Why 30 years of alumni will converge to dance on stage in Modesto

When Central West Ballet celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2008, the focus was on its roots and earliest years. Now, for its 30th, the focus will be on times more recent and its evolution into a professional company.

That isn't to say the early years of CWB will be ignored during its 30th Anniversary Gala on Feb. 8 at the Gallo Center for the Arts. One of its first dancers, Jill Price — daughter of the company's founder, the late Juline Schmitz — serves as honorary chair. The company's first artistic director Gretchen Vogelzang will attend, as will another past director, Colleen Patterson. Karen Burns, who also served as director, has a prior commitment and can't be there.

In addition, about 24 former dancers from throughout the years will travel from distances such as New York, Los Angeles and Portland to attend, many also performing in what promises to be a rousing finale.

"It's about the dancers, the dancers will carry the evening," said Artistic Director Rene Daveluy, who arrived at Central West in 2004 with Ballet Mistress Leslie Ann Larson. "The dancers of now, together with the alumni who are coming back to join in that spirit."

The company started in 1988 when Schmitz, director of Modesto's Juline School of Dance, offered her space and recruited 25-year-old Gretchen Jacobson (now Vogelzang) to become the first artistic director. Vogelzang had grown up in the area and just earned her master's degree in dance at the University of California at Irvine.

The new group was called Bravo! Repertory Dance Theatre and had 26 members. The first show, featuring classical and contemporary numbers, was held at the Modesto Junior College auditorium; by the end of the 1990s, the group was performing productions like "Peter & the Wolf" and "The Nutcracker." The name was changed to Central West Ballet after its 10-year anniversary because of its more professional sound.

Vogelzang — now executive director of Regional Dance America — left in 2001. Burns and Patterson served as artistic directors before Daveluy and Larson took over. The pair, who danced together at Salt Lake City's Ballet West, brought in more adult dancers and set a goal for Central West to turn professional — achieved in 2010.

CWB also has taken on bigger and more difficult ballets, as well as those choreographed by some of dance's biggest names including the late New York City Ballet artistic director George Balanchine.

"A lot of it has to do with the rapport that Leslie and I have shared with the dancers to give Central West Ballet a chance to go for broke," Daveluy said. "The dancers have always been willing to do that, they'd rather take a risk ... whenever we hit an edgy moment where we're not sure if what we're doing is going to succeed, they prefer it. (The say) 'that's what it's all about Rene, let's just do it'."

Some of those riskier moments include the company delving into non-traditional programs such as its "Nutcracker In Jazz" and Halloween-timed "Sleepy Hollow" ballet. Both have brought in new audiences.

The company not only went pro in 2010, but also moved out of its original home at Juline School of Dance to its own studio off Kiernan Avenue on Pentecost Drive. "That was the big move of throwing caution to the wind," Daveluy said. There, the company has its teaching academy, training company CWB II and the main company and studio.

"It's a wonderful work in progress," Daveluy said of their successes. "The best example i can give you, for sure, are the dancers that are still with us, namely Nicole Firppo and Sarah Weaver who were with us in 2004. Firpo was 15 years old in the youth company and Sarah was 11 years old." Today, both are professional dancers and teachers there.

Also helping achieve its goals — and to keep Daveluy and Larson at its helm — was the opening in 2007 of the Gallo Center for the Arts, where CWB is a resident company.

"The opening of the Gallo Center gave us new life," Daveluy said. "That was a huge draw for us to put roots in Modesto, to take on Central West Ballet and give the dancers the chance to go beyond the age of 18 locally, not move away but to have the environment to see themselves making a career out of it here, here in Modesto."

For all the successes, there are continued challenges, not the least of which is funding. A nonprofit, CWB depends on donors to keep its doors open. They also continue to balance between productions that are appealing to traditional ballet audiences and those that can attract new people to its programs.

"There's always this sort of question, are we just going to do art or are we just going to do entertainment for ticket sales," Daveluy said. "...we have wracked our brains to find the middle ground between sales and art."

With three decades behind the company, Daveluy foresees great things ahead. "I see Modesto growing, particularly culturally, and I see it as a destination, no different than other growing cities, having really truly, with the center of the arts that we have, everything that San Francisco has — the symphony, the ballet, the opera. I think that the Gallo Center is built for that."

It's also built for the gala next weekend, where the Foster Family Theater stage will be packed for a finale that includes the main company, the second company and many alumni — about 70 dancers in all.

"We went all out," Daveluy said of the gala, "and we're on the edge — that's where the dancers like to be."

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 11:52 AM with the headline "Why 30 years of alumni will converge to dance on stage in Modesto."