Dancing Toward the Future

Ryan Morrison's bags have been nearly packed for over a week, as he awaits, with great anticipation, his trip to the east coast. Ryan, a student of California DanceArts located in La Canada, was awarded a full tuition scholarship by the Pittsburgh Ballet to attend a five-week summer intensive training program. Pittsburgh Ballet's program is one of the nation's most prestigious and certainly, one of the most rigorous dance programs offered to serious dance students. Auditions for entry into this program are highly competitive and are conducted in many metropolitan cities throughout the United States. Perhaps only a few of the dancers at each audition venue are fortunate enough to be selected to attend this program. Even scarcer is the number of scholarships awarded to the most deserving of dancers.

Morrison, a resident of Pasadena, who recently turned 15, says that it's not quite real to him yet. "I will miss my family and I'm not sure what to expect. I bet there will be a lot of good dancers there." While he has expressed some concerns about the competition among the dancers, his approach is quite simple. "I'm just going to go, do my best, work as hard as I can and learn".

Fortunately, Morrison is in good company, since several of his dance mates from Calfiornia DanceArts have been accepted at Pittsburgh or other similarly prestigious dance programs. Erin Holt, director of California DanceArts, says "The dancers improve so dramatically as a result of their participation in these summer programs, that I am usually able to move students into a more advanced level of dance".

Ryan Morrison and fellow students devote many hours of rigorous dance training each day under the watchful eye of their teacher to prepare for these auditions. Ryan is a principal dancer of the dance company, California Theatrical Youth Ballet and has devoted many hours of rehearsal in preparation of recent performances. Morrison explained, "I'm tired already, but I'm getting geared up again" as he hugged his teacher good-bye.

Upon the dancers' return, auditions and ensuing rehearsals for this year's production of "The Snow Queen" will begin in earnest. It is with great enthusiasm that Erin Holt cheers her young dancers. "It's great to see them spring into careers and dancing toward their futures!"