ROGERS — Meryl Engelke was just 5 years old when her mother, Judy Engelke, excitedly announced she'd signed her daughter up for ballet lessons.
"She told me I'd be taking ballet once a week," Meryl, now 15, remembered. "I'd never told her I wanted to take ballet, but I really did. I wanted to be a princess and a ballerina, like a lot of little girls, I guess."
The princess-and-castles thing faded pretty quickly; the ballet did not. A decade later, Engelke is one week from embarking on an opportunity most aspiring dancers in the world only dream about.
A matter of hours after stepping off the stage from her finalperformance with the Classical Ballet Academy in Bentonville on Saturday evening, Engelke will pack her bags for the Big Apple. At the tender age of 15, Engelke accepted a scholarship to the legendary Joffrey Ballet School, a world-renowned ballet training center in New York City's Greenwich Village.
Engelke will train with 76 other hand-picked dancers from around the world. In addition, Joffrey is paying Engelke's housing and tuition in full, even though she's among the three youngest dancers in the incoming class.
"There's one girl who's 14 andone other who's 15," Engelke said. "Most of them are 18 and up."
But not Engelke, who has been training and teaching at the Classical Ballet Academy here since 2004.
"I think about itall the time," Engelke said about walking onto the Joffrey campus later this week. "I really can't believe it. It's like a dream come true. I feel like something's going to happen where I find out it's not even real."
It's very real, though.
Last week, Engelke's mother, who will be living with her in New York, moved in. She's getting things situated in their Greenwich Village apartment and adjusting to her new job in the offices of the Joffrey Ballet School.
Even at an early age, Engelke showed a gift for ballet, according to Catherine Kyle, artistic director of the Classical Ballet School, located at 1106 N.W. 10th St.
"When she was a little girl, doing her first "Nutcracker" with us here, she had such a spark. You could just see she had a gift, even at that age," Kyle said. "When her mother called to tell me about the scholarship, I was in tears on the phone."
Engelke has continued to turn heads ever since. At age 10, she traveled to Chicago to compete in the Youth American Grand Prix, which she won, despite the fact it was her first dance competition. Engelke has attended several prominent summer intensives, including the Tulsa Ballet Pointe to the Future in 2005, the Joffrey Elite Escole in San Antonio in 2006, Walnut Hill Academy in Natick, Mass., in 2007 and the Joffrey Ballet School summer intensive in New York City in 2008 and 2009.
"When she won at the YAGP in Chicago, I must have jumped 40 feet out of my seat," Kyle said. "I'd known she had a special gift, but to go to a competition like that and know others are seeing it, too. It's like your own child."
The Joffrey Ballet School has seen it the past two years. As part ofthe institution's summer-long intensive programs, Engelke passed her evaluation, earning acceptanceinto the Joffrey's training center. But she was just 14 and the family wasn't in a position to take on the expense of enrollment and housing in New York City. The Rogers teen,however, impressed the Joffrey so much this past summer that it offered to cover her living and tuition expenses in full.
"When I'm dancing, it's like I go somewhere else," Engelke said. "My favorite part is being on stage. I love that feeling. It's not like I'm really thinking about anything. It just kind of happens."
"She's always had a couple of very special gifts," Kyle explained. "She's such a performer - can translate academic into something beautiful. And she has great memory. You can show her somethingonce, no matter how complex and involved, and she remembers it. She's so natural. Some of that is the part you can't teach. You either have it or you don't. Meryl definitely has it."
The most difficult part of the transition from life in northwest Arkansas to life in New York City, according to Engelke, will be leaving her father and siblings behind. She and her mother plan to make weekend visits to Rogers now and then, but she'll be involved with a very rigorous schedule and program - all necessary in attaining her goal of dancing professionally.
"I like being new places, so I'm really looking forward to it," Engelke said. "There will be some nervousness, but this is what I love and what I've been working toward for so long. I knew when I was a little girl I wanted to be a ballerina and I'm actually getting to do that. I realize this is an opportunity not many people ever get."
Nature's Dance and Art, a dynamic blend of nature inspirations set to contemporary music in a concert setting surrounded by the work of local visual artists, will be staged at the Classical Ballet Academy, 1106 N.W. 10th St. in Bentonville, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Rogers' 15-year-old dancer Meryl Engelke, recently accepted into the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet School in New York City on scholarship, holds prominent roles in all three scheduled dances as part of the production.
This eclectic blend of art features the talents of Leah Gallas and Alberto Montesso of Tulsa Ballet and Classical Ballet Academy Company dancers. Choreographers for this mix of dance styles include Jane Vorburger, Melinda Tobian, Michelle Brekelbaum and Alberto Montesso. Works by Laura Terry, Judi Harrison and Tania Knudsen will illustrate the Nature's Art theme.
The gallery opens at 6:30 both nights, with performances starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online for $15. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door at 6:15 p.m.
- Jeff Mores
News, Pages 1, 8 on 09/28/2009