Four ballet tech ohio dance students won major awards at the Youth America Grand Prix in Chicago Feb. 2-3. The competition, established in 2000, is the only one of its kind to award scholarships for leading U.S. and international dance companies. All four students, who attend the Foster dance studio run by Claudia Rudolf Barrett, will move on to the scholarship finals in New York's Lincoln Center on May 6.

        In the junior division (12-14) Hannah Spiegel won gold, and Courtney Sanborn to the silver. Leigh Lijoi (junior division) and Kristen Phelps (senior division, 15-18) did not win titles, but scored well enough to move on to the next level of competition.

        The girls were coached by ballet tech ohio guest teachers Anna Reznik and Alexei Kremnev (former Cincinnati Ballet principals, now Northern Kentucky University dance faculty members).

        Ms. Barrett was pleased to see that her students' “clean techniques stood up against the others” and was touched by their “confident self-assurance” onstage.

        “Their excellent coaching and expertise were evident,” Ms. Barrett says. Noting it was her students' first competition, Ms. Barrett credits Ms. Reznik and Mr. Kremnev for the high finishes.

        Story of tango: Virginia Malton, local tango expert, has produced Tango Des-parada, a story of Argentine tango from its earliest days. The full-evening work of dance, music and song will be 8 p.m. Feb. 22-23 at Columbia Performing Center, 3900 Eastern Ave.; $15 at the door. (859) 291-2300.

        The exact origin of the tango has been argued for decades.

        “Whatever the origin,” Ms. Malton says, “the music is one of passion, love, loss and sadness and the dance expresses those emotions in movement.”

        Her production, co-directed by David Kisor, explores the tango's history from 1880 to 2002. Argentine musician Louis Ianes has formed a music trio to perform; vocalist Patricia Paz will sing, and Ms. Malton will be partnered by Angel Garcia, a New York tango master. Other performers are Cincinnati tango students.

        Injury update: Cincinnati Ballet's December Nutcracker took its toll injury-wise. Some dancers were hurt in rehearsal and never made it on stage for the big holiday ballet; a few still are recuperating.

        New principal Nelson Madrigal, hired in November, was finally able to make his official debut during the company's Winter Festival last weekend. He's been rehabbing a strained back. He's well enough to guest as the Prince in Sleeping Beauty at the Rome Opera House this month, while his wife, Lorna Feijoo, dances her first Wendy for Cincinnati Ballet's Peter Pan in Columbus (Feb. 21-24).

        Also, apprentice Kelly Ann Sloan had knee surgery in early December but has recovered and is rehearsing Peter Pan; Cheryl Sullivan nursed stress fractures throughout Nutcracker but has continued to perform, most recently during Winter Festival.

        “It feels great to be dancing. Things still hurt, but I'm getting progressively better,” she says.

        Christmas Eve found Ne Wei at the hospital having a bone scan of his ankle. No one at Cincinnati Ballet finds this unusual. Injuries go with the territory where dancers push their bodies as hard as athletes, which is why most of them are on a first-name basis with the folks at Spectrum Rehab.

        Auditions: At Contemporary Dance Theater, 1805 Larch Ave., Cincinnati, 591-1222.

        • Feb. 16, 11 a.m., for Everett Dance Theatre performance March 1-2, Aronoff Center Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Needed: 10 boys age 8-12 with some hip-hop experience; must be available after school daily from Feb. 18-March 1 and able to get out of school on March 1 for daytime performances.

        • Feb. 16, noon, for Choreographers Without Companies Concert (June 7-8). Six choreographers will be looking for men and women with jazz and modern dance training.

        Tap chorus: Don't know any other place in Cincinnati where you'll find a roots/blues tap chorus cozying up to wabi sabi (Japanese for finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness).

        The tap is choreography by Gloria Esenwein; Shirley Maul explores her wabi sabi world in a performance piece. They're both part of the ongoing series Performance and Time Arts where just about anything goes. Sponsored by Contemporary Dance Theater, College Hill Town Hall, 8 p.m., Feb. 22-23, 591-1222; $10, $8 students and seniors.

        Memories: Cincinnati Ballet's ballet mistress Johanna Bernstein Wilt grew up in Dublin, Ohio, and danced with Columbus Civic Ballet (now BalletMet) before coming to Cincinnati, first as a dancer and later as ballet mistress.

        She says she'll be walking down memory lane when she takes the company and Peter Pan back to her old stomping/pirouetting ground, Columbus' Ohio Theater. Her first performance ever was at Ohio Theater in — what else — the Nutcracker.
       
       Contact Carol Norris by fax, (812) 537-5693; e-mail norris@one.net.

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