The
Joy of Dance The Omaha Ballet Academy recital. It's when both
youngsters and grown-ups show off what they've learned in dance class. It's
a comparatively minor item on the pers calendar in Nebraska but for the choreographer,
it is a small triumph. Hours of effort that preceded this brief curtain call. Thank you very much. Valerie Roche has been teaching dancers in Omaha and mapping
out their next steps since 1962. Each dance begins with a tape deck and a pad
of paper. [Valerie Roche] Dance is a strange discipline. It's very
much a one-way street. It goes from the teacher, the choreographer to the dancer
and the dancer does as they're told. This piece of music is Cinderella. The recital showcases
the child dancers and there is a brief interlude for three adult dancers, an
entree to the ball before Cinderella arrives. It's a familiar work that Valerie
Roche won't take for granted. [Valerie] It's like being pregnant. Before it. Because you
get in gathering together all of these ideas and you have this thing and you
have what you know but now you have to give it to other people. Four and a five and a six and a seven, eight. [Valerie] I think one of the things you are scared of is
the dancers aren't going to like this, and if the dancers don't like what they're
doing, well, number one, they'll never do it well but it's going to be pulling
teeth through all rehearsals. Valerie has tinkered with the very structure of Cinderella's
plot in order to cast three mature dancers with whom she especially enjoys working. These two girls, one is blond, one is dark-haired, both petite,
both lovely dancers, and I decided why couldn't this prince have two sisters. Catherine, a veteran who has performed professionally, brings
a smooth and elegant style to the stage. [Catherine Maydew] She works
with me on a very professional basis and tries to bring out what looks good
for me to do, not trying to make me do what possibly I did great 10 years ago. Nicki has been under Valarie's tutelage since she was five
years old and her movement has always been quick and energetic. [Nicole Rauth] I feel like I'm almost like one of her kids.
It's comforting, you know, to dance with someone you have danced with since
you started. Chad is one of the few adult men in the area who pursues
dance as a hobby. He brings athleticism to the trio. [Valerie] With these dancers it's loads of fun. Of course,
they don't get upset with me if I get stuck and sit around. They've all been
with me long enough that they know they can say well, if we did this, it would
work. I don't know why I had in mind that the circle was going to be clockwise
but we may have to do it counter clockwise. [Nicki] If we're facing that way, we could always go that
way. [Valerie] True. Yeah, true. We could do that. Let's go back
to the beginning. Let's do the whole thing from the top. Not all choreographers would allow their dancers to do that. [Valerie] Well, I think for
it to be a creative process, it's not just the choreographer. I think the dancers
have definite rights in those. I mean, you know, they stand at the bar and sweat
for me for hours and hours and they have a right to enjoy this, too. (Humming
music)... Hmm. Still kind of into his armpits, isn't it?. Sometimes I haven't
accounted for where one of the three people are correctly. I thought they were
here and then I look and oh. The second time, just step into... Back. And then
there's the timing thing so it has to work so they don't crash into each other.
I wanted it to look a little kind of risky but not be. Go, Chad. Whoa, stop,
because that's dangerous. If you get behind there, you're going to run into
the girls as they go through. Then you would be between the girls, wouldn't
you?. Perfect. Hold, don't rush. Hold. Stretch it out. And one and up and up
and up and back. Nicki is about to take off for vacation so the entire rehearsal
schedule will be hit and miss right up to the performance. I'm working with part-time dancers. My dancers have jobs,
day jobs. They also have all kinds of other commitments and I don't get them
like you get a ballet company. I'm lucky if I get them twice a week for rehearsal
after class, and if I get them when they're not tired, it's fantastic. It was
a good try. And side, behind. On up. Over the past month, Valerie had coached the trio but she
had also prepared scores of children for their ppers in the Cinderella production. [Valerie] Before I'm a choreographer, I'm a dancing teacher.
My choreography has always been a necessary part of teaching. Valerie Roche has taught decades of dancers not only ballet
but the poise and confidence that a performer must bring to the stage. [Valerie] I like to always
have an apple here, you know, and we're just pulling it away and pulling it
away so the dancers are really moving forward in their technique and their ability,
something that really challenges them without it being impossible. Sometimes
I know what they're capable of before they know what they're cable of and so
I want to pull them in that direction so that they can do it and then, of course,
they'll know they're cable by which time the apple has moved. Keep the back
nice and straight and lift. Now just check your shoulders. Nice soft fingers.
Little rise. And there is something else often at work here, a sense that
the movement of dance creates pure joy. [Valerie] Open the arms. Nice and smooth. I had a group of
9, 10, 11-year-olds yesterday and we were doing skips and we were seeing how
high we could go and how long we could stay in the air and the exhilaration
on those little faces, that's wonderful. Seven, eight, and one, two, and a three
and four. Exhilaration is sometimes in short supply the week before
a performance. With just days to go, Valarie continues to fiddle and refine
the piece on the dancers' performance. The larger problems of staging give way
to the polishing of lots of little details. [Valerie] Quite a lot of changes
have gone on along the way. I'm really quite pleased with it now. We only actually
put it on point a couple of weeks ago because the girls had been dancing in
soft shoes and that really makes quite a difference to the amount of travel
but there's always the initial pull back and then they're back out to being
a bit more expansive again. Travel, how quickly dancers move from one place to another,
has been the problem in one section in particular. A circle where the steps
are intentionally out of sync with the others. [Valerie] The final circle we are still having a little bit
of problem with because I've got them in a canon effect and the combination
of the short girls and the taller male dancer, the amount of room that he covers
in relation to the amount of room they cover and keeping them on those beats.
The girls move differently, too. One of the girls is a very slow mover and the
other girl is very sharp and quick so pulling those two together was a little
bit of a challenge. People hear rhythms and music slightly differently and they
have to do it my way so we have to go over it until they can understand exactly
what I'm looking for. Yeah, that was much better. Good expression, too, that
time. [Catherine] There's a myth that it takes about an hour worth
of rehearsal for every one minute of dance. I think that's a little on the short
side. [Nicki] It's difficult. It
may only be a minute and a half but it is a minute and a half jam packed of
dancing. [Valerie] They're willing to do better and they know they
have to build that stamina and they know they want to be able to get to the
end of the performance and be able to take a bow looking fresh and leave the
stage looking fresh. There is an additional bit of anxiety. This piece will also
be used as a showcase of Valerie's talents before a representative of the Imperial
Society of Dance Teachers. It's her own certification examination. It adds to
the pressure she always puts on herself. [Valerie] This is so pretty. The affection of her students may be the only thing that
makes the chaos worthwhile after all these years. As with any performance, the
real drama is backstage. I repeat, the house is now open
and you have one half hour until curtain. I repeat, the house is now open and
you have one half hour until curtain. [Valerie] I don't know why I'm nervous but I'm a bear to
live with I think for about two weeks before I actually start. I try to keep
an even keel. I try to teach in an even keel but this thing is always in my--
it's at the back of my mind day and night. With the curtain going up, there's not a great deal she can
do and Valerie has done it long enough that she knows there comes a time to
just stand back and watch. [Valerie] I feel like I plan-- I plan and I build towards
this point of performance, and I get to a point where I feel the performers
are putting everything they can into it and are excited about the final performance
so that they're going to keep on working. Their energy is up. I don't feel I
have anything to worry about. That evening, Cinderella's prince charming danced with his
two sisters. The piece, simple and elegant, not flawless but lovely. There had
been changes, adjustments for ability and stage craft and beauty, but the choreographer's
earliest vision was right there on stage.
Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln,
Nebraska .
The Omaha Ballet Academy recital. It's when both
youngsters and grown-ups show off what they've learned in dance class. It's
a comparatively minor item on the pers calendar in Nebraska but for the choreographer,
it is a small triumph. Hours of effort that preceded this brief curtain call.
[Catherine Maydew] She works
with me on a very professional basis and tries to bring out what looks good
for me to do, not trying to make me do what possibly I did great 10 years ago.
[Valerie] Well, I think for
it to be a creative process, it's not just the choreographer. I think the dancers
have definite rights in those. I mean, you know, they stand at the bar and sweat
for me for hours and hours and they have a right to enjoy this, too. (Humming
music)... Hmm. Still kind of into his armpits, isn't it?. Sometimes I haven't
accounted for where one of the three people are correctly. I thought they were
here and then I look and oh. The second time, just step into... Back. And then
there's the timing thing so it has to work so they don't crash into each other.
I wanted it to look a little kind of risky but not be. Go, Chad. Whoa, stop,
because that's dangerous. If you get behind there, you're going to run into
the girls as they go through. Then you would be between the girls, wouldn't
you?. Perfect. Hold, don't rush. Hold. Stretch it out. And one and up and up
and up and back.
[Valerie] I like to always
have an apple here, you know, and we're just pulling it away and pulling it
away so the dancers are really moving forward in their technique and their ability,
something that really challenges them without it being impossible. Sometimes
I know what they're capable of before they know what they're cable of and so
I want to pull them in that direction so that they can do it and then, of course,
they'll know they're cable by which time the apple has moved. Keep the back
nice and straight and lift. Now just check your shoulders. Nice soft fingers.
Little rise.
[Valerie] Quite a lot of changes
have gone on along the way. I'm really quite pleased with it now. We only actually
put it on point a couple of weeks ago because the girls had been dancing in
soft shoes and that really makes quite a difference to the amount of travel
but there's always the initial pull back and then they're back out to being
a bit more expansive again.
[Nicki] It's difficult. It
may only be a minute and a half but it is a minute and a half jam packed of
dancing.
I repeat, the house is now open
and you have one half hour until curtain. I repeat, the house is now open and
you have one half hour until curtain.