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By Karen McDonough
LEWISVILLE – Years from now, a few hundred people will be able to look back with admiration and say they saw ballerina Sarah Lane’s debut performance of Giselle.
Lane is a rising star with American Ballet Theater and came to Dallas last weekend to dance the role with LakeCities Ballet Theatre, one of the best student companies in the metroplex. Her premiere was a quiet milestone in the dance world because it happened in Lewisville, far from New York City’s international spotlight. But it’s nevertheless a significant achievement for Lane, who’s poised to have a bright and lengthy career.
Her dream, she says, is to dance Giselle (and the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet) for ABT. For now, she must be contented with having fulfilled one of those goals and delighted the audience in the process.
In many ways, Lane is a perfect fit for the shy, tormented peasant girl Giselle, who is driven to madness after loosing her true love. The petite 5’2” ballerina danced the role sublimely on Friday at Lake Dallas High School along with the strong student dancers of LBT. The company’s highly-trained, teen-age ballerinas brought this 19th-century story to life with grace, fluidity and confidence.
Lane brought a playful sprightliness to Giselle with leaps light-as-air and spot-on technique. Her natural youthful grace and gentle meekness (likely rooted in her strong Christian faith) made her performance shine. Lane marvelously succeeded in the challenging portrayal of emotion required in the desperately haunting Act II.
LBT’s corps de ballet, dancing those difficult Act II hops, and the wonderful soloists (Sally Schweitzer as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis and Brianna Cullum as Zulma and Nicole Votolato as Moyna, both attendants to the Queen) admirably carried the audience into the mysterious forest where the second act takes place. The flowing white brides’ dresses, effective lighting and Adolphe Adam’s 168-year-old riveting score beautifully captured the story’s haunting ethereal quality. None of the dancers seemed thrown when the recorded music faltered a few times during the performance in both Act I and II.
In preparation for the performance, the company received special coaching by ABT Principal Dancer Julie Kent, who spent several days rehearsing the dancers. Kent, of course, also coached Lane and LBT’s Steven Loch, who carried the role of Prince Albrecht with maturity and emotion. She also provided a rare opportunity for Loch to get extra coaching at ABT studios with Lane by Jose Manuel Carreno and Victor Barbee.
The production’s success rests with Kelly Lannin, LBT’s energetic Artistic Director, whose commitment and passion to exposing her students -- and metroplex audiences -- to world-class dancers is laser-focused. Lannin is able to do what few student companies (with little or no budgets) anywhere can; bringing some of the best ballet dancers from ABT, the country’s top touring ballet company, to train her students and perform before local audiences, who may never travel to New York or otherwise get to see that caliber of dancing.
New York is where Lane has been an ABT soloist for nearly two years. She moved up quickly from apprentice to a member of the corps de ballet. Of dancing her dream, Lane has said there are so many talented ABT dancers desiring the lead roles that she doesn’t know when she’ll be asked. The way things are going it could be sooner rather than later.
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