On Saturdays, the serious study of dance starts early at
this renovated church in Foster. By 10 a.m. at ballet tech
ohio's school in this Warren County hamlet, the 4-year-old
pre-ballets are finished and out the door when the 5-year-olds
begin to stretch and twirl.
On a recent morning, seven little girls with sleepy eyes
sit quietly, legs crossed, fingers pointed on knees to keep
busy hands still. Director Claudia Rudolf Barrett nudges them
gently into a slow warm-up with head circles and shoulder
rolls.
“Blow up a big balloon,” she says when she wants them
to round their arms in a ballet position. To encourage ballet's
turned-out walk: “Your heels should kiss as they pass each
other,” she instructs. Giggles and “I can do it” are heard
throughout the room.
Ms. Barrett has the look of a picture-perfect ballerina —
long slim legs and straight back, her strawberry blond hair
pulled up off slender shoulders and neck. Who is this graceful
woman who can slip easily into the world of a 5-year-old
beginner yet attracts teachers the caliber of Russian dancers
Anna Reznik and Alexei Kremnev?
She's a wife and mother, a teacher, mentor, employer,
choreographer and organizer for about 150 students and seven
teachers. Her company features children in professional
productions with kids' themes, which means professional
dancers and choreographers are hired to take part. The
productions are staged in a major theater, this spring in the
Aronoff Center.
Classes — from beginner to advanced, ballet to jazz,
including nutrition and injury prevention at summer workshops
— continue five days a week as students come and go,
keeping three studios buzzing. She spends the other two days
rehearsing her performing group.
She must be making a bundle, right?
“Is there any money in it? No,” she says in her quiet,
soft-spoken voice. “It's a labor of love.”
Do as I do
Her manner is genteel, her carriage courtly, so it's a jolt
when all 5 feet 9 inches of this former ballerina who says she's
“old enough,” rolls on the floor with her young students. It's a
“do as I do” moment. Crawling from girl to girl, she helps them
stretch their tiny legs and reminds them to pull in baby soft
bellies.
Asked if she dreamed she would be doing this, she
laughs. “You mean did I think I'd have a school this large and a
performing group, too? No. I just thought I'd teach a few
students.”
“Claudia is great in communication with small kids,” Mr.
Kremnev says of the woman responsible for bringing him and
his wife to Cincinnati. “She is very creative when she works on
choreography ... and we don't know when she sleeps.”
Mr. Kremnev and wife Anna were hired to teach at ballet
tech ohio's summer workshop in 1997. After Ms. Barrett saw
the couple in the studio, she tipped off Cincinnati Ballet, which
signed them immediately. The couple won the hearts of ballet
audiences. They left the company in October for the faculty at
Northern Kentucky University. They still teach at ballet tech.
Tutus worth the trip
Ms. Barrett met her husband, Ian Barrett, when they
both danced for Cincinnati Ballet. Retired from dance, except
when she can pull him onstage in one of her productions, he
maintains the X-ray equipment for the Mercy Hospital System.
Their son Alexander, 22, studies music production in Florida.
But most of her time is spent passing on a passion for
dance in this tiny town nudged between Paramount's Kings
Island and Landen.
“I'm always doing one thing and thinking about five
others,” she says.
One fit of passion took her on a bus ride to Philadelphia
to fetch some affordable tutus she had located because “we
were doing Sleeping Beauty,and the girls needed real tutus to
dance as real fairies.”
The jeweled net skirts are difficult to make and usually
outrageously expensive. She shoved about 20 of them in large
garbage bags for the bus ride home.
“You wanna see my closet?” she asks between classes.
Who could resist? Hers is an antique glass and wood
case that holds memorabilia from a lifetime of collecting: Old
pointe shoes worn and autographed by famous ballerinas,
including Suzanne Farrell and Melissa Hayden. George
Balanchine's signature leaps off a page of an old book that has
been signed by a who's who of names in the ballet world.
Uniform look
Ms. Barrett is a keeper of tradition. Every class has
its uniform, a variation on black leotard and pink tights. Hair is
pulled back in neat buns. No jewelry is allowed. She's miffed to
see jewelry in one of her advanced classes and walks around
asking girls to take it off.
Not a leg warmer in sight either. Why? “Because when
they get onstage, they can't wear leg warmers. Besides they
need a respect for their art. And when they're all dressed
exactly the same, you can tell what they're doing.”
Grabbing a book with pictures of students from the
Bolshoi and the School of American Ballet where she once
studied, she points out that there's not a single bauble on a
single ear lobe.
“Every major school has a dress code,” she says.
Ms. Barrett attracts students looking for that kind of
discipline. Lynn Spiegel says she drives daughter Hannah, 12,
50 miles every day from their Bridgetown home to classes and
rehearsals.
“We tried other local schools, but after a summer
workshop three years ago, Hannah said "This is it. This is
where I want to dance.' ”(Hannah won a gold medal at the
school's first competition at the prestigious Youth America
Grand Prix in Chicago.)
Courtney Sanborn, 14, a silver medalist at the
competition, says she enrolled at the studio two years ago
after studying other places and not finding what she needed.
“The technique is very good here and we have lots of
performance opportunities,” Courtney says. She also is
learning first-hand how a professional company should be run,
a direction she would like to go after “ ... a professional
dancing career.”
Epiphany Davis, 12, has been at ballet tech as long as
anyone, initially tagging along as a baby with mom Marvel
Gentry Davis.
“It feels like family,” Epiphany says. “And I love all the
teachers she brings in for summer workshops.”
Generous to others
Ms. Barrett generously opens her doors to others,
teachers with international reputations and busy teaching
schedules, such as the Bolshoi Ballet's Aleksandr Bondarenko
and Larisa Sklyanskaya. How does she get them here?
“I pick up the phone and call ... and I pay them well. You
know, I studied with many wonderful teachers, and each one
had something to offer. They inspired me. I feel I'm a good
teacher, but they (students) need to work with other teachers,
too.”
Her generosity extends beyond the studio, Mr. Kremnev
says. “We lived in her house for almost four months (when they
first arrived), and she drove us every morning to Cincinnati
Ballet. She was always helping us in every possible way.”
Because of a major dance injury at age 26 (“I nearly lost
my foot”), she moved into teaching early and continued her
career at Cincinnati Ballet as rehearsal assistant and ballet
mistress until she retired in 1990.
It was a chance drive through out-of-the-way Foster that
sparked the idea of her own place. She fell for the crumbling
old Catholic church nestled in a stand of trees.
Taste of the big stage
Ms. Barrett mounts four major productions at the
Aronoff each year where she brings students together with
professional dancers onstage.
It's part of the drill; if you study, you need to perform.
Including professionals raises the level of the production from
the dance recital format.
Stopping three little girls on the way out of class, we ask
“Who wants to dance on the big stage some day?”
In unison, Lauren Thomas, Claire Hauck, both 5, and
Kate Etter, 6, squeal “Me!”
They get their first chance this week when all three make
their big stage debuts in the comic ballet La Fille Mal Gardee.
An 18th-century chestnut, this story ballet has classical dance
— and clogging, too.
If you go
What
: ballet tech ohio performing arts association
in La Fille Mal Gardee, staged by Anna Reznik and
Alexei Kremnev
When
: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday 2 p.m. next Sunday
Where
: Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Aronoff Center for
the Arts, downtown.
Tickets
: $15 at the Aronoff and Music Hall box
offices, Ticketmaster locations, 241-7469 or
www.ticketmaster.com
