Where Our Story Begins
Interestingly, my ballet story begins with a story ballet. At the age of 5, I accompanied my mother to a performance of the Persephone ballet performed by the Ballet Folk company on the University of Idaho campus in Moscow, ID. Following the production, I begged my mother for ballet lessons, thankfully she agreed, and thus my ballet story began.
I was very fortunate (I understand now, better than I did then, HOW fortunate!) to get to take ballet as a little girl, especially in such a small town, and to be given so many opportunities to dance and to perform from a very young age. In 1970, Carl and Jeanette Allyn Petrick, moved to Moscow to pursue degrees at the University of Idaho. They opened a small dance school, the Moscow Dance Theatre, on East Third St. in downtown Moscow, where I started my ballet career. They had begun producing elaborate dance productions with their students (like Persephone!), and it was the great success of these productions that inspired a dream to start a professional ballet company, Ballet Folk of Moscow. Much like Anna Pavlova of a previous century, Jaye and Carl wanted to make ballet accessible to more people and to reach new and wider audiences with their ballets as they toured the United States; hence, both their name, “Ballet Folk”, and their repertoire, reflected this mission.
My best and earliest memories of ballet are of performing. Our teacher, Jaye (Jeanette) Petrick, was a masterful storyteller and gifted choreographer who brought much expression and emotion into her works. We had the privilege of performing her original works throughout the year and at recital time, in addition to the traditional Nutcracker ballet at Christmastime. As “Junior Company” dancers, we were invited to tour with the professional dancers of Ballet Folk to other towns and cities around the Pacific Northwest at Nutcracker time. Our proximity to the University of Idaho afforded us many opportunities to participate in Idaho Dance Theater productions as well. We learned from ballet instructors from around the nation and from other countries, too, during our annual summer workshops.
My ballet career was paused at age 21 when I married and started a family, but my passion for ballet has remained constant over the years. Now, my dancing life has come full circle and I have the joy and privilege of stepping back into the studio to share my love of ballet with my own small community here in southwest Idaho, inviting dancers of ALL ages into their own grace-filled ballet story. My dear friend and co-teacher, Laryssa Rice, shares my heart for bringing a new and better narrative into our ballet studio, one that fosters the holistic well-being of every dancer, and creates opportunities for them to flourish in mind, body and spirit through the transformative power of ballet.
