Vancouver ballerina in Wrigley for cultural exchange
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Wrigley (Mar 23/01) - Wrigley youth are being introduced to a professional ballerina.
Wendy Greagsbey, of Vancouver, is spending two weeks in the community. Some of that time will be at the youth cultural camp where she's going to get her own taste of traditional living. She hopes she can learn to jig, among other things.
"I love to go out and see different things, see different places," she said.
Lewis Beck and Louise Beck, who live in Wrigley, met Greagsbey by chance at a sidewalk cafe in Vancouver last Christmas.
Beck, director and founder of the Pehdzeh Ki Players, a youth drama group, asked Greagsbey if she would be interested in visiting Wrigley.
"We talked about it and she said she was willing to come for sure," he said, adding that Brighter Futures is providing the funding.
The eight members of the Pehdzeh Ki Players, who came together last November, have been performing their play, "Loon Calling Me," in Deh Cho communities. They incorporate dance in the play and hope to expand upon that with Greagsbey's assistance.
Her stay in Wrigley is expected to be followed by a week in Fort Simpson.
Greagsbey can vividly recall her first glimpse of ballerinas at a ballet school when she was 11 years old.
"There were two girls in tutus with arms overhead, twirling," she said. "I saw that and I said, 'How beautiful.'"
She went on to attend the Winnipeg Ballet school and the Legat Russian Ballet School in England.
She danced professionally for eight years in West Germany, performing musical opera and operatic classical ballet. With the intricate costumes, make-up artists and endless supply of ballet shoes, "I was treated like a queen," she said.
She is now a ballet instructor in Vancouver. It takes many years to learn proper form and technique, she noted.
"It's like learning an instrument... you do the exercises over and over and over until you're blue in the face," she said. "You're dancing all day long."
The hard work can pay off in a stronger, streamlined body as well as tenacious spirit, she suggested.
"The discipline can enable a child to do anything in life."
