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The teen will receive a ballet fellowship, is first in her high school class, tutors younger students and is part of a Greek folk dance group.
By KATHERINE GAZELLA
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000
This must be an optical illusion. It doesn't seem possible that the young ballerina could bend this way.
She performs a penche arabesque, leaning forward to grab one ankle while she lifts her other leg straight in the air. Without any sign of strain, she balances in the position of the hands of a watch at 6 o'clock.
"It looks like she has no bones," Mara Stamos said of daughter Niki's flexibility.
Her mother is not the only one to notice Niki Stamos' ballet skills. The Tarpon Springs High School sophomore is commanding a good deal of attention for her artistry and grace.
Stamos, 16, has starred in high-profile performances, including the role of Juliet in a February production of Romeo and Juliet in St. Petersburg. She has danced major roles in The Nutcracker in St. Petersburg, and in May, she will perform with members of the City Ballet of London.
She has earned scholarships for her dancing for many years and soon will receive a fellowship from one of the country's most famous ballerinas.
In the fall, prima ballerina Maria Tallchief will award Stamos a fellowship that will pay for Stamos' apprenticeship with the Ballet Society in St. Petersburg. The fellowship is valued at $2,000.
"She is an extraordinary student," said Sean Musselman, her instructor at the Mirror Lake Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, a branch of the Ballet Society. "As a ballet teacher, this kind of student is one in a hundred, if you're lucky."
Stamos has worked hard to reach this level. She trains with Musselman several hours each week. Before big performances like Romeo and Juliet, she trains up to six hours a day.
After school, Mara Stamos drives her daughter to practices at Mirror Lake. She has made the drive so often that she has discovered the secrets of U.S. 19: If you drive 48 to 50 miles per hour, you can miss most (and sometimes all) of the red lights. Even so, the trip takes an hour each way.
Niki Stamos' schedule is hectic, but she wouldn't have it any other way.
Ballet "is basically my joy," she said. "To see people enjoy it, it's like the pay."
And people definitely enjoy watching her perform. When she played the role of Juliet, people in the audience were so taken by her performance that many of them cried, Musselman said.
"What Niki has are all the physical attributes: flexibility, nice turnout, good feet, strength," Musselman said. "And on top of that, she has a very exquisite artistic quality to her."
When she's not practicing ballet, Stamos does homework at her home in Holiday, attends services at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs and tutors students at Tarpon Springs Middle School. She also performs with Levendia, a Greek folk dancing group in Tarpon Springs.
She is embarrassed to say how well she does at school. Her mother is not so shy and tells a visitor that Stamos ranks first in her class.
Stamos also is humble about her dancing achievements. Many of her friends don't know how good she is at ballet, she said, and she isn't about to tell them.
"I feel uncomfortable bragging about it," she said.
A few friends have attended some of her performances, and they have been surprised.
"They're like, "Oh my gosh! I knew you danced, but I didn't know you were that good,' " she said.
Even though she doesn't talk about it much, more people are learning that Stamos is a top ballerina -- sometimes after seeing a giant photograph of her on the side of a county bus, in an advertisement for the Largo Cultural Center. Many of her friends have seen the advertisement, she said. Her family refers to her likeness as "the 8-foot ballerina."
"She's rolling up and down 19 right now," Mara Stamos said.
Niki Stamos has a couple of years to figure out her future. After high school, she wants to study medicine or law in college. She hasn't decided whether she wants to stay in Florida, or move to New York or another big city.
Musselman would like her to go to the University of South Florida so he can continue working with her. But he understands she has a world of opportunities.
Wherever she goes, she wants to make sure it's near a good professional ballet company. Education is important to her, but even when she's working toward a career as a doctor or lawyer, she doesn't want to give up dancing.
"I can't see myself not doing it," she said.