Two young Rossland dancers will be following Rossland’s strong ballet tradition when they head to Winnipeg in July.
Both Anna Cooper and Hollie Arsenault will be attending Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Professional Division Summer School after favourable auditions in Kelowna back in October.
Cooper lives in Rossland with her grandparents, Josef and Anna Havlik. Her parents and sister Natalie moved to Mexico this past summer and Anna made the difficult decision to stay behind in Rossland. Unfortunately, there is no appropriate level ballet studio anywhere in the vicinity of her family’s new home in Mexico, so Cooper has chosen to remain in Rossland to continue with Renee Salsiccioli of Renee’s Studio, (formerly Kootenay Dance Works). She has attended summer programs in Toronto at the National Ballet, and in Calgary at Alberta Ballet. It’s hers dream to attend a professional ballet school on a full time basis.
Hollie Arsenault had set her goal to attend the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a very young dancer and hopes to follow in the footsteps of her dance teacher, Renee Salsiccioli. Renee began her dance training with Carole Bonin in Trail, before being invited to attend the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at age 14. This will be Arsenault’s first experience away from home for an extended period but she is really looking forward to the opportunity. Both Copper and Arsenault will be joining Michaela Skuce, who has been training with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Professional Division since 2011.
Salsiccioli’s studio is a rarity as dance studios go. It is a studio purposefully kept small so that the instruction and progress of the students can be carefully monitored. As a result, the quality of the instruction is very high.
If it were a clothing store, it would be an exclusive boutique, but without the boutique price tag. There are few comparable studios in Canada and Rossland is fortunate to have her.
If you are interested in seeing the dancers perform, tickets for the year end show at the Charles Bailey Theatre in Trail are on sale now through the Charles Bailey Box Office. The date of the show is Saturday, May 25 at 6:30 p.m.