Joyce Rudolph
Looking at a photograph of a ballerina with one pointe shoe on and
the other off, Natasha Middleton-Kettebekov thought back to when she
was a dancer and the foot pain she endured after a vigorous
rehearsal.
The photograph showed the result of a ballet class, she thought.
That's when the inspiration came for the artistic director's next
performance -- "The Making of a Dancer."
"Let's take the audience to the beginning," she said to herself.
Members of her professional company, Media City Ballet, and its
new Junior Company will illustrate the hard work that goes into
becoming a professional dancer from age 6 beginning level to advanced
during its next show Saturday at the Performing Arts Center at Cal
State Northridge.
In the first act, titled "The Classroom," dancers will show a
short section of barre work before moving to the center floor. In the
center floor segments, dancers will really exhibit their athleticism,
she said.
"They will be showing lots of jumps and leaps by the guys," she
said. "The audience will get to see a lot of turns and challenging
moves."
The performance will give the audience an idea of what goes on in
the studio, said Anne Winfree, a member of the Media City Ballet's
senior company.
In the first act, the dancers will perform warm-up techniques and
illustrate how they fine-tune their movements, Winfree said. Working
at the barre helps the dancer find their center or points of balance,
she said.
"The audience gains more of an appreciation of what has gone into
the choreography," she said.
Winfree, 25, will bring her experience as a dancer to the stage,
although it is no longer her main profession. She teaches at Pilates
Center Studio in Burbank but has been dancing professionally since 19
and began taking ballet, modern dance and jazz classes at 12. She
joined Media City Ballet in October and performed in the December
performance of "The Nutcracker" at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.
Another dancer performing is Luz Yount, 13, of Burbank, who is in
preparatory training for Media City's Junior Company.
"I've learned a lot of things from Natasha," she said. "I've
learned the classical style of ballet, the nice posture, also the
acting that a dancer does while she's dancing."
Luz wants to become a professional ballet dancer because she just
loves dancing.
"What really inspired me was one year I saw 'The Nutcracker' show
from Media City Ballet, and I liked how professional they looked and
how graceful the dancers looked, and it inspired me to go there and
