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November 10, 2009

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Letter: Three cheers for ballet’s young stars

K. W. Jeter

Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

Regarding the Sun's Oct. 11 story "Nevada Ballet revels in fans' love":

Although I'm glad to see the media catching on to what Nevada Ballet Theatre's supporters have known for some time now, that we're fortunate to have a first-rate dance company in our city, I don't think your reporter's assessment of NBT's corps de ballet is quite on the mark.

In fact, NBT's excellent corps hits the mark nearly as well as the company's much more experienced principal dancers. If there's any hesitation on the part of the corps, it's because artistic director Bruce Steivel is doing one of the jobs he's supposed to be doing, which is developing new dancers and bringing them up to the demanding standards of a professional ballet company.

In NBT's recent production of "Don Quixote," apprentices and trainees were on stage along with the regular corps, and the company's fans were impressed with the results. Some of those new dancers are still in their teens - I doubt if many of us nondancers were as good at our jobs at that age as they are, and we didn't have to learn our jobs in full view of the public eye. The standing ovations at the end of the performances were as much for them as for the company's stars.

K. W. Jeter, Las Vegas

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