Where to go: PICCOLO SPOLETO.

WEALTH OF THE FESTIVAL

Each year in late May, Charleston, South Carolina, becomes a sweltering paradise of swaying palmetto palms and gaudy oleander blossoms. Since 1977 it has also played host to hundreds of international artists and art lovers. They flock to this charming harbor city, known in the eighteenth century as the Paris of the South, to attend the Spoleto Festival USA, founded by composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a complement to his Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Italy.

All forms of the arts are performed and displayed--opera, drama, musical concerts, painting, poetry--including a healthy selection of dance. Besides the offerings of the primary festival, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival--a festival within a festival--presents a dizzying array of performances showcasing work by artists living in and around the area. One highlight of Piccolo each year is a mini-dance festival, organized by Charleston's ballet impresario Robert Ivey. This six-hour marathon functions as a hub for dance companies throughout the mid-Atlantic seaboard, each group taking the stage for twenty minutes. Represented on the 1998 program were companies from Kentucky to Florida.

The Spartanburg Ballet (Spartanburg is few hours inland from Charleston) performed a piece choreographed by their ballet mistress, Lona Gomez, titled, Vitale! Participating in the festival gives the company a chance to show its work to other local groups of similar stature without the pressure of competition, but with the reality check of working with other serious performers. It also gives its dancers (Leah Brown, Marion Jackson, Tai Dorn, Kelly Winslow Easterlin, Katie Jennings, Rebecca Price, Mary Beth Price, and Kristi Sovenyhazy) a miniature vacation where they are totally immersed in cultural enrichment.

Onstage, the cast is poised and professional, belying their youth. Vitale! employs a vocabulary that showcases the dancers, their exuberance, and their classical line.

After their rehearsals and performances, the girls hurriedly chat in a hallway of the Simons Center for the Arts on the campus of the College of Charleston. Dancers fill the area with color and activity, some warming up, others hauling costumes out of crowded dressing rooms.

Most company members are between 14 and 16 years old. They're a remarkably focused group whose enthusiasm for their craft is infectious, an outlook they said is instilled in them by the adults at their school back home. "We have a very healthy environment at our studio and our dance director and teachers all make sure we eat healthy!" said one student.

To prepare for their performances, Rebecca Price added, they spend about twelve hours a week dancing, including rehearsals, all of which are scheduled after school.

When asked what advice they'd give other dancers just starting out, Easterlin said, "You have to dance because you love it, because it is a lot of hard work. If you do love it, you should continue to push yourself."

Participation in an arts festival such as Spoleto allows these young performers to rub shoulders not only with their peers from the South, but also with internationally known dance and music artists such as members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Ensemble and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. They learn from association with these professionals, too. From her observations, Sovenyhazy advises, "Work hard, pay attention, and understand that accomplishment comes from working hard. You have to set goals for yourself while you have the time, because in dance you have to start young."

Katie Jennings agrees, "One important thing is not to let anyone push you into anything you don't want to do. Everyone really needs to follow his or her heart and believe in what they're doing; otherwise, maybe its not the right thing for you."

Most of the dancers with the Spartanburg Ballet said they'd like to pursue careers in dance, either teaching or performing in companies. Two members were leaving that day to attend American Ballet Theatre's summer camp in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The others were finishing their cultural vacation, adding to a store of memories to draw on in future characterizations. Their ability to maintain a balance between childhood and professionalism shows that these dancers have what it takes to support them through a lifetime of dancing.

Chris Dohse writes frequently about the arts and young artists.