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Barrhead dancers join Alberta Ballet for a Christmas favourite

Footworks Dance Academy’s Danaca Bell and Lunay Wepener perform in The Nutcracker
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Lunay Wepener and Danaca Bell of Barrhead’s Footworks Dance Academy got to perform in the Alberta Ballet presentation of The Nutcracker.
BARRHEAD - Barrhead has a long tradition of seeing its young dancers perform with the Alberta Ballet, more specifically as part of its annual performance of  The Nutcracker.

On. Dec. 4, when the curtain was drawn at the Jubilee Theatre in Edmonton, Danaca Bell and Lunay Wepener joined the Alberta Ballet for their telling of Christmas favourite.

The Nutcracker is a story about how Claire, a young girl attending a dinner party, is transported into a mystical world where she encounters several characters, including a nutcracker soldier who resembles a toy her godfather gave her.

To help tell the story Alberta Ballet, Canada’s second-largest ballet company, enlists about 100 amateur youth dancers.

Bell, 15, played a rat, essentially a henchman working for the Rat King, while Wepener played a palace page. For Wepener, 13, it was her second time performing with the company in The Nutcracker while it was Bell’s first.

The process to take to the stage started in September during an open audition at the Ruth Carse Centre where Bell and Wepener joined hundreds of young dancers from across Northern Alberta for one of the few coveted positions.

As two of the taller performers, the pair were given higher numbers. Bell still remembers the numbers they were assigned — she received 147 while Wepener was 172.

“I was so nervous,” Bell said, recalling the night before the audition. “I kept texting her (Wepener) what should I wear and how should I do my hair.”

In the end, Bell decided for a ballerina bun.

“No part in the middle,” Wepener explained.

It wasn’t the first time Bell has gone to Wepener for advice and had asked her about auditioning, noting she was on the fence.

As for Wepener, she said she always knew she was going to audition, noting this is her third time.

“I wanted to do something I had never done before,” Wepener said.

After registering, the pair warmed up in a side room and then waited to be called.

“All you could think about was the audition,” Bell  said.

Wepener, on the other hand, said she wasn’t nervous already having gone through the process.

An hour later, the casting director, “called back” the best dancers for one final audition at the end of which the successful candidates were told what roles they would play along with the rehearsal schedule.

For the next two months, every Sunday they would rehearse for two hours at the Ruth Carse Centre.

“Each role had different times,” Wepener said.

But that changed on Dec. 2 when the amateur dancers joined the professional company.

At first, both Bell and Wepener said they were intimidated to work with the professional dancers.

“When you see them on stage, you think “Oh my God,” this is a professional company,” Bell said.

“But when you get to work with them you realize that they are just dancers like you are, but at a higher level,” Wepener added.

Because of the hectic rehearsal schedule, the pair often had to miss school, especially on the days when there were a rehearsal and a performance.

On Dec. 3, the day before they opened, Bell said instead of their regular rehearsal, they had a costume fitting followed by a blocking session and finishing the day with a quick rehearsal.

The next day, opening night was the longest day of the run.

Bell said her day started at 9:30 a.m. with a run-through. After a break, the company then went through a full-dress rehearsal in the early afternoon.

However, Wepener said it resembled more of a full show as the company invited people from the School of Alberta Ballet as well as the show’s sponsors to watch. At 6:30 p.m. the cast was on stage for their official opening night performance.

“It was exciting,” Wepener said, noting it was close to a sellout.

Unfortunately, Bell said, although she tried her best to take it all in when she went on stage, her prosthetic did not allow her to see everything as it was taking place, especially when the stage lights were factored in.

“I could see the people in front of me and a little bit to the side and that was it,” she said, adding she was also doing her best to keep her nerves in check.

Both Wepener and Bell admitted to having a few pre-performance jitters during the first show but said after they had the first one under their belt their nervousness melted away.

And now that they both have had their first taste of what it is like of being a professional dancer is, they both plan to pursue it.

Wepener has been accepted to the School of Alberta Ballet, where she will join fellow Footworks Dance Academy alumni Benedict Quedenbaum where she will study both academics and dance.

Bell will be auditioning for the School of Alberta Ballet in February and in March she hopes to earn a spot at a summer intensive program at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

As for if the pair would recommend other dancers to audition for The Nutcracker both said gave an unqualified yes.

“It was such a good experience,” Bell said. “Just to be able to see how a professional dance company works up close. It is something I will never forget.”

Wepener agreed: “When I was younger was in the audience at the Jubilee, I never dreamed that one day I would be on stage dancing,” she said.


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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