A Noble Celebration

To discuss the intricacies and beauty of ballet is to consider control and the role it plays in the dance – whether a dancer can successfully move and hold her body in the perfect sequence, whether she hit the mark, whether a physically difficult position is pulled off with not only technical ability, but grace as well.

Last week at Noble Dance Studio in Kalispell, instructor and owner Natalie Molter’s class was less about keeping the teenaged dancers in line and under control and more about letting them loose.

It was one of the first classes back since the holiday break, and Molter understood her squirrely dance crew – composed of mostly high school-aged students with a couple of eighth-graders thrown in – weren’t in the mental or physical place for strict structure.

“Go through it once without me,” Molter told her group, while she discussed the upcoming show with a visitor.

Words like “neoclassical” and “original” and “contemporary” pepper the chat, but Molter’s main point about the upcoming Winter Celebration from the Noble Dance Performing Company show is this: It’s about the dancers.

“It’s trying to get what’s going on with them,” Molter said, watching her students run through a piece in the production.

Winter Celebration is Noble Dance’s major annual production, now in its fifth year. The show takes place Jan. 23 and 24 at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish, and includes two large works.

The first is a classical ballet Molter choreographed called “Bach Suite,” set to highlight the technical precision of the students in her studio, she said. The second, an original piece called “Voices,” is built around her students’ experiences, thoughts, and fears, pushing the dancers toward the more modern ballet movement.

“Voices” is the product of Molter and fellow instructor Jennifer Wyatt. To create it, they recorded interviews with their dancers about their lives. The responses they received were surprising in some cases, Molter said, because suddenly the dancers were opening up about the fear and confusion in their lives.

It also offered a glimpse into what’s truly challenging them now and potentially in the future. Molter and Wyatt then crafted the choreography around the dancers’ words and emotions, which is a distinct role reversal from the norm.

They wanted to include a contemporary piece because it highlights the modern aspects of the dance, Molter said.

“That’s the future of ballet,” she said.

For Lauren Foster, one of the company members in the production, “Voices” is a departure from the experiences most people probably have with ballet, because it’s a personal piece from the dancers performing it.

At 16, Foster, a student at Flathead High School has been dancing for at least 12 years. Her friends came to one of the past Winter Celebration shows and were so interested by what they saw that now they come every year. The upcoming production will likely garner some new fans as well, she said.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Foster said of the show. “It’s definitely personal and I think we’re all so close now that we can share that personal aspect.”

The dancers’ own voices from their interviews are peppered throughout the production, highlighting their feelings and perspectives.

“Natalie is so amazing at making it so personal and attuned to every dancer,” Foster said. “It’s a language that everyone understands. And even if you don’t understand, it can be beautiful to just watch.”

Olivia Potthoff, a 14-year-old student at Whitefish Middle School, said she’s excited to dance with the company for the first time. She added that the interviewing process was “kind of weird when we were doing it,” but now it makes sense.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” she said. “It’s not what (an audience) is used to, it’s contemporary.”

Winter Celebration will include 13 dancers from the company, five company apprentices, and about 20 other dancers from the Noble Dance school. And while Molter and Wyatt may have choreographed the moves, the control in this instance lies within the dancers themselves, where Molter hopes to show them it has lived all along.

“I love it, because they find themselves,” she said.

Noble Dance’s Winter Celebration takes place at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Jan. 23 and 2 p.m. on Jan. 24. Tickets are available at Kalispell and Whitefish Sweet Peaks Ice Cream locations – $18 for adults, $8 for students – and at the door 30 minutes before curtain.