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Cinderella Story for Two Local Dancers

1/23/2009

In the upcoming production of Richmond Ballet’s Cinderella, performed February 13-15 at the Landmark Theater, the magic slipper will fit two lucky ladies. Senior company member Valerie Tellmann and Shira Lanyi, currently in her second season with the company, will both be dancing the title role in the much-loved ballet, set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev and featuring the choreography of Richmond Ballet Artistic Associate and Ballet Master Malcolm Burn.  Both Tellmann and Lanyi grew up in Richmond and received their ballet training at the School of Richmond Ballet.

Tellmann became a full company member of Richmond Ballet in 2000 and is well-known to regular attendees of the Ballet. She began her ballet training at age 11 at the School of Richmond Ballet, spent two years as a trainee and also apprenticed with the company for a year.  When she was 12, she danced the role of Clara in Richmond Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker. In fact, Tellmann reflects, “I did every child’s role in The Nutcracker except for mouse and Mother Ginger child.” In this year’s Nutcracker, she danced multiple roles, including the leading role of the Sugarplum Fairy.

Of her upcoming role in Cinderella, Tellmann says, “This role is what I’ve been training for all these years.  I’m so excited to be dancing a major role that requires me to maintain my character throughout the story of the ballet."

Lanyi is only in her second year as a full company member, but she has already taken on a number of prominent roles.  Like Tellmann, Lanyi danced nearly every child’s role in The Nutcracker as she rose through the School of Richmond Ballet, and, this year, she added the role of the Sugarplum Fairy.  For her, Cinderella is a dream come true.

“When I was a student, I watched Anne Sidney [Davenport] dance the pas de deux from Cinderella, back when Malcolm first choreographed it, and I fell in love with the ballet,” says Lanyi.  “I also love Prokofiev’s music.”

Both dancers went to local schools and then straight into Richmond Ballet as apprentices following high school. Tellmann attended St. Bridget’s and is a graduate of St. Gertrude’s. She currently teaches ballet classes every morning at St. Gertrude’s before she starts her day at the Ballet. Lanyi attended the Rudlin Torah Academy through eighth grade and graduated from the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School.

Artistic Director Stoner Winslett observes: “It is so rewarding to watch a dancer grow and progress the way that these two ladies have. When they were young dancers, they danced parts like pages and party children in The Nutcracker.  Now, they’re both dancing the title role in Cinderella.  This is the sort of thing that makes it exciting to get up and come to work every day at Richmond Ballet.”

Burn echoes Winslett’s thoughts:  “It is thrilling to watch two students come up through the School and develop into accomplished dancers who have all the tools necessary --dancing, acting -- to dance a role such as this. They are both sensational, and I’m very proud of them.”