Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Vancouver dancer reaching for the stars

Ballet dancer Dori Pollard is leaping toward her dreams of turning ballet into her career.

She is one of 10 dancers selected for the Portland Ballet’s new Career Track program, which offers professional-level training for dancers looking to make a career in ballet. The 20-year old from Vancouver has pliéd, jetéd and pirouetted for 15 years, with eight years at the Portland-based school and company.

Dancers in the program will have more rehearsals, along with higher-level classes.

“We can already tell we’re getting stronger,” Pollard said.

She’s also making a wish list of dance companies to send audition tapes.

“Right now, (Artistic Director) Anne Mueller is working with us on our audition videos, trying to find companies that will fit us.”

Pollard said that Mueller really helps the dancers perfect their movements.

“She brings an energy in rehearsal that really gets us going, adds that extra spark,” Pollard said.

Pollard mentioned the Nevada Ballet, St. Louis Ballet and Eugene (Ore.) Ballet as possibilities, companies that might take a chance on a taller dancer.

“I’m 5-foot-8, and many companies have height cutoffs at 5-foot-6.”

To perform professionally would be Pollard’s dream.

“I can kind of remember when I started (ballet), in bits and pieces,” she said. “I really liked the moving and the quality of dancing with the music.”

“One of my teachers said, ‘Be the music,’ when I was like 5 years old, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s so cool, be the music.’ ” That idea stuck, and Pollard said her favorite part about ballet is being about to take a move and “do it differently” to convey something entirely new with the same step.

Pollard also teaches ballet to groups of 3- to 6-year-olds at the Portland Ballet.

“I show them new moves, and their faces just light up,” she said.

She teaches the young dancers to think about being an elevator while doing their pli?s at the bar, “so they’re not sticking their bottoms out,” Pollard said.

Pollard also will take leading roles in the Portland Ballet’s Thanksgiving weekend production, which features two ballets, “Day by Day” and “Firebird.”

“It’s absolutely gorgeous music, especially in the second solo that the firebird does,” Pollard said.

The story follows a prince who meets the magical firebird, and after a brief struggle, told through dance, of course, the firebird leaves the prince with one of its feathers. Then there’s a group of princesses, led by the Princess Elena, some mischief, followed by encroaching darkness, a villain and some henchmen.

“The smallest movements can be the most technically challenging things (in a ballet),” Pollard said. “I always like looking for the chemistry between the dancers, how they’re connecting and showing that.”

Pollard will alternate performing the lead role of Princess Elena with another Clark County dancer, Camas resident Annie Garcia, who was also accepted in the Career Track program. Kayla Adams and Kate Southerland of Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and Sydney Phillips of Clark College’s Running Start, will also be part of the performances.

From magical to the lovely and mundane, “Day by Day” is a premiere piece by new artistic director Mueller that follows a typical day in the life of a family, set to Mozart played live by the Portland State University Orchestra. The ballet includes a hectic workplace, traffic congestion and fairies of snooze, who tempt you back to bed. Both performances incorporate dancers of all ages and skills, including the child dancers as cars getting stuck in a ballet traffic jam, said Pollard.

The performances begin at 4 p.m. Nov. 27, 1 and 4 p.m. Nov. 28-29 at Portland State University’s Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 S.W. Park Ave., Portland. Tickets are $35, $15 for children and $90 for a family pack. 503-452-8448 or www.portlandballet.org

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