By Lauren Koblara

Most little girls, at some point or another, dream of being a dancer, training and performing in artsy cultural cities like Paris, New York, Moscow and…. Worcester? Yes, it’s true.

The city is home to Ballet Arts Worcester (BAW), a dance school offering various levels of instruction from some very accomplished teachers, including Rebekah Fontane, who is an instructor of modern dance and classical ballet ~ and whose passion for dance is simply contagious.

A native of Niagara Falls, NY, Rebekah began dancing at the age of five, taking tap classes at her cousin’s studio. It wasn’t until seeing a performance of Swan Lake at the age of fourteen that she became interested in ballet. “It was just beautiful,” she remembers fondly. That bit of inspiration brought her to train at such schools as the Buffalo Ballet Theatre, the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, and New York State Summer School for the Arts. She later performed for several years with the Koresh Dance Company, a contemporary dance company in Philadelphia. “That’s really where I got most of my modern training.”

Rebekah found herself in Worcester after her husband accepted a job here. When confronted with a move, most people are stressed about packing and living arrangements, but Rebekah’s first course of action was to find a dance school. “Anytime I move the first thing I do is look for a place to dance,” she laughs. The move got her involved at Performing Arts School of Worcester (PASOW) where she took the natural path of training to trainer. Some time later, PASOW was due to close and local dancers were concerned about what would happen to Worcester’s dance community.

Enter Jennifer Agbay, artistic director at PASOW, who saved the day and founded Ballet Arts Worcester. Rebekah, along with most of the faculty and students, made the move with Jennifer to the new school. “We basically just moved from one building to another,” Rebekah says. The new BAW is located on the second floor of the Sprinkler Factory on Harlow Street amidst other artist studios and band space. The result is a community overflowing with collaborative artistic energy.

Rebekah sites ballet greats Mikhail Baryshnikov, Merrill Ashley, and Gelsey Kirkland as major inspirations. The influence of Ronen Koresh of Koresh Dance Company is woven throughout her choreography and teaching, but lately Rebekah sees it blending into her own style. “I find that the further I’m getting away from it [the Koresh influence]…I’m losing it a little, kind of more turning into ‘me.’ We’ll see what that turns out to be in the end.”

Spending a great deal of her summers taking dance classes for a little “me” time, Rebekah continues training. Not forgetting her students at Ballet Arts Worcester, she also takes mental notes of what she learns and brings it back to the studio. She wants to keep her students interested and achieves this by keeping the exercises fresh. Artistic Director Jennifer Agbay says that Rebekah is “…definitely an asset to the school. She brings a lot of experience and talent.”

A mother of two, Rebekah expresses her concern for the diminishing presence of art in our schools. “Art is not a luxury…you should have the opportunity to have it be part of your life, especially as a child,” she says. Rebekah would love to see the art scene come alive in Worcester and be more available to the public.

For information on taking a class with Rebekah Fontane and the other great teachers at Ballet Arts Worcester, or to view a calendar of upcoming events and performances, log on to www.balletartsworcester.com/