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Home My Public Portal AboutMcCall School of Ballet5'fdN /VtrwS 14y3 'The Fairy Doll' to debut The McCall Dancers Workshop will perform "The Fairy Doll," a ballet for children, at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the McCall -Donnelly High School Music Room. The ballet, written and choreographed by McCall dance teacher Diane Jorgensen, will end the McCall Public Library's summer reading series. Parents of young readers are invited to attend and refreshments will be served. There is no admission charge. The Photo by Earl Brockman music room is located on the south side of the high school building, with the entrance and parking off Stibnite Street. Dancers shown are: back row from left, Sandra Swick, Diane Jorgensen and Dru Faust. Middle row, from left, Laura Bechdel, Kyrie Jorgensen, A'ntonia McMahan, Tawney Hanks and Alisha Weldon. Bunnies, from left, are Allison Geeslin, Erica Laidlaw and Kelsey Remboldt. l a� /Z,/ 93 McCall ballerina Diane � Jorgensen says she's lived Swan Lake — modified a little to include a part for an McCall School of Ballet adolescent ugly duckling celebrates its opening Devoted to the The McCall School of Ballet will host a grand opening celebration of its new dance studio on Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Some of the school's dance students will perform at 6:30 p.m. The ballet school is located in The Lands Building, 321 N. Third St. The ballet school celebration is being held in conjunction with an artist's reception for McCall painter Cynthia Dittmer, whose large can- vases will be on display in the entry area of the building. The art exhibition has been orga- nized by the McCall Arts & 1-1..manit:oe CrInnril anfi %will hr an ante ongoing feature in the building, ac• - cording to Patty White, executive director of the council. All the tenants of the new com- mercial center will join the McCall School of Ballet in Friday's festivi- ties. They are Rumors Hair Nails Tanning, Sweet Pea's Mountain Skivvies, Romancing the Home, Twergo Commercial Real Estate, and Jorgensen Construction. Twergo Commercial Real Estate did the leasing for the project. West One Bank provided project financing to Jorgensen Construction for the buildine renovation. ��ibP BY PATTY WHITE For The Star -News Diane Jorgensen started dancing as soon as she could walk. Her long and distinguished career has led her to McCall, where she is handing down her skills to young people who share her love of the dance. Jorgensen's childhood was spent in England, where her mother was a guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. Her earliest ballet performances were private ones for her dolls, but at the tender age of seven her fairy doll world took a stunning turn with a performance before the queen of England. Receiving formal training at the Royal Acad- emy, the school of the Royal Ballet company, Jorgensen's class was featured in a benefit perfor- mance for an orphanage supported by Queen Elizabeth II. After the performance, the young dancers were led to a reception hall for a private audience with the queen, where they were also given balloons and gifts. Life would not be the same for Jorgensen. Dance became her utmost joy. And it still is. Quite close to her mother, Jorgensen followed her footsteps for a while. She says her childhood in London was a world filled with orchestras, bright lights, and the lavish sets of ballet. She describes it as a fairyland. "I lived Swan Lake," she said. When she was 10, however, her family moved to the United States, where her father was stationed at Travis Air Force Base outside of San Francisco. er mother, who had once been a soloist with the San Francisco Ballet, started her own ballet school. Jorgensen enrolled in classes at the San Francisco Ballet School, run by the ballet company's founders, the Christensen brothers. Jorgensen's father drove her from Fairfield into San Francisco three times a week for ballet lessons. It was an 80 mile commute, one-way. "I will always be grateful to him for that," she said. "I was able to dance every day." Her early teen years were nonetheless painful, and quite lonely. The transition to Fairfield, Calif., from the excitement of London and the lushness of the English countryside was even harsher because the aspiring young ballerina was so unlike all the other kids her age. She talked funny and was the object of ridicule. "I experienced extreme prejudice and bigotry just because I was so different," she said. Jorgensen says her love of dance saved her life :then, and she worked harder at it than ever before. Harald Christensen became her mentor. At 14, under his tutelage, she began to dance professionally with the San Francisco Ballet School. "When I dance now I can still feel Harald Christensen's presence, looking over my shoulder," she says with a soft smile. "He was my guardian angel during those years." The twinkle in his eyes that Jorgensen recalls so vividly would certainly brighten if he were still alive to see her newest venture. On Friday, this mother of four is inviting the public to the grand opening celebration of new studios of the McCall School of Ballet. Last month her ballet school, which has been housed in the Jorgensen home for five years, moved into a sparkling 2,200 square foot space in the Lands Building, 321 N. Third St. in McCall. Formerly occupied by the Idaho Department of Lands, the once unremarkable wooden building has been transformed by Jorgensen and her husband, Mark, into a handsome commercial space. While the building houses stores, a hair salon, and offices, it has a decidedly cultural signature not to mention a hint of the English countryside in its design features. "Mark and I got into this project following our hearts," she says. More than a third of the building's space is occupied by the dance stu- dios, which include a viewing room, dressing rooms, a kitchen, office, and small dancewear store. Classes are held daily, including all levels of ballet for children through adults. Other forms of dance are of- fered, too, such as jazz, tap, and dance exercise. Classes are being added all the time, she says. azz dance for kids is particularly popular, and "the adult tap group is getting hot!" In McCall, Jorgensen has found many adult dancers like herself who have stepped away from dance to raise families. They yearn to return to it. "There are five of us in the ad- vanced adult ballet class, and two have been professional dancers," she says. "But together we work hard and it comes back. We can carry it on from this moment." She adds that her foremost wish now is to find among these mountains a male adult dancer for her perform- ing group, and a pianist to accompany them. "I'll get the piano," she said. Finding audiences and being able to perform are aspirations shared by most dancers, no matter what age., Consequently, it was a significant event when a standing -room -only au- dience filled the McCall -Donnelly High School Music Room last sum- mer to view the ballet school's Young Dancer's Workshop in their perfor- mance of The Fairy Doll. The Workshop is comprised of 15 dancers, ages seven to adult. Jorgensen first choreographed the half-hour bal- let they performed when she was 12, using her mother's students. She has modified it over the years. "I choreo- graph for the level my dancers are at, so they can be the best that they can be at that moment," she said. She is eager to tour the perfor- mance to the small towns around the region. To this end, she has been allocating a portion of tuition moneys to building moveable sets, a portable floor, props, lights, and costuming. Plans are coming together for early spring performances in Riggins, Council, New Meadows, and Cas- cade. When all this is done, Jorgensen says she "will go door to door, if that's what it takes," to help McCall build a performing arts space. "There is so much talent in this community. It is a dream that we might be working to- gether, performing, and inspiring each other and our kids," she said. Jorgensen is passionate about the arts teaching children the skills that are vital to living full and productive lives. She says most students come to her initially for recreational dance. "I hope they get more. Through the arts you can learn about living," she said. Dance became her anchor during painful and confusing adolescent years; with it she says she found her humanity. Jorgensen believes that an equally important life skill learned through the arts is the value of discipline and hard work. Kids can learn in any me- dium of the arts that with hard work and some dedication, they can do any- thing they put their minds to. "They learn they can accomplish great things," she said. (Patty White is director of the McCall Arts and Humanities Coun- cil. This article is the latest in a continuing series of profiles on area residents involved in the arts and humanities.) ��' 7 Boost from the Ballet Members of the McCall School of Ballet pose during a recent rehearsal for "Sleeping Beauty Variations," a performance to benefit The Shepherd's Home. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at the McCall -Donnelly High School gym. Cost is $4 for adults and $2 for children under age 12: Standing at left is Jim Dardis, a board member of The Shepherd's Home, a proposed McCall home that would provide a refuge for children who, for various reasons, cannot stay in their homes. The Star News Groups Page Page 1 of 1 Munn by PAW Me.* THE BEAUTY DAME- Students talang part In the P/rmtte Hance Rental on Pndae are shown during their Music Box Dancer routme &thug. from left, are Hunter Hagen, Rplee Stahl and hIc gan Cullec riddle row are Elhe Ticlkamsg�l,J�t, left, and Hannah Rainfoni Standing are 1,loL} Dixon, left and ilea Stahl http://www.mccallstarnews.com/pages/groups_page.php 6/6/2013