Amanda Weingarten won a spot to study with Suzanne Farrell.
By TIFFANI SHERMAN
Published August 10, 2004
The world of dance is filled with turns and tempo changes. One Palm Harbor teenager is learning just how fast ballet can move.
This summer, Amanda Weingarten, 17, graduated from high school, learned she was accepted to a prestigious dance program at the Kennedy Center and got her first permanent professional dancing job.
"Little by little every day I realize it," she said.
Classes began last month in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center.
Amanda is one of only 33 dancers from around the country taking part in the 12th annual "Exploring Ballet With Suzanne Farrell."
It's a three-week program where dancers spend at least four hours a day, six days a week en pointe, meaning dancing in toe shoes.
Farrell is famous as one of famed choreographer George Balanchine's most celebrated and honored muses.
"(Suzanne) just has a way of translating dance that is incomparable, especially for students," said Marlene Cooper, the program's manager.
"I can't believe I'm going to work with her," Amanda said of Farrell. "I'll be learning from the best. She's the ultimate in this art form."
About 400 students audition for about 30 spots in the program, and Farrell handpicks each one.
"She looks for the uniqueness in each student," Cooper said, so it follows that Farrell must have seen something in Amanda. "If she was invited to the program, Suzanne saw something special."
She isn't the first to see it.
"She was special from the day we laid eyes on her," said Roni Wright, 48, co-owner of the Florida Ballet School in Palm Harbor. Amanda was a scholarship student at the school for several years and also was a member of the Florida Gulf Coast Ballet.
"(Amanda) was remarkable to teach and watch," Wright said. "She's been able to take all that technique and make poetry out of it. When you mix the heart and physical ability that is really hard to find and that is when you see the excellence."
The talent is not genetic.
"My husband and I can't dance a step," said Darlean Weingarten, Amanda's mother and a nurse midwife from Palm Harbor. When she sees Amanda perform, "I can't believe she's my daughter, and I can't believe where she gets the talent."
Amanda hasn't lived through a Florida summer at home since she was 12. She's spent her time dancing.
For the past year, she has lived in New York City as a student at the School of American Ballet.
While in New York, Amanda also spent lots of time in another type of classroom, one at the Professional Children's School. Amanda graduated from high school in three years with honors.
"Whenever I'm not dancing, I'm reading or something," Amanda said. She said she wants to go to college and dance professionally at the same time.
"As a teacher, there are only a few students who pass through your classroom and light up the class," said Jamie Day, 46, of St. Petersburg.
He taught Amanda's inquiry skills class when she was in ninth grade and in the IB program at Palm Harbor University High School. "Amanda is one of those students."
During that year, Amanda invited Day to attend one of her performances of The Nutcracker.
"I really had the thought when I first saw her dance that she could make a living at this," Day said. "I would go anywhere and watch Amanda dance."
He won't have to go far. Just two days after Amanda returns from Washington, D.C., she'll head to Miami to move into her new apartment and begin her job as an apprentice with the Miami City Ballet. It's a job that comes with benefits and health insurance, but for Amanda, it's more than that.
"It's kind of funny that (Miami) is the company she joined," Darlean Weingarten said. When Amanda was 3, she saw the Miami City Ballet perform The Nutcracker in Ruth Eckerd Hall.
"My mother told me I pointed to the stage and said, "Mommy, I want to do that,"' Amanda said. Two years later, Amanda was taking ballet lessons, the first step toward fulfilling her dream. Now she's completed the pirouette, or come full circle, as they say in nonballet terms.
"I'll be taking classes with people I used to watch from the audience," Amanda said. "I'll be performing in the theater where I first saw The Nutcracker."
The Miami City Ballet is performing the annual holiday show Dec. 23 and 24 at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Amanda expects to be there and plans to spend some time with her family.
