way the fingers are held, every little movement is learned and eventually mastered through practice.

“When they’re sweaty and tired and they ask me, ‘Can we do it again?’--when that drive for perfection comes from inside of them--that’s when I know my mission’s accomplished,” Boeriu said.

During a recent class, a roomful of new recruits came tumbling into the Ventura Ballet studio on the west end of Main Street. Within minutes, the skipping, giggling little girls were transformed into elegant young ladies. Dressed in pink and white leotards and tights, hair pulled back, each girl took her turn in carrying a silk rose to the middle of the sunlit room, twirling around a few times while holding the flower high above her head, and then prancing back and handing the rose to the next girl in line.

“The young ones learn discipline very quickly here--and their parents are happy about that,” Noblin said. And that kind of self-discipline, focus and drive spills over onto all aspects of their life, Noblin added. For example, all of the girls in the company are straight-A students.

In a recent program, which was printed for the company’s production of “Cinderella,” each girl’s grade-point average was listed next to her name.

The typical weekday schedule of a ballet company member is: Wake up and go to school. After school, go to ballet class. After ballet class, do homework. Go to sleep. Wake up. Start again.

That kind of schedule doesn’t leave a lot of time for kids to get in trouble, Boeriu and Noblin both pointed out. “They don’t have the time to go riding around on the back of some motorcycle,” Noblin said. And drugs? “Oh, God. They’d rather die first. They’re too busy trying to take care of their bodies to go and do that.”

Attaining self-discipline and focus are the two things that many former ballerinas consider to be the major benefit of dance training, said Lorin Lindner, a clinical psychologist practicing in Camarillo. “That kind of mind-set is carried over into other areas,” added Lindner, whose specialty is dealing with high achievers.

“I had one client who used to be a ballerina and then went to an Ivy League university for law school,” Lindner said. “She just couldn’t understand how her roommates could have such a hard time getting everything done. To her, organization and discipline and focus were second nature.”

But there can be a downside, Lindner said. “Such high discipline and focus on one thing can mean that they’re missing out on other things--things that we take for granted.” These include socializing with people outside of one’s own group, and exploring, dreaming--even relaxing, Lindner said. “When so much of the focus and self-esteem is placed on doing, it’s hard to be comfortable with just being. “

Kezia Henderson, a 14-year-old ballet student who attends the school along with her 11-year-old sister, Haley, doesn’t feel she is “missing out” on anything. “This is what I like to do,” she said. “I’m pretty shy at school and I’m self-conscious in front of a roomful of people.

“Yet, when I’m up on stage, I don’t know, I feel so elegant and grand. I love dancing.”

Details

* NUTCRACKER: The Channel Islands Ballet will perform “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 2 and 3 at Oxnard Civic Auditorium. On Dec. 9 and 10, it will move to the Lancaster Performing Arts Center.

* FIREBIRD: The spring performance of “Firebird,” a ballet performed to the music of Stravinsky, will be staged April 20 at Oxnard Civic Auditorium and April 21 at Civic Arts Plaza Auditorium in Thousand Oaks.

* ALSO: Besides its performances, the Channel Islands Ballet has a community-outreach program. Area students are bused to Oxnard Civic Auditorium, where they watch a presentation that includes a lecture and ballet excerpts. This year the event will take place Nov. 9 for first- through third-graders. Fourth- through sixth-graders will be invited for a date to be announced in March.