Instructor debuts first production since coming to town

MOSES LAKE — In her first lead role, high school senior Kelsey Earl got the part most young teenage women desire and young girls look up to.

As the 16-year-old princess Aurora in the Ballet Academy of Moses Lake's production of "Sleeping Beauty," debuting Saturday, Earl describes her character as playful and fun.

"Especially for little girls, I think it will be fun for them to see it," Earl said. "Everyone loves a princess."

The ballet features fairies that are thin and graceful compared to the chubbier characters portrayed in the Walt Disney version of "Sleeping Beauty."

The wickedness of the evil fairy is really made to be scary, said instructor Carol Yearout-Hoffer, who began at the Academy last year.

This will be the 35th production for Yearout-Hoffer, who has owned her own ballet studio in the Tri-Cities for more than 20 years.

In this latest ballet, audience members are encouraged to keep an eye out for the bunnies, played by 3 year-old ballet dancers.

"This particular version of 'Sleeping Beauty' is really considered a classic," Yearout-Hoffer said.

Seventy-five children, nine men and three parents are cast in the play.

In the upcoming production, inclusion of male ballet dancers is one of the many changes Yearout-Hoffer has made since replacing former instructor Robyn Wenrich.

Wenrich and her family moved to Indiana last spring.

Yearout-Hoffer is offering master classes at the Academy, featuring professional ballet dancers.

In December members with the Pacific Northwest Ballet will come to Moses Lake to instruct some of those classes. That same month the Academy will be doing a dance from the Nutcracker entitled "Pas de Deux."

"I am very, very happy with all the hard work the little girls, the big girls have done and how much the parents have rallied together," she said of putting on her first production in Moses Lake.

Showings are at 1 and 6 p.m. Saturday at the Moses Lake High School theater. Tickets are sold at the door, $7 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.