FORT WALTON BEACH — Local ballet dancers will take center stage in an upcoming Okaloosa Public Arts display.
Beginning in May, sketches, photographs and oil, watercolor, pastel and wax paintings of the Northwest Florida Ballet company will be exhibited at Northwest Florida Regional Airport. The display is intended to help promote not only ballet but the arts in general, said Public Arts board member Barbara Lord.
“It’s really going to be a great exhibit,” she said. “They are basically letting us hang (the art) all through the airport.”
View a photo gallery of the company practicing.>>
To date, more than 30 artists have agreed to participate. They have been preparing by observing members of the ballet company rehearse for next weekend’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
The Northwest Florida Ballet will have two performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville. The shows will be at 7:30 p.m. March 9 and at 2 p.m. March 10. Tickets are $28 for adults and $14 for children, and are available at nfballet.org. For more information, call 664-7787.
“It’s definitely nerve-wracking,” 13-year-old dancer Laney Howell said of the visiting artists. “I feel like we need to be on top of it all the time, but it’s a great experience for us.”
The artists have attended afternoon and evening rehearsals to inspire the three artworks they each will be able to turn in for the show, Lord said.
Most of them have snapped photos, but a few also have sketched the dancers as they flutter through rehearsals.
“I think ballet is such a beautiful art form,” said artist Elia Saxer. “It’s stunning.”
Saxer has six paintings in mind based on her observations. She said the real task will be to choose only three for the exhibit.
It’s an equally welcome challenge for artist Bernadette Sims, who established the semi-professional ballet company in 1969. She has been watching the dancers to get ideas for watercolors she will paint.
“Sometimes I still feel like I’m the one up there dancing,” Sims said with a smile. “I’m not sure how I’m going to be at this.”
Having the artists watch them rehearse also has been education for the dancers.
Brooklyn Burbridge, who attends Northwest Florida Ballet Acad￩mie with Laney, said she’s seen the artists take pictures of dancers’ feet and arms. A few of them even have gone upstairs to observe the studio from above.
“They’re all over the studio at different angles,” said Burbridge, who is 13.
But it’s all a matter of adapting to a different type of observer, because audiences are always welcome.
“I like people taking pictures of me,” admitted 12-year-old Ellie Burick. “I do get a little nervous, but you try your best.”
Ellie, Brooklyn and Laney said they were excited when they learned about the art project and have high hopes about what the artists and visitors to the airport will take away from it.
Brooklyn and Laney said they’d like to inspire other people to try ballet, but also want to show people what ballet is all about.
“It’s a lot of hours of hard work, sweat … it’s basically a sport,” Brooklyn said. “I don’t want us to be stereotyped.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.