Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ballerina Lands On Her Tiptoes

Ceci Klein sees it in Brooke Klinger - the drive, the devotion, the passion that pulls the spotlight to her with magnetic force.

“I didn’t think she’d last too long in college,” Ceci says, smiling because she knows Brooke is a top student whose talents are in demand on and off campus.

Brooke, who’s 19, danced for five years at Ceci’s Ballet School of Coeur d’Alene before leaving for the University of Utah last year. She is the dark-eyed princess pictured so many times on the walls of Ceci’s studio.

Ceci isn’t surprised the Aspen Ballet Co. in Colorado wooed Brooke from college this year with an offer to dance professionally.

“She meets the criteria: beauty, proportions, incredible feet,” Ceci says. “And when you give her something to do, she does her best.”

The costumes lured Brooke into ballet when fairy tales still dominated her dreams.

“I was 10 and ballet was the closest I could get to being a princess,” she says. She laughs, but it’s clear she’s still captivated by ballet’s beautiful, make-believe world.

Brooke flourished under ballet’s discipline, but she didn’t consider ballet for a career. Her parents are college professors. Brooke danced to develop love for the arts and planned a sensible life in medicine.

Until she turned 16. Her body hadn’t betrayed her as a teenager. Her legs were long, slim and strong. Her moves were graceful, confident, dramatic - a tribute to her diligent practice. Dance coaches noticed.

Brooke stormed through her first year of college on a ballet scholarship, finishing most of her academic degree requirements and dancing the lead in “Snow Maiden.” She didn’t audition for Aspen, but she knew how to attract the notice of company directors at a summer ballet workshop.

“I’m passable. I’m not a prodigy,” she says, assessing her talent with a critic’s detachment. “Nevertheless, I got a job because my dancing stood out. You have to use your head, arms, face, eyes.”

She promised her parents she’d finish college. But, for now, dancing comes first.

“Ballet depends on youth - flexibility, beauty,” she says. “I have to perform now.”

The sound of music

There’s no reason to write off those fantasies about singing on stage. Coeur d’Alene’s Sweet Adelines want singers badly enough to train them.

“The bigger choruses take the awards,” says Hayden Lake’s Jan Dexter. She sings four-part harmony with 49 other women in the group and wins regional awards. But this group is ready to go big-time.

The Sweet Adelines are offering prospective singers four free singing lessons starting Oct. 7. Go see if you have the right stuff. Call 772-3379 or 664-0728 for details.

Them’s fightin’ folk

It’s true that the Fightin’ Creek Store and Tavern in southern Kootenai County has changed hands. And more changes are planned, specifically, the addition of a ladies’ room. But the new bathroom shouldn’t change the ambience. The outhouse still is open and the lines to the indoor unisex bathroom should shrink.

If you want the annual mayor’s election to continue, get down there quickly and tell new owners Ivo and Janelle Chmelar. October is voting month at Fightin’ Creek and you can vote for anyone living or dead - just no dogs - as long as the Chmelars keep the tradition.

Dazed and confused

At last year’s open house at Lake City High, one teacher wouldn’t acknowledge the parents until there was a break in the Monday Night Football game he was watching. This year, a teacher told us he wasn’t going to teach our kids how to put on condoms. What’s next?

What eyebrow-raising experiences have you had at open house? Turn your essays in to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or E-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo