Brilliant Ballet: McPhee students learn about choreography, costuming in school

December 12, 2024

Teagan, Ada and Taryn turned their love of dance and choreography into heartwarming lessons at McPhee Elementary School in early December. 

The three Lincoln Public Schools students joined leaders of the Lincoln Midwest Ballet Company (LMBC) in Backstage at the Ballet workshops. LMBC members taught the Mustangs about choreography, costuming and makeup during several class periods throughout the week. The entire school then gathered in the gym Dec. 5 for a performance of “The Nutcracker.”

Teagan attends Southeast High School, Ada is a student at Southwest High School and Taryn takes classes at East High School. All three said they were enjoying helping students practice classical ballet and dance movements during a morning session.

“Just seeing their reactions and the faces they make is super fun,” Ada said. “It’s cute.”

“I love seeing how excited they get,” Teagan said. “It’s just cool for them to be able to watch dancers perform right in front of them. It’s really neat.”

Shari True is the LMBC’s artistic director and has been leading dance classes since the 1980s. She has been an instrumental figure in Backstage at the Ballet, which has a goal of encouraging LPS students to explore fine arts such as dance. McPhee was selected to be this year’s host school for the program. 

True said it was exciting for the Mustangs to watch Teagan, Ada and Taryn display flexibility, agility, strength, endurance and balance in their workshops.

“I want them to understand that dance is athletic,” True said. “It requires all of the skills that every other sport does. The dancers that they saw today are athletes.”

True began the choreography workshop by talking to students about the physical benefits of dance. She said the standard length of a ballet is 90 minutes to two hours, which means everyone on stage must have each of the five athletic traits.

“Those are all skills in dance that we’re going to use,” True told a group of fourth graders. “We’ll be teaching all of those to you today.”

True led the class in stretching exercises before showing them movements from the second act of “The Nutcracker.” Students raised their hands, turned their legs and skipped on their feet for the next 30 minutes. The three high schoolers then led them in a short performance as ballet music played in the background.

Taryn said the experience could encourage many Mustangs to explore pursuing dance in the future.

“I feel like if they get to see it in their school at such a young age it’s easier to have your eyes opened to it and want to do it,” Taryn said. “Hopefully it will inspire them.”

At the same time, Maralee Maldavs was helping McPhee second graders become interested in the costuming angle of ballet. Maldavs is the LMBC’s head costumer and costume builder and guided students in a workshop in Megan Dworsky’s classroom.

Maldavs first showed students a full-sized Nutcracker headpiece. A bicycle helmet is attached to the inside of the head, and dancers wear the helmet when they put on the Nutcracker costumes. She also displayed several outfits from other members of the dance group at the beginning of class.

“There’s no talking during a ballet, so they have to wear the right costume when they’re on stage,” Maldavs said. “The costuming helps to show what’s going on.”

 

Students then had opportunities to design their own prince and princess costumes on paper. They used glue sticks to attach pieces of fabric to the outline of a person, and they then picked out jewels, ribbons and other artistic items from various trays. They placed those items on their paper dancers to finish their creations.

McPhee Principal Chris Boden said having the Mustangs participate in Backstage at the Ballet was a positive experience for everyone.

“This is such a wonderful thing to happen at our school,” Boden said. “I’m really glad our students were able to have this come here this year.”

 

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