The Waldorf Ballet is the newest dance program on the Coast and they will hold their first recital this June 3 and 4.
“Dance is big here,” said the school’s founder and artistic director, Johanna Waldorf, who was attracted to the dance and arts activity when she and her family moved here almost six years ago. She is familiar with three of the dance schools on the Coast and had taught classes and workshops before deciding to make a fresh start in a school of her own.
At the Waldorf Ballet about 40 kids aged three to 16 – 36 girls and four boys – have made a special commitment to learning ballet. It is, after all, the foundation for all other styles of dance.
“It’s the most technically demanding dance,” Waldorf said. “It asks a lot of our bodies.” The kids are thriving and loving it. There’s a little something special for the boys. “I’m focusing on their interests,” she said.
Waldorf has been dancing since the age of four and is a certified Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) teacher who went to England to study. It was a two-year, full-time university course that included dance classes. This rigorous training was followed by a stint with the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver in their professional program. While dancing with a small ballet company in Italy, she was delighted to learn about the contemporary style of telling a classic ballet story. In that case Sleeping Beauty was set in the south of Italy, and instead of the heroine being pricked by a spindle, she was bitten by a tarantula.
“I like playing with the classics – it inspires the new generation,” she said.
The ballet recital on June 3 and 4 will also be an original, two-act story titled A Bird’s Tale. All 40 kids will play a part. The stage set and costumes have been organized by Johanna’s artistic parents Don and Elizabeth Waldorf.
Currently Johanna gives lessons out of St. Hilda’s church hall. It is an attractive space because of its raised wooden floor suitable for dancing, and because she could add a removable barre and mirrors. Big plans are in the works for a future ballet studio space on Wharf Avenue in Sechelt that will include a climbing gym. The new purpose-built building is a family effort involving parents and brother – Johanna has received lots of family support.
Shows are on Saturday, June 3 at 6 p.m. and on Sunday, June 4 at 2 p.m. at Chatelech Secondary School Theatre, 5904 Cowrie St., Sechelt. See: www.waldorfballet.com for more. Tickets for $15 adults and $10 seniors/and children under 12 are available at: Peggy Sue’s (308 Gower Point Rd., Gibsons), McLash Law (5725 Teredo St., Sechelt) and Sunshine Coast Pet Hospital.
