Dance Fever

Frontiersman

Farah Canale remembers the first time she walked into ballet class as a little girl.

Young girls and boys danced, twirled, pliéd, jetéd and passéd. They floated timelessly in the air and pirouetted with confidence. They were having fun; she was having a nervous breakdown.

Canale had just embarked on fulfilling a dream that one day she’d be dancing in front of an inspired audience. It’s a dream most dancers will tell you happens at a young age.

She would argue that initially it was her parents’ choice, but deep down it was her dream that made sense. Canale wanted to dance and was committed to making it happen.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Canale began learning the art of classical ballet young. It is suggested that if one wants to make it to the big stages of the world, one needs to be wearing ballet slippers before being out of diapers.

Looking for a top-notch education and ballet training, Canale landed at The National Ballet School of Canada and eventually the prestigious Royal Winnipeg Ballet School.

“It was a big change for the family,” Canale said. “It’s a commitment studying dance and just doing the high school thing, so in addition to the six days a week of dance training, there was the expectations for good grades, from both my parents and the school. When you’re in that situation, it’s an even half-and-half. You’re there for the ballet and the progress in dance was important. On your toes, so to speak.”

At the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Canale said she wasn’t very social, but managed to make friends with a tight-knit group of other dancers. Students lived, ate and breathed dance. They were living their dreams in a ballet bubble.

It was during this time that Canale met Michelangelo, a gifted young man Canale eventually married.

“When you’re working day-to-day with the same people, you tend to get close,” she said. “We eventually hit it off.”

Like any other youngster, Canale had a role model. A figurehead she looked up to who had made it. But instead of a rock star or television personality, Canale’s role model was the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s own Evelyn Hart. Hart was to ballet in Canada as John Wayne was to American Westerns. She was a star and Canale aspired to accomplish the same.

Attending Royal Winnipeg Ballet School is no walk in the park. Students are required to learn the names, meanings and precise techniques of each movement. Emphasis is put on building strength, mostly in the lower body — particularly the legs — and the abdominals. They learn difficult turns, develop flexibility and build strong feet for dancing, mastering the en pointe, the familiar yet awestruck technique where dancers rise to the tips of their toes.

Canale eventually was noticed. She appeared on Canadian television in the film “The Painted Word” and achieved making it into the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

She had arrived.

Canale and her husband eventually moved to Alaska in 1996 so that he could accept a job teaching figure skaters in Anchorage ballet techniques for their performances.

“It was an adventure, so I though, ‘why not?’ It sounded interesting,” she said. “We quickly realized that ice skaters are wonderful at what they do, but they’re not ballet dancers. It’s not really very artistically challenging. So then his, and eventually my balance, shifted and we decided to open up a new school for ballet. And if ice skaters wanted to come, they could.”

Canale and Michelangelo opened the Anchorage Classical Ballet Academy, first in a run down studio off of Spenard Road that they shared with other groups, but in 1998 purchased a full-fledged dance studio off of International Road.

Things were going well and Canale was teaching young children with the same passion she had.

In 2006, Anita Mitchell, owner of the Dancers Workshop in Wasilla, approached Canale about taking over her school. Mitchell, an accomplished dancer in her own right, had decided to pack in her slippers and leave the state. Canale didn’t hesitate to take the lead.

Canale has been priming new and older dancers at the Dancers Workshop since September and sees a new opportunity for ballet to flourish.

Canale said the level of commitment is up to her students, and that sometimes practice really does make perfect.

“Ballet is something that, as a child, parents initially have a hand in, but that at some point it’s up to the individual to decide how much time they want to commit,” she said. “I was 6 starting out, but the motivation had always been there. So what begins as a parent’s want, slowly turned into your own passion.”

Canale said that because of the physical demand ballet puts on a dancer, the life expectancy of a professional is shorter than other professions.

“When you’re in your 30s, it becomes a challenge,” she said. “All these venues are great ways to experience dance. So I see it all — the dancers who take a few classes a week to enjoy the way they feel, like exercise. Then there are people who take it to college. These are the career dancers. The work is intense training and it becomes a job. It’s different for everybody.”

Canale and her team of instructors teach classical and contemporary ballet, modern dance and a little jazz.

She has more than 100 students ages 3 to 17 taking classes at Wasilla’s Dancers Workshop.  This month she will add two more workshops, one for adults, the other a 90-minute hip-hop course taught by Gabe Harvey from the unique Underground Dance Co.

“Many signed up are parents of young ballerinas who want to get in on it themselves. Then there are those who took dance when they were young and are now coming back,” Canale said.

Canale believes the payoff for her is to see the new kids come in to their first dance recital with the same reservations she did. It can be a shock to the system for many.

“They learn the accomplishments,” she said. “The body feels different, they try new combinations. Again, it’s work. Kids are so into it, ready to learn and to try anything that it really is fun to teach.”

For Canale, she plans on teaching dance to a new generation of  Evelyn Harts for as long as her body allows.

“This year has been great,” she said. “Logistically, it’s a lot of driving back and forth. The challenge is the schedule. But the classes are running smoothly and the needs are met. It has only been getting better.”

Canale said she owes her new commitment to dance training in the Mat-Su Valley to Mitchell and the Dance Workshop in Wasilla.

Canale hopes a center for the performing arts will be built in the Valley, but for now she and the young dancers don’t mind making the trip to Anchorage to perform in front of a large audience.

“If nothing else, they get to all go shopping,” she said.

For more information on the Dancers Workshop in Wasilla, contact 373-0525 or drop by 980 S. Check St..