Published: June 17, 2009 11:54 pm      

CITY OF LOCKPORT: Local ballet company students win spots in prestigious training programs

Lockport: A training ground for professional ballet dancers?

It may be so, if the prestigious summer study opportunities awarded to five local teens reflect Lockport City Ballet school’s success in cultivating talent in a relatively brief time.

Four students are going across the northeastern United States, and one across the Atlantic Ocean, to study with widely known ballet outfits this summer.

They’re not the first Lockport students accepted into nationally known summer study programs, but according to Lockport City Ballet co-owner Susannah Dwyer Gentes, the quality of the accepting schools is notable.

Nick Cappuccino, 16, is already in Manhattan, studying with the American Ballet Theater on a talent scholarship.

Sarah Graff, 14, is bound for American Ballet Theater’s Detroit school this summer.

Sophia Janes, 16, of Akron, is heading out to the Boston Ballet School.

Ayla Davis, 15, is enrolled at New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs.

And Rachel Winter, 14, will study at the Royal Ballet School in London.

Gentes and her husband, William, both retired professional ballet dancers, operate ballet schools in Lockport, Williamsville and Orchard Park. Between the sites, they’re instructing more than 250 young people.

In seven years of teaching, Rachel is their first student ever enrolled in the prestigious London school — or any school not in North America, for that matter.

Rachel is “one of our best,” Gentes said. The London school is considered one of the top 10 ballet schools in the world, she added.

Gentes doesn’t praise her students gratuitously. The reality, she suggests, is very few of them possess all of the needed qualities to make ballet dancing a career.

Among the 14 from her three schools who are bound for summer study this year, however, Gentes says simply, “There are a couple who could be professionals if they want to be.”

Rachel Winter says she wants to be. Her desire is so strong, she’s doing every career-minded thing the Gentes would advise her to do, including taking classes in/rehearsing ballet, pointe, modern and jazz dance six and seven days a week, nearly year-round.

It doesn’t leave much time for the social activities of a more carefree teen, and Rachel says that’s fine. To be a professional some day, she knows, requires devotion and sacrifice now.

“I would like to go to college some day, but it’s hard,” said Rachel, an eighth-grade student at Emmet Belknap Middle School. “You can go directly to a (professional dance) company from high school or keep studying ballet in college, but if you really want a career in this, you can’t put off the company invitation. The older you get, the less likely it is to happen.”

Rachel’s parents, Ron and Joan, already have reassured her college can be pursued later on, if opportunity knocks and she wants to answer.

Dad, Mom and sister Lydia are accompanying Rachel on her two-week visit to London this summer. At the Royal Ballet School, she said, she’s looking forward to learning new styles from new teachers and sharing floor space with fellow aspiring dancers from throughout the United States and Europe.

“It’s a great opportunity for me as a dancer, as a human being, to expand my knowledge,” she said. “While you’re dancing, you can forget about everything, all external conflicts, and enjoy the moment.”

Rachel is dancing in the Lockport City Ballet/Classical Ballet of Western New York’s annual spring showcase Friday and Saturday at the Riviera Theater.

In addition to performing with her fellow Lockport students Friday, Rachel is in the spotlight both evenings as the feminine half of a pas-de-deux with Alejandro Ocasio, 15, of Buffalo. They’re performing the “peasant pas-de-deux” from “Giselle,” a ballet choreographed in the 1840s.

Also both evenings, Rachel is dancing in an all-Gershwin finale choregraphed by Susannah Gentes. It’s ballet with a contemporary twist, thanks to addition of jazz and modern dance elements, Gentes said.

The schools’ shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. each evening at the Riviera, 67 Webster St., North Tonawanda.

Lockport City Ballet will have courses of summer dance study beginning July 6. For more information, call 434-4940.