- Contributed photos Kristina Rochester, left, and Nikkia Brooks.
Justin Whyte, Entertainment Editor
TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS Nikkia Brooks and Kristina Rochester, both of Kingston, are among the few Jamaican youngsters still dancing ballet and loving it.
In fact, they have done so well at it that they have both been awarded dance scholarships to the Kirov Academy and American Academy of Ballet respectively.
And they turned down invitations to attend the Atlanta Ballet and Nutmeg Ballet following successful auditions.
They are products of the Ballet Centre in Kingston, run by Norma Spence. For more than three years they have practised the art on an average of six days a week.
Kristina is an A student at Imaculate Conception High School, while Nikkia attends St. Andrew High School for girls, where she averages B.
The girls follow Emily Glaze and Sydney Barnes who were the first students from the Ballet Centre to be accepted at Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C.
According to Kristina, "My parents thought then it would have been a good idea for me to have some training in this respect. So I began the programme at age 5 and I grew to love it", she told Showbiz.
"Although people contend that ballet is not Jamaican, to me it is the basis of most dance forms," the 12-year-old continued.
Alaine Grant, assistant head of the School of Dance, Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts told Showbiz: "There are those who feel that training in ballet lays the foundation for other dance forms. However, there are persons who have never done ballet, who have done exceptionally well in other dances."
The former dancer explained that having gone through ballet lessons, she found that exposure "caused a little restraint when I had to do modern dancing".
But she agreed that overall ballet was "a good movement base for modern dance. The flexibility of exposure is important and the techniques acquired are necessary".
Arlene Richards, choreographer and dancer of the National Dance Theatre Company concurred : "The training is good. Modern dance is quite popular, however ballet training is best in terms of techniques. While some people believe that there is no place for such dance style in Jamaica and that it is too much a restricting medium, there are those who see ballet as providing the proper alignment and placement of the body."
Ballet fosters good discipline and engenders proper social interaction. Some parents who do not know th value of this style view it as an elitist exercise. And it can be quite costly.
Kristina's mother, Diana Rochester agrees: "It is a very expensive venture, but at some stage of the child's life he or she has to be involved in a discipline. Because the school system does not provided this style of dance, those who seek training in ballet have to pay".
Vinette Foster, Nikkia's grandmother said it costs between $3,000 and $5,000 a week for Nikkia to attend open classes.
And as soon as she moved into an intensive training programme for ballet, the fee was $46,000 annually. Additional modern dance classes cost $9,000 extra per year.
"A regular repair of pointing shoes cost about US$40, the flat type is about US$25, a leotard US$28," both parents told Showbiz.
However, some ballet schools, like the Ballet Centre keep storerooms of costumes which students are free to borrow and the institutions also hold fundraisers to assist the costume programme.
Ballet still carries a certain prestige, but modern dance students develop more skills than their ballet counterpart.
Mrs. Rochester told Showbiz: "I wish there were more children and schools doing ballet, it would reinforce the whole matter of discipline. And there should be more opportunities for youngsters to learn the dance form locally."
