The Children’s Ballet of San Antonio was founded by Vanessa Bessler, former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Panama and full scholarship recipient at New York City’s Joffrey Ballet.
She’s the creator and artistic director at Children’s Ballet of San Antonio, and she said professional mentoring makes all the difference there.
“The Children's Ballet of San Antonio is a nonprofit organization that focuses on developing well-rounded young artists and by offering extensive performance opportunities and opportunities to work with renowned coaches and also bring to the community, the beautiful, professional level productions to all,” Bessler said.
Their next production is a move in a new direction.
“We're super excited because this is the first musical produced by the Children's Ballet. We have a casting of the most amazing young artists in musical theater, from singers to actors to dancers, and we are bringing these productions to San Antonio,” she said.
In fact, it’s the only ballet you can trace back to writer/comedian/actor Tina Fey, and her movie Mean Girls. It’s the Broadway adaptation, Mean Girls, Jr.
“Mean Girls takes us back to high school. There is always a queen bee, and there is always a lot of drama behind the high school social life. And that is the new school student, Cady Heron, who moved in from Africa to Illinois,” Bessler said. “And nothing prepared her for the wild ways of her new high school. So she learns to navigate through these new challenges, and she climbs up to the top to take down Regina George, Queen Bee. But on the way, she learns many valuable lessons.”
Those lessons are universal, and should be applied to life, but of course, are always hardest to apply in the competitive environment of high school.
“Being mean doesn't take you anywhere. But at the end, we all have to collaborate and get along and be supportive to each other. So it's beautiful, but also, it's very funny,” Bessler said. “And these artists are bringing it to life with so much professionalism, excitement, beauty. So we are so proud of them."
While having been in existence for less than a decade, the San Antonio Children’s Ballet has racked up a number of awards, and most recently was cited as the top 2.5% of dance schools in the country. Bessler is a nine-time consecutive winner of Youth America Grand Prix’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year.
Tickets for the April 5-7 performances of Mean Girls, Jr. can be found at childrensballetofsanantonio.org.
