Ballet West Prima Ballerina Christiana Bennett Says Goodbye in Her Final Performances

Ballet West Prima Ballerina Christiana Bennett Says Goodbye in Her Final Performances

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – May 21, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) Ballet West’s prima ballerina, Christiana Bennett will dance for the company for the final time on Saturday. We sat down with her last month to talk about her long and varied career. She said as she contemplates her final performances, she is feeling a myriad of things. “I am feeling thousands of emotions,” she said. “I’m starting to feel sad because the end is drawing near but also so excited to start the next chapter of my life.”

Throughout her 16 year career with Ballet West, Christiana has danced a wide range of demanding leading roles, bringing her own unique touch to all of them.

Christiana started ballet at six after seeing a production of “The Nutcracker” on TV when she was two. “As my mom likes to say, that was it. I immediately started walking round the house, like on half-toe, on my tippie-toes. At six years old my mom put me into ballet because she was pregnant with my brother and needed an activity for me to do, to get me out of her hair, and the rest is history,” she said.

“The first emotional moment I had on stage was in Jonas Kage’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and there’s a moment where Juliet is sitting in her bedroom,” she said. “The C Major theme comes in and it only happens twice in the ballet. And it’s the point where she knows what she needs to do next to be with Romeo. And in his
version, we are laying on the bed and the C Major chord comes in, and we both sit up and we just stare into the audience, so they know our next step and we’re basically a team and we’re going to go do this together. And I remember sitting there that first time, and hearing that chord and actually feeling like the music was going through my body, and I remember looking into the audience and just feeling like I was completely naked in the sense that my soul was so open.”

But now Bennett has made the decision to hang up her pointe shoes. “ I don’t want to say it’s the end of my dancing career, but it’s time, it’s time for me to pursue a different path,” she said. “As of right now, I am going to go into the event planning field. I am going to work with culinary crafts, and I’m really excited about that.”

One of the reasons she knew it was time to go was when she found out “Swan Lake” would be performed this season. “When I found out that ‘Swan Lake’ was slated to be performed again this season, it kind of seemed like that was a sign. The first role I ever did when I was 16 was the White Swan pas de deux and Jonas saw me at Pacific Ballet School I again was performing White Swan pas de deux. And that’s what got me my job here, so it would be kind of romantic to go out the way I came in.”

Christiana said she is looking forward to a few things after she retires. “I’m looking forward to wearing high heels more often. I feel like I’ve lived in sneakers for about 15 years, ‘cos it’s one of those I try and do everything to accommodate my legs and my feet, and thought I do love my sneakers, there is something about wearing a pair of high heels,” she said. “It’s the little things in life like that, not having to sew pointe shoes when I go home every night, just being able to sit there and watch TV.”

She said that although she will miss ballet, it has given her a great deal in terms of confidence and discipline. “There will be challenges, and there will be moments that will be very uncomfortable, but you have to remember how many years of standing at the barre perfecting that one step, and knowing that you have the discipline and the perseverance to get to the final goal,” she said. “I think what has instilled confidence in me in the past is performing on stage. Going out there in front of thousands of people and just laying it on the line, and being vulnerable and allowing the audience to see a part of me that many other people I wouldn’t expose myself to.

“And though I probably won’t have an audience that will be applauding me, in my next step, I know what it’s like to have a job well done.”

Audiences can see Bennett in Ballet West’s “Innovations 2015”, at the Rose Wagner, tonight, Thursday,tomorrow, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are available from Arttix.org or (801) 355.2787 (ARTS).