Teaching With Grace Ballet Has Been Ceci Klein’S Life, And She’D Do It All Again
Brandy Horne’s right foot arcs like a crescent moon as she warms up at the barre.
She slides the foot away from her body and onto its toes, then pulls it back, heel down, always a model of balance and control. The brown bun pinned just above her milky neck hardly twitches with each move.
Ceci Klein watches impassively for a moment as Brandy’s foot keeps time with taped piano music. Then, Ceci steps behind her young student and places one hand on Brandy’s stomach and the other on her back. Brandy’s stare never wavers as her ballet coach silently fine-tunes her posture.
“When they’re talented, it’s easy,” Ceci says.
She has high hopes for Brandy. The long-limbed 14-year-old will dance the lead in the Ballet School of Coeur d’Alene’s production of “Don Quixote” this weekend in North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium.
Two Ballet School of Coeur d’Alene students are professional dancers now. Notable ballet companies already are pursuing Brandy and 15-year-old Coeur d’Alene twins Ashley and Andrea Cooper.
The attention nourishes Ceci, but doesn’t go to her head. She’s a ballet veteran.
“I tell the girls to be realistic,” she says as young dancers stretch amid red tulle costumes, plastic suits of armor and fairy tale props. “Ballet is just work.”
If she believed those words, Ceci wouldn’t stay in a field that devours all her time, energy and talent, that thrusts clumsy 9-year-olds at her and demands she transform them into swans, that sends her students with perfect physiques and no interest or, worse, unwieldy bodies and fierce commitment.
But Ceci stays willingly.
“If God came down and said, `What do you want to do?’ I’d say, `I want to do it all again,”’ she says.
She was 4 when she first saw pink pointe shoes and knew she’d dance. By the time her parents enrolled her in a ballet school, Ceci had learned the five positions from a book.
By 18, she had danced in Los Angeles’ Greek Theater and studied five summers with the American Ballet Theater.
But as Ceci matured into a pretty young woman, choreographer George Balanchine changed the look of ballet. His artist’s eye told him long limbs create a more beautiful arabesque. Taller dancers were in demand. Ceci reached 5 feet 4 inches and stopped.
Her skill and size worked for the corps de ballet and character roles, but not for leads. Then, childbirth stole some flexibility from her back, so she moved into teaching and choreography.
“For me, being in it in any capacity is wonderful,” she says.
She arrived in Coeur d’Alene with her husband in 1990 assuming ballet wasn’t a big draw in wild Idaho. She was a talented seamstress and considered making novelty teddy bears.
On a whim, she agreed to guest teach a local ballet class. Nine months later, she took over the school when the owner left.
“I couldn’t get it out of my system,” she says.
Photos of Ceci’s princesses line the walls of her Spruce Avenue studio. They’re in tiaras, sequins and silk, perched on their toes like music box dancers.
A photo of dark-eyed Brooke Klinger greets everyone who walks into Ceci’s waiting room. Brooke dances lead roles now for the Aspen Ballet Company in Colorado. Her picture is one of youthful beauty and grace and shows skinny little girls what their futures might hold if they’re dedicated and their bodies cooperate.
Brandy’s body is doing its part to secure her future, although Brandy’s mother, Tina Horne, isn’t sure ballet is a secure future.
“We figure we’ll probably be supporting Brandy the rest of her life if she dances,” Tina says, chuckling.
Brandy is 5 feet 8 inches tall. She dances 12 hours a week, after classes at Woodland Middle School and on Saturdays. When she’s not dancing, she stops in the studio to watch other classes.
Years of competitive gymnastics blessed her with strong feet. She giggles as she uncovers her toes to show how long and double-jointed they are. Winning the lead role in “Don Quixote” shocked her.
“I’ve never done anything this intense,” she says, shaking her hands as if they’re wet to emphasize the enormity of the job.
Brandy will dance the role of Kitri, a Gypsy girl determined to marry the poor man she loves rather than the rich nobleman her father has chosen for her. The ballet, with music by Leon Mincus, is framed around her. All of Ceci’s 53 students will perform, as well as guest dancer Eric Roberts.
Ceci rents professional sets for her productions and sews many of the costumes herself. Brandy’s sequined, silk and ruffled red tulle outfit took four weeks of labor.
“I wanted it to be really beautiful,” Ceci says.
Ballet Idaho has invited Brandy and the Cooper girls to tour with it for six weeks next fall in “Swan Lake.” Twelve of Ceci’s students were accepted into summer programs with professional ballet companies this year.
Ceci beams as she announces each honor, but she also beams as her toughest student walks in. The girl started ballet reluctantly at 9 and fought the graceful moves for years. Now 18, she teaches some of Ceci’s classes.
“She was my greatest challenge and my greatest success,” the ballet coach says as girls slide their limber legs into lateral splits and chat about school, friends, the show.
“I dance through those kids. When they succeed, I’ve done it with them.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: PERFORMANCE `Don Quixote’
Ballet School of Coeur d’Alene’s performance of “Don Quixote” starts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium. Tickets cost $10 for children under 12 and $12 for adults. Call 772-6742 for information.