Moving to Montana.

Western Montana, a majestic meeting of mountain, plain, and stream, has been called the "Last Best Place" and "Big Sky Country." It is the setting for the novel and movie, A River Runs Through It.

Enter Charlene Campbell, former Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company member, teacher under Patricia Wilde for Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theatre School, and choreographer for Chicago Light Opera and industrials in Los Angeles. With her statuesque figure, Hollywood beauty mark on her cupid-bow mouth, and Cyd Charisse legs, Campbell's arrival in the rustic college town of Missoula was a surprise.

Campbell has been known to arrive for class in Versace silk shirts and deliver combinations at the barre in three-inch Manolo Blahnik plexiglass heels. One of her first students, Erika Jeffrey, says, "Charlene brought us glamour. We hadn't ever seen anyone like her. Here is this movie star, and her combinations are so rhythmic-they make you want to dance."

Born in Chicago, Campbell is the daughter of a Rockette who taught her that breeding and fashion matter. Her first teachers were Bentley Stone and Walter Camryn, but it was Patricia Wilde at the ABT School who mentored her. Campbell later became Wilde's assistant.

Campbell, her husband, and son made the move from Los Angeles to Missoula in 1997 when she was invited to teach ballet at the University of Montana and be artistic director at the Missoula Dance Academy. In L.A. she had been teaching at Stanley Holden's studio and Westside Dance Academy, and had choreographed episodes of Murder, She Wrote. But after the death of their first son at 2 1/2 years, Charlene says, "The dream needed to change. Montana was the only place I felt at peace."

In 1998, she re-launched Missoula Dance Academy as Rocky Mountain Ballet Theater, intending to collaborate with actors, artists, and musicians. She soon invited colleague and accompanist Karen Carreno to help her build a school in this untried place. With about 170 students, aged 3 through adult, the school offers 30-35 classes a week-mostly contemporary ballet, but also jazz, tap, and hip hop. Carreno's masterful playing of the ballet repertoire is a centerpiece of the school, giving constant inspiration to Charlene and her students.

Campbell says that after eight years, her students have risen to a level of technique and musicality that will help her refine and develop her choreography. "We want a student who has the open and positive attitude that allows them to have their own personality. We draw out the individual," she says. "We don't have students that don't fit in. There's always a place for them."

RMBT recently moved into a new 3,700-square-foot space. Three studios with sprung floors and high ceilings will allow them to add more teachers and classes. RMBT has performed with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and the University Chorale, and is asked to perform at numerous community events. In summer of 2002, RMBT performed in four cities in Austria under the auspices of Tanzsommer in Innsbruck, and in 2005, 37 dancers, along with parents and family members, went to Rome to study under the Balleto di Roma program.

Montana seems to exert a magnetic pull on artists and writers. Missoula, population 50,000, counts itself the cultural oasis between Minneapolis and Seattle. Far from feeling isolated, Campbell says she finds plenty of creative stimulation from other artists, university professors, and business people in the community.

Here in the Bitterroot Valley where five rivers come together, Campbell and Carreno have learned to be resourceful and count their blessings. As Carreno puts it, "When an opportunity arises for us, we try to make it work."