The world has produced a number of household-name ballerinas like Anna Pavola, Galina Ulanova and Alicia Markova and our own hometown girl, Misty Copeland, who at age 40 has surpassed all expectations in fame, talent and versatility. But in the midst of our community, there are other ballet concerns that are turning out young talent from the San Pedro City Ballet, the Lauridsen Ballet Center and special groups of dancers trained by Elizabeth Cantine called Ready, Willing and Able who perform at local venues for friends and family. Copeland was discovered by Cantine practicing for drill team captain at Dana Middle School in San Pedro. Subsequently, she was taught and nurtured along by a couple of prominent South Bay Ballet teachers including Cindy Bradley and Diane Lauridsen.

1. ***Prima Ballerina Misty Copeland at her finest, starts a new chapter in life as wife, mother, foundation creator, indie-film artist and author.***

The famous ballet dancer was recently in town as part of the “Distinguished Speaker Series” in Long Beach and Redondo Beach where she presented her poignant journey to the audience in the form of an interview.

Copeland laughed when she was reminded that many folks in the dance world considered her a prodigy at 13 because she went from knowing little to nothing about ballet to being en point in two months as a young teen. Dancers usually take two to four years of training (with good attendance) to build strength in their legs and feet before they purchase their first point shoes.

“I had visual memory,” Copeland told her audience in Long Beach on Oct. 20. “I had the ability to see someone perform a movement in front of me and mimic them.”

According to publicist Gilda Squire, Copeland is enjoying her days with her baby and husband while balancing the demands of her whirlwind work schedule.

She is busy organizing her new Misty Copeland Foundation, preparing to release and market her first indie-produced art activism film “Flower,” getting ready for the publication of her next book “The Wind at My Back,” and gearing up to train as she prepares to return to the stage later next year.

Squire added, “Everything Misty does is related and tied to promoting inclusion in ballet, bringing people to the art form who may not have felt that it was open to them.”

Once such dancer is Violetta Lemoh who started with same The San Pedro City Ballet when she was in elementary school and is now one of the studio’s teaching artists.

“Violetta was at Point Fermin school when were conducting a dance education program outreach,” Cindy Bradley said from her San Pedro studio.” She came from a tough background, but had the gumption to succeed. She received a full dance scholarship at the University of California Irvine.”

***Dancer Violetta Lemoh balances full time university classes and dance instruction to children at the San Pedro City Ballet.***

And Lemoh, who is currently busy with academics, still finds time to share her success.

“It’s a pleasure of mine to teach at the Boys and Girls Club,” said Lemoh of one of her instruction outlets. “The students remind me so much of myself when I was their age. One of the many things I heard --with a little chuckle -- was when I told them that they could go to the studio to speak to Cindy about taking classes: ‘I don’t have money for that,’ as if that was too good for them to even think of as a possible option for themselves.”

Additionally, she told them not to limit themselves because of money because when they have a passion for something, there will always be a way to get to where them where they want to go.

Not only does the San Pedro City Balley promote a world-class pre-professional dance company from the diverse Los Angeles Harbor area population, but they provide training for 36 schools throughout Los Angeles for after-school programs and the arts. The fact that many of the outreach children are living at or above the poverty level, is directly related to Bradley’s dedication and ability to inspire at-risk youth.

***Ballerina Kaela Alvarez poses between summer performances on the IOWA during the 2022 Fleet Week.***

Ballerina Kaela Alvarez, 15, is one of Bradley’s students who has been dancing since age four. Back from an excruciating hip injury, she said she is healthy and ready to take lead role of Clara for the San Pedro City Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” fulfilling a lifelong dream and goal. Like many, she has auditioned and won spots in summer intensive five-week programs to further her desire to become a professional ballerina someday.

But it hasn’t been easy.

“The mentality you have to be in when your dancing, it’s super hard,” said Kaela about preparing for auditions and productions. “My partner Michael Hill is super funny and a really good dancer. He’s also super tall -- 6 feet, 5 inches -- which is good. I’m only 5 feet, 3 inches but our partnership has been really good so far.”

***Ballerina Kaela Alvarez prepares for her upcoming role as Clara in San Pedro City Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro on Dec. 9 through Dec. 11.***

Alvarez said her biggest inspiration and support system who she loves very much, are her parents. Also, Cindy and Patrick Bradley who have always believed in her and have encouraged her to be better.

In addition to “The Nutcracker” at the Warner Grand on Dec. 9 through Dec 11, the San Pedro City Ballet will take on the production of Tchaikovsky’s elegant and intricate “Swan Lake” next spring in the harbor next to Fire Station I. Swan Lake is considered by many to be the cornerstone of the ballet world.

Another South Bay ballet studio also hard at work on their own production of The Nutcracker is the The Lauridsen Ballet Center located at 1261 Sartori Ave. in Old Torrance. The establishment has trained aspiring professionals for more than 40 years. As a young teen, Misty Copeland also was taught and danced under the tutelage of Diane Lauridsen before she was accepted into the American Ballet Theatre in New York.

The center’s unique curriculum combines classical ballet teaching with cutting-edge knowledge of kinesiology and anatomy.

Lauridsen is especially proud of her two current lead Nutcracker dancers who will capture hearts on Dec. 17 and 18 at the Marsee Theatre at El Camino College.

“Both Acaju Gastelum and Annika Ebbah grew up in the school, since they were small,” Lauridsen said of her young protégées. “Both visited the National Ballet for the summer in London and have very promising careers ahead of them.”

The Lauridsen Ballet Center Ballet protégées Annika Ebbah and Acaju Gastelum will take leading roles as Clara and the Nutcracker Prince in their production of “The Nutcracker” at The El Camino College Marsee Theatre on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.

When Acaju Gastelum, 16, started dancing around the age of nine, he said he started off with hip hop, “or just jumping around.”

Since then, he’s had his eye three big names that are part of his professional aspirations and dreams: The English National Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet.

And with good reason, he said.

“In America, there are very good companies in San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest,” said the Port of Los Angeles high school student. “But the styles they teach here compared to the European style -- the European style more fits my body type. Also, the scale of how much more ballet is appreciated over there, plus their resources are top notch are some of my reasons for wanting to dance abroad.”

The ballerino said he and his partner Annika Ebbah practice lifting or dancing every day for hours.

“People look at ballet at face value of a guy wearing tights and pointing his foot,” Acaju said. “But ballet is one of the most difficult arts. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

He added, no matter how much male dancers show off the feminine in dance, it’s extremely difficult for a man because of all the lifting they do. Even when a male dancer is not lifting, he has to show his masculinity and art without say a single word, only through movement.

Of his partner Annika, Acaju said they know each other and dance so well together, they don’t even flinch during transitions, anymore.

Like Acaju, Annika, who has been in lessons since she was six, said she has her eye on the English Ballet School in London where she attended a “summer intensive” program last June.

Summer intensive ballet programs are held for aspiring dancers to advance their training. Dancers are subject to a rigorous and consuming curriculum for about five weeks that focuses on building strength and technique.

“I really want to be the best dancer I can,” said the time-challenged Peninsula high schooler who sacrifices a lot of her social life for her art. “I don’t try to have an idol, but I admire certain things from certain dancers and try to emulate those things in my dancing each day.”

Annika and Acaju agree, in order to pursue something so mentally and physically demanding, you have to love it. To them, ballet is one of the most difficult and vigorous sports expressions out there.

Yet another teacher in the Rancho Palos Verdes community who has given her life to the education of dance and the arts is the petite and classically trained Elizabeth Cantine, who as a Dance Drill Team Coach at Dane Middle School in San Pedro, she discovered and taught a young Misty Copeland before she entered a formal ballet school.

To date, Cantine stays in constant touch with the famous ballerina as Godmother to Copeland’s first child, Jackson.

Director Emeritus of Ready, Willing & Able (RWA) Cantine’ and company offer lively and amusing dance classes for special needs teens and young adults. The students are taught by high school and college mentors and learn to perform popular dances such as ballroom, tap, folk, and more. They also perform Conservatory Shows at the Palos Verdes Performing Art Center, Warner Grand, and other South Bay venues.

Additionally, Cantine also instructs and dances with Tap Happy, a class she created for mature ladies to tap their hearts out and her “Quotable Quintet” ironically comprised of a few nonverbal students.

***Liz Cantine’s Tap Happy group is one of the many classes she trains for fun and the love of dance. (Photos are of ladies in black and ladies in red.***

Now retired, but very active in the community showcasing students with RWA as well as private students, she has also written three books, “Dancin’ Through Life,” “A Brush of Giftedness,” she created with painter and dancer Heidi, one of her talented autistic students, and her latest from an assignment given to her by the Segerstrom Theatre, “Misty Meets Palet at Segerstrom,” about a character who wanted to paint his own ballet poses inspired by the famous paintings, but ultimately took dance lessons of his own from Misty.

***Liz Cantine and student artist and dancer Heidi pose in front of a poster advertising the book they created together, “A Brush of Giftedness.”***

For someone who started dancing at the age of four, Cantine has developed a sacrosanct philosophy about her art.

“Since dance is a universal language,” Cantine said from her unstinting charitable heart, “I feel dance brings the world together even for those unable to verbalize.”

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Deborah Paul has played with ink since she was able to read and write. At 19, after two years of college, she left St. Louis to fly for American Airlines, and later enjoyed a long career with Flying Tiger Lines in many capacities, including flying military and their dependents all over the world as a flight attendant. Paul returned to university in the 1990s earning a journalism degree from Cal State University Dominguez Hills and was eventually hired as a newspaper reporter for the South Bay Weekly section of the Los Angeles Times. A decade later she worked for Orange Coast Magazine as their Charitable Events editor. She also taught journalism and was advisor to the campus newspaper at CSUDH and still contributes as a regular stringer for Peninsula News on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Currently, she has self-published four-of-five children's books in her ballad series. Her poetic fictional stories are inspired by real people who have left an indelible mark on the quiet display of simple human kindness. She resides in Rancho Palos Verdes married to Jim, her husband of many adventures.