Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News
Ballet West: An unlikely cultural oasis
By MURRAY OLDERMAN
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
(NEA) — Culture, western
style, has come to Moab,
Utah, and Silver City, N.M.
Ballet West USA, a classical
professional troupe emanat
ing from Salt Lake City, has
spread the gospel of dance
on the plains and in the
mountains.
One recent night in Reno,
Nev., on the main drag the
roulette wheels and the slot
machines were united in
their strange cacophony of
clackety-clack, and down the
street in the civic auditorium
the Ballet West flitted grace
fully through a program
closing performance of Stra
vinsky’s Firebird.
The house was full, too,
and William F. Christensen,
musing over the Nevada
dichotomy of gambler and
culturist, said, “They must
have dragged a lot of fathers
out tonight."
Christensen—to the com
pany members of Ballet
West he’s "Mr. C”—is a
wispy but still agile 69-year
old who is responsible for the
supremacy of the “pas de
deux" over the juke box on
a Saturday night in Salt
Lake City. He has been the
importer, the organizing
spirit and the educating
guide for this endeavor cen
tered in the Mormon city at
the foot of the Wasatch
Range. He is the artistic di
rector of Ballet West and
the choreographer for most
of its numbers.
Bill Christensen was a fine
solo dancer himself until he
quit at the age of 49 because
of torn knee cartilage.
“After I stopped dancing,”
said Bill, “I thought of go
ing into academics and they
wanted me to join the physi
cal education departments at
Stanford and California. I
said nuts to that."
Instead, without having
ever attended college, he
joined the school of speech
and theater at the University
of Utah in 1951, as a full pro
fessor of ballet. In 1963, he
organized the Utah Civic
Ballet. Three years ago it be
came the Ballet West, mak
ing one-night stands as far
south as Laredo, Tex., north
to Kalispell, Mont., and west
to Hayden. Calif. It has
played Hurricane, Utah,
Georgia offers much to vacationers
ATLANTA (PRN) -
School’s out! This means
vacation time to Mom and
Dad, as well as to the
youngsters. Nearly everyone
has a week or two to get away
from it all during the summer,
and besides that there are
several summer weekends that
will be spent on trips.
Vacations mean different
things to different people, but
a high percentage of Georgians
see this time as the
opportunity to enjoy outdoor
sports, including camping,
fishing and boating. Many
people think first of far-away
places when they think of
summer vacation.. .but those
with budget problems may
decide this is the year to stay
closer to home, forego that
“dream trip” and try to
salvage a good time in their
home state.
8
jw
'/4
‘Mr. C’
where there are still rumors
of polygamy, and a musty,
dusty vaudeville house in
Merced, Calif.
To save money, they go by
bus. On one legendary jaunt,
it took them 19-hours to go
from the high school gym in
Silver City, N.M., home to
Salt Lake.
This summer, Ballet West
goes international, at the in
vitation of the Greek Na
tional Tourist Bureau. It will
open July 27 at the Herodes
Atticus theatre in Athens,
and in the next five weeks
play Split and Ljubljana in
Yugoslavia; Verona, Italy;
Geneva, Switzerland; Vichy,
France; and San Sebastian
and Santander, Spain.
“The kids are frightened
to death,” admits Christen
sen, “as I am."
And the trip will wind up
with a deficit of close to
SIOO,OOO. “The move toward
culture in the United States
is coming like hell,” says Mr.
C., “but financially it’s in the
basement.” The 38 regular
members of the Ballet West
are full-time professional
dancers, making them one of
only a half dozen such troupes
in the United States. They’re
paid 52 weeks a year and get
only two weeks vacation. A
top soloist gets a salary of
$5,500 annually plus ex
penses. One IRS agent sent
back a tax form filled out by
one of the dancers, wanting
to know what he really did
for a living.
“You stay lean,” grins
Chris Fehr, one of the stellar
Well, the truth of the
matter is you can visit some of
the best vacation land
anywhere right here in
Georgia, do it on a budget,
and on top of that not wear
yourself out with a long trip.
If camping is your thing,
there’s no reason you can’t
stay well within your budget
anywhere in Georgia. There
are plenty of fine camping
spots near good fishing and
boating areas. If you prefer
more comfort, you still should
have no problem finding
motels in most areas.
Hot summer weather brings
to mind two particular types
of vacation sites.. .mountains
and seashore. Georgia has
both. And there is camping
available at both places. The
mountains have abundant
National Forest land with
ample camping, and offer
good trout fishing. You have a
male dancers, “because you
can’t afford to eat.”
At 34, Richard (Rocky)
Spoelstra is the old-timer of
the Ballet West company.
He’s from Arcadia, Calif.,
but came to Utah to study
dance under artistic director
Christensen, converted to
Mormonism and now lives in
the suburb of Bountiful,
where he conducts a dance
studio on the side to augment
his regular income of $lO5 a
week.
There were days when
Rocky “wouldn’t tell people
I was a ballet dancer." Now
there’s no self-consciousness.
No one would challenge the
virility of the Fuller twins.
Chip and Phip, who were
championship gymnasts at
the University of Michigan
and whose forte, when not
dancing, is drinking beer and
raising hell.
Men like Spoelstra are
completely serious about
dancing as a profession.
Rocky (“I didn’t want to be
called Dick or Rick”) has a
master’s degree in ballet
from Utah and choreo
graphed a 17-minute ballet
for his master’s thesis.
"People go into the arts
because of a dream,” says
Mr. C. And he drives them
hard toward that dream.
Company class from 11 to 1
six days a week, rehearsals
from 1 to 3 three days a
week and 7:30 to 10 nightly
when they’re not performing,
plus long Saturday re
hearsals.
Salt Lake City, an unlikely
oasis of culture, isn’t uni
formly receptive to the ef
forts. Ballet West did one
semi nude number that
raised hell. Sponsors threat
ened to withdraw support. So
most of the repertoire is
traditional, with the Nut
cracker Suite a regional fa
vorite.
The productions are first
class. Stand in the wings dur
ing a performance and you’ll
see that the effortless glides
and leaps and pirouettes
leave the dancers gasping
and sweating when they
come off stage.
An actual team spirit per
vades the troupe, the danc
ers exhorting each other.
There’s even the coach (Mr.
C.) making like Knute
Rockne with the pep talk be-
choice of improved campsites,
or anything on down the line
to backpacking into back
country. The Appalachian
Trail is a favorite of the rugged
walking campers.
There’s a fine campground
on Jekyll Island whery you’ll
be on the seashore if that’s
what appeals to your taste.
Here you can swim or surf
fish, rent a boat or take your
own, and fish the inland
saltwater or go offshore to, for
example, the Sapelo Reef.
There’s no need to go to other
states.. .Georgia has an
abundance of saltwater
fishing. Many fish camps along
the coast have camping
facilities.
These are the two most
obvious directions for the
stay-at-home camper to go,
but if he likes warmwater
Ww
u y mo
fore a show. at Stanford University, “go
“Kids,” he clapped his an d i( do your g.d.
hands as a curtain was damndest.”
raised to a critical audience And they did. Beautifully.
\ w LXjS
SPECTACULAR NIGHT SHOW is provided by Sicily’s
Mount Etna. Lava pouring down the volcano’s flanks
in the first eruption since 1928 traces fiery patterns
worthy of an abstract artist.
takes, he’s missing a bet if he
doesn’t consider the large
reservoirs. There are lakes with
good camping, boating and
fishing over almost all of our
state. Giving suggestions of
which to visit would be much
like listing a directory of all
the takes in the state.
Nearly all of the lakes, of
course, offer anything a boater
may want. All have good
fishing. And most have good
camping. For example, the
biggest lakes in the state are
built by the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers and have an
abundance of good boat
ramps, public use areas, and
camping areas. A suggestion
here would include such takes
as Hartwell, Walter F. George,
Clark Hill and Seminole. Os
course, Lanier and Allatoona
are popular, but for this
reason are often quite
crowded. These two takes do
have much to offer.
In the mountains, Lakes
Burton, Blue Ridge, Chatuge
and Nottely can fill the bill
beautifully.
Camping facilities and
public boat ramps are scarce at
most of the other lakes, but
fishing is good. You’ll have to
rely on fish camps for camping
areas and ramps. Good lakes
to consider include Sinclair,
Jackson, and Blackshear.
More details about where
there are fish camps and what
facilities they can supply, may
be obtained by writing the
Georgia Game and Fish
Commission, Public
Information Office, 270
Washington St, S.W., Atlanta,
Georgia, and ask for the Fresh
Water Fishing brochure.