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In Donna Whitesel’s youth she twice performed in the Russian ballet Sleeping Beauty and ended her vocation as a dance teacher and owner of DanceWorks this summer with the classic fairy tale.
“It was a bittersweet experience to come round circle,” the former Cechetti ballerina said at a reception Thursday.
“I loved to watch my girls dance what I did from back in the day when I could get on my toes,” she said.
Her girls are students that began arriving a decade ago with only the barest idea of what ballet entailed and usually clad in blue jeans.
“It was a learning experience for the whole community,” said Whitesel, who had studied with the Pennsylvania Ballet and moved to Nebraska City from Clearwater, Fla.
“Classical ballet isn't anything they had had before, in the strict sense that I taught it,” she said.
Seven showed up for the first class at the Ambassador Wellness Center, but DanceWorks classes grew to 120. Over a span of eight years, 148 dancers passed Cechetti ballet examinations.
Whitesel called her work a labor of love.
“You take someone who doesn't even know what ballet is and teach them the techniques. You instill a love of ballet in them and they want to dance,” she said.
Chaley Jensen, who performed as Dorothy in DanceWorks production of Wizard of Oz nine years ago, said she appreciates Whitesel's demands for confidence, technique and professionalism.
Jensen, who went on under Whitesel's direction to play the lead role in Cinderella and play Ursula in the Little Mermaid, said dance was something that seemed to come easy for her.
“It's my whole life,” she said.
Kelli Jensen said she was satisfied bringing her daughter to gymnastic classes in Lincoln for six years and said she was a little surprised when Chaley announced she wanted to try dance.
Whitesel had just opened DanceWorks, which would later convince the Jensens to move to Nebraska City.
“On the first day, Donna pulled me aside and said, 'just so you know, you have a prima ballerina on your hands,'” she said.
“When the girls found out the studio was closing, it was like they had lost their home,” Jensen said.
Whitesel is largely credited for creating a new genre she called dance theater.
In opera the stories are sung, in ballet they are danceand on Broadway they are spoken. Instead of dance recitals to end the year, which are just dance, Whitesel incorporated a story like Peter Pan, Marry Poppins and Charlie and Chocolate Factory.
In Donna Whitesel’s youth she twice performed in the Russian ballet Sleeping Beauty and ended her vocation as a dance teacher and owner of DanceWorks this summer with the classic fairy tale.
“It was a bittersweet experience to come round circle,” the former Cechetti ballerina said at a reception Thursday.
“I loved to watch my girls dance what I did from back in the day when I could get on my toes,” she said.
Her girls are students that began arriving a decade ago with only the barest idea of what ballet entailed and usually clad in blue jeans.
“It was a learning experience for the whole community,” said Whitesel, who had studied with the Pennsylvania Ballet and moved to Nebraska City from Clearwater, Fla.
“Classical ballet isn't anything they had had before, in the strict sense that I taught it,” she said.
Seven showed up for the first class at the Ambassador Wellness Center, but DanceWorks classes grew to 120. Over a span of eight years, 148 dancers passed Cechetti ballet examinations.
Whitesel called her work a labor of love.
“You take someone who doesn't even know what ballet is and teach them the techniques. You instill a love of ballet in them and they want to dance,” she said.
Chaley Jensen, who performed as Dorothy in DanceWorks production of Wizard of Oz nine years ago, said she appreciates Whitesel's demands for confidence, technique and professionalism.
Jensen, who went on under Whitesel's direction to play the lead role in Cinderella and play Ursula in the Little Mermaid, said dance was something that seemed to come easy for her.
“It's my whole life,” she said.
Kelli Jensen said she was satisfied bringing her daughter to gymnastic classes in Lincoln for six years and said she was a little surprised when Chaley announced she wanted to try dance.
Whitesel had just opened DanceWorks, which would later convince the Jensens to move to Nebraska City.
“On the first day, Donna pulled me aside and said, 'just so you know, you have a prima ballerina on your hands,'” she said.
“When the girls found out the studio was closing, it was like they had lost their home,” Jensen said.
Whitesel is largely credited for creating a new genre she called dance theater.
In opera the stories are sung, in ballet they are danceand on Broadway they are spoken. Instead of dance recitals to end the year, which are just dance, Whitesel incorporated a story like Peter Pan, Marry Poppins and Charlie and Chocolate Factory.
“You had to depict action and the story line by using dance motions, gestures and pantomine. It was fun doing it and the audiences seemed to enjoy it,” she said.
As DanceWorks' students advanced, their ability to tell stories grew.
As her final year at DanceWorks aproached, she knew she needed to spend more time with her family and she had a hunch her students were ready for Sleeping Beauty.
“It was hardest technically our dancers had ever done,” she said.
The show included some original choreography from 1890, when it was presented in St. Petersburg, Russia. P.I. Tchaikovsky wrote the music and Marius Petipa did the choreography.
Althouh Cechetti ballet influenced Petina, Sleeping Beauty was the first time Whitesel introduced Petina choregraphy to the school.
She choreographed new dances for most of the 88 dancers who would perform, but all of the older girls attempted the original work.
Even the school's tap dancers were invovled, performing the “sleep interlude” after Princess Aurora and the kingdom fall asleep after she pricks her finger on the spindle.
Brandie Westhart and Julia Oestman, who began as DanceWorks students in second grade, said their teacher made dance a great experience.
“She made you want to be good. You wanted to be at the top,” Westhart said.
“Her personality is really calm, but she expects you to work,” Oestman said.
They said Sleeping Beauty was very difficult, but they were thrilled because it was the first professional ballet any of them had ever done.
“It was a great way to end,” Oestman said.
