Alumni News Items should be sent to isadorables@msn.com
Chalnessa Eames has recently been made a soloiste with Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB). Chalnessa studied with Nancy Whyte for several years before being accepted into the prestigious Harid Conservatory of the Arts. In 1996, she joined the Royal Winnepeg Ballet where she quickly gained recognition from the directorship, dancing a wide variety of roles. Chalnessa Eames joined PNB in 2001. Miss Eames will be appearing as the Mount Baket Ballets special professional guest artist in the Saturday, December 15th performance of The Nutcracker at the Mt. Baker Theatre in Bellingham. Her cavalier will be Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer Benjamin Griffiths.
Kirk Midstkog began training with Nancy Whyte in 1979. After dancing for two seasons with the Mt. Baker Ballet he went to NYC to study dance and performed in a variety of venues. He returned to Bellingham in 1982 to attend WWU and re-joined the Mt. Baker Ballet. He also performed with Flemming Halby's "Seattle Ballet" for one season. In 1987, while performing with the Mt. Baker ballet company at Regional Dance America Festival in Sacramento, he was invited by Jan Collum to join Ballet Tacoma. He performed with the company for two years, and then moved to Seattle where he occaisonally performed with PNB as well as other groups in the area. He currently choreographs and assists with the directorship of ARC, a Seattle based school and company.
teaches Adult Beginning Ballet
at Nancy Whyte School of Ballet
Pat Mowry-Rutter became a teen-aged student of Nancy Whyte's when Ms. Whyte first moved to Bellingham in 1969. Pat was a member of the Mt. Baker Ballet in the company's first season in 1975. She took two degrees, one in dance and one in education from the University of Washington, and taught dance on faculty for the private school "The Little School" in Seattle while performing with a Graham technique modern dance company under Phyllis Lamont. Pat then went to New York City to study dance psychotherapy, and became a Licensed Dance Therapist. She also became a certified Laban Movement Analyst at that time. She currently lives in Parker, Colorado with her husband and child. Pat is teaching on the staff of a Montessori School, teaching creative dance in the pediatric division of an oncology hospital, and teaching yoga as well as continuing her private practice as a Movement Therapist.
Jane Gordan Ball has continued both her professional association and friendship with Nancy Whyte over the years. She has helped in many behind the scene roles on various Mount Baker Ballet productions, she instructs at the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet and her daughter studies advanced ballet and pointe with Nancy Whyte.
This winter, on Wednesday evenings at 7pm beginning January 24th, Jane Gordan-Ball will be teaching Adult Beginning Ballet at the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet.This is a wonderful opportunity for adults with little or absolutely no experience in dance to discover the joy of ballet while building strength and flexibility. It is also an ideal circumstance for our alumni dancers, whose toe shoes have been gathering dust, to return to ballet, regain their ballet body and reclaim their love of dance!
MORE ON JANE GORDAN BALL
ADULT BALLET CLASS DETAILS
One time student of the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet Sara Schafer has returned to the Whatcom County area as a physician. Sara studied with Nancy Whyte as a child before going on to the prestigious Walnut Hill School of the Arts for her high school education. After graduating, Sara Schafer went to New York City
and performed with the Eliot Feld Ballet for several years before going to medical school.
Rebecca Smedley studied with Nancy Whyte from the age of seven on. She sucessfully auditioned for the Mount Baker Ballet when she was 13, and at 16 was accepted into Walnut Hill School of the Arts. After graduating from Walnut Hill she was granted a full scholarship to Cornish School of the Arts. Upon attaining her degree, she moved to London. This September Rebecca Smedley accepted a full time position running the new dance program at Amersham and Wycombe College in Great Britain. In June she completed her Bachelor of Science Degree in Accupuncture and has her own practice. Rebecca Smedley recently choreographed and danced in a music video for MTV using students from her school. She is currently involved choreographing a performance for Amersham and Wycombe College.
Angela Suchy Ingram became a member of Mt. Baker Ballet in 1986. She was accepted into the prestigious year-around training school of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, and graduated from that school. She then performed as a member of Ballet Mississippi, and in the Portland Ballet in Oregon. Upon retiring from her dance career, Angela went to college to major in accounting. She is presently married, and a mother to two children.
Tania Swanberg was a student of the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet, and joined the Mt. Baker Ballet when she was 15. She trained to become a medical assistant, and currently lives and works in Bellingham, WA. She is the mother of a teen-aged son.
Wayne Wichern began studying with Nancy Whyte in 1977. He went to NYC in 1978 and within weeks found himself performing with American Ballet Theatre. After leaving the company he studied and performed with many dance groups in the area, becoming a close assistant to the world reknowned teacher Gabriella Taub Darvash. He founded his own group called "Trash Act" which met with considerable enthusiasm in the NYC dance scene. After leaving NYC in 1991 he began his own business designing and making hats. You can visit his website at www.WayneWichernMillinery.com
1412 Cornwall Avenue, Downtown Bellingham, Washington USA 98227
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Page Created: 01-11-07 Last Updated 11-21-07