You can tell a lot about a ballet company by the kind of school it runs. But unless you're a ballet parent, schlepping the child to class every week, you have to wait for the annual spring recital to find out.
That chance comes this weekend when the school of Ballet Theatre of Annapolis presents its spring performance at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
Some 220 students from all five divisions of the school -- ranging from very small dancers, just barely beyond telling the difference between their right and left feet, to teen-agers who plan on a dance career -- will perform in three fairy-tale ballets.
They've been choreographed by teachers at the school -- Leslie Bradley, Natasha Kirjanov, Heidi Gucinski Menocal, Charlotte McNutt, Sandra Prehoda, Anmarie Touloumis and Shari Vazquez. All except Menocal -- who suffered a stroke last year at 31 and has retired from performance -- are dancers with the company. And in one work, a guest from the company partners with the student soloist.
"Hansel and Gretel" features students from Level 1 (playing bunnies) to senior students (playing angels). Rachael Hummel of the Junior Training Company, which is what Ballet Theatre of Annapolis calls its apprentices, dances Gretel, and Tim Finelle is Hansel.
"Snow White" includes students from Level 1 (playing dwarfs) to Anna Erikson, an adult dancer, as the witch. Senior students play her coven. (Classical ballet is the only medium in which witches never appear alone but require a corps de ballet.) Snow White will be danced by Katherine Young, a member of the Junior Training Company, and the prince will be 7-year-old Joshua Menocal, whose parents are on the staff of Ballet Theatre of Annapolis.
Joshua's mother is his teacher, and his father, John Menocal, is the company's lighting designer.
"Sleeping Beauty" features one of the junior company's most promising dancers, Katherine Lynch, partnered by Jeffrey Watson of the professional company. Megan Webb, also of the junior company, will be the Lilac Fairy, with Young, Hummel and Cossette Creamer as the other good spirits at Princess Aurora's christening. The cast includes students from the upper classes of the school as courtiers and soloists.
The program lasts about an hour and 15 minutes.
Performances are at 7 p.m. tomorrow and noon Saturday at the hall, 801 Chase St., Annapolis.
For tickets, which are $5, call 410-263-2909.
Pub Date: 5/29/97
