KAMUELA — Located in a house off of Kawaihae Road, Doneva Ballet School is open, but inside it is deadly quiet. That is, until the music commences for a dance that 10 and 8-year-old sisters, Nivee and Winter Harris, are
KAMUELA — Located in a house off of Kawaihae Road, Doneva Ballet School is open, but inside it is deadly quiet. That is, until the music commences for a dance that 10 and 8-year-old sisters, Nivee and Winter Harris, are rehearsing for next Saturday’s performance. With composure and grace, they dance around the room doing pirouettes, arabesques and a pliés effortlessly.
As may be expected in rural North Hawaii, the show will be held adjacent to a pumpkin patch at Kohala Educational Farm, along with 15 of their fellow classmates. While their annual spring recital is held at Kahilu Theatre, this year they are branching out to share the troupe’s talent with the community other times of the year.
“Our goal is to develop their performance skills and continue to share the joy of classical ballet with the community,” said Youlia Doneva, an accomplished professional ballet dancer and instructor originally from Bulgaria, who teaches classical Russian ballet to 25 students weekly.
She started her ballet school in Kamuela three years ago. What was once her spacious living room has been converted into a studio, complete with hardwood floors, bars and mirrors.
Doneva’s students range in age from 3 to 30-something. Only about one third of them have taken ballet classes in the past, so she and fellow instructor, Crystal Hirst, teach four separate classes weekly at beginning, advanced and adult levels, as well as private sessions. Students can enroll at any time throughout the year.
“Our school puts a focus on accenting each child’s strengths and making ballet enjoyable while still attending to the details of classical technique,” Doneva said.
She and her husband moved to the Big Island five years ago, after running a successful ballet company in Santa Monica, CA for 14 years.
“We had been visiting the Big Island for five years before moving here,” Doneva said. “The more we came, the more I fell in love with the island.
She studied at Sophia Ballet in Bulgaria beginning at age 9, and performed throughout Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia.
“In the three years since opening we have a group of gifted girls who have fine technique,” Doneva said. “We teach pure Russian ballet. It is a style based on classical ballet but with an exhilarating technique that supports the body with logical movements determined by what the human body can do and how it does it. Like a science, you know all the formulas. From the beginning to end, you know every step and how to teach or learn it. This style was taught throughout the former Soviet Union in Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary.”
The students come from a variety of schools in the area – Waikoloa Middle School, Parker School, Hawaii Preparatory Academy and Waimea Middle School – and several are homeschooled.
Nivee and Winter take both the private and advanced group class, five days a week.
“Nivee is one of our most advanced students and she works really hard in every class,” Hirst said. “In the last two years she has learned a lot of new steps and dances. She’s to the point now where we’re able to work on some of the more detailed aspects of ballet, not just the steps themselves, like perfect placement of the feet, the head coordinating with the arms and working some more artistry into the dance as well.”
During a private class last week, the sisters practiced a dance they had just learned the day before.
“It makes me feel happy and I like to learn the new dances,” Nivee said. “We’ve learned a lot.”
Their mother, Valerie Adell Harris, is proud of her daughters’ accomplishments.
“Coming into this atmosphere with Youlia every day is wonderful,” she said. “Just to hear her voice and the music is really special. My girls come as part of their homeschool with ballet I incorporated into the curriculum. They love it and dance all the time. Because they do the bar work consistently every single day, going from first position to first, second, fourth, fifth, pliés and grand pliés, repetition after repetition, they retain it and are able to get their footwork perfect for each class.”
Hirst explained further, “Everything at the bar has a purpose. Every time you do a plié you’re preparing for a jump later on that will be higher because you have this good base. Every time they do a tendu, they’re brushing through the floor so that when they do a leap they have a nice strong pointed foot to go off. Everything builds on itself.”
Doneva has several goals moving forward.
“We realize there are multiple opportunities for students to learn contemporary and more modernized ballet (here), but we believe our school is unique. Our students are taught the truly classical and pure version of the dance that has been passed down through many generations,” she said. ‘Eventually, we want to create a high quality performance company made up of our most advanced and pre-professional students, who could give performances around the Big Island, and other islands.”
Info: 747-1550, donevaballetschool@gmail.com or www.facebook.com/donevaballetschool/
