Chosen for China: Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre troupe - with others - will represent Montana, U.S.
By JOE NICKELL of the Missoulian
Photographed by TOM BAUER of the Missoulian
It's Wednesday afternoon, and the vaulting metal building occupied by Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre resonates with the sound of 3-year-old children laughing and stomping as a teacher leads them through a loose routine of rope-jumping, synchronized rolling and other activities.
In an adjacent rehearsal room, a group of teenage dancers in tights and toe-shoes silently glides through a daily routine of warm-ups, gazing intently at themselves in a wall-length mirror as music director Karen Carreno keeps time on a piano in one corner.
Dancers with the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre: rehearse recently for their upcoming performances in China. After two years of endless rehearsals, countless diplomatic negotiations and raising tens of thousands of dollars, the dancers, along with Native American dancers and a trick-roping cowboy, are finally boarding a plane on Wednesday for the two-week trip.
Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian
It's like this every afternoon at the RMBT facility on Brooks Street. And yet, as those teenage dancers look into the mirrors of the dance studio, many of them find their minds occupied not by reflection, but by anticipation.
A week from this rehearsal, on Wednesday, May 14, 15 students of the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre, plus several guest dancers including a small cadre of Native American traditional dancers and a trick-roping bronco rider, will board a plane in Vancouver, B.C., for an 11-hour flight to Beijing, China. Once there, they'll spend two weeks performing, visiting historical landmarks, training with Chinese dancers, and engaging in cultural exchanges with students and dignitaries.
No surprise, then, that some of the student dancers on this afternoon seem a bit preoccupied.
"Distracted would be the perfect word for how I've been feeling today," says Nicole Reinhardt, a lean, bright-eyed junior at Hellgate High School who will turn 17 while in China. "I was all over the place today, it was terrible. Everything's just kind of coming down on me now. I'm in AP (advanced placement) U.S. history and the national AP exam is on Friday, so I need to study for that while rehearsing for this and keeping up with all my classes, and ... ."
She sighs, and laughs.
"I'm really excited about going to China, but I would like to come back and sleep for a week and not think about it any more for a while."
That's probably not going to happen, Reinholdt realizes. This trip, two years and countless diplomatic negotiations and tens of thousands of dollars in the making, isn't just another student field trip overseas.
With major financial support from Visa International and strong governmental backing by the offices of U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre's trip to China is, truly, a mission of cultural and artistic exchange on par with the upcoming forays of Olympic athletes to Beijing.
"This trip has really grown into something so big and so different since we first heard about it two years ago," says Reinholdt. "It feels like we're involved in something that's both diplomatic and artistic, and I think we're all aware that we need to do a good job to justify all the work that's gone into it."
Charlene Campbell can only smile and shake her head as she leafs through the reams of e-mail correspondence that has led her to this point. The co-director of RMBT and a former professional ballet dancer, Campbell is quite used to dealing in the world of ambiguity and communication that goes beyond words.
What she's not used to dealing with is eating snakes.
"This one just cracked me up," she says, running her index finger across a printout of an e-mail message she received from one of the many Chinese government handlers who have been assigned to work with the ballet company.
The message reads: "So, how about we begin at 7:00 p.m., and we prepare some snake backstage before the performance, and after that the restrant (sic) would be closed in Hotel, so, how about Burger King or McDonald?"
Campbell laughs loudly.
"I think Karen (Carreno, the RMBT's music director) really thought they meant we'd be eating snake before we go on stage," says Campbell. "I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be 'snack.' "
The message, dated April 29, was in response to Campbell's request for details about the RMBT's performance in Beijing with the National Ballet of China. The performance is a major cornerstone of the voyage overseas, and an incredibly prestigious event to be a part of.
Yet, until the second-to-last day in April, Campbell didn't know when the performance would take place.
It's been like that all along, ever since she first heard about the possibility of bringing her troupe of young dancers to China almost two years ago. Itineraries have changed, cities have been added and subtracted from the tour - not just once, but with regularity. Originally, the trip was supposed to coincide with the Beijing Summer Olympics in August, and involve at least some performances associated with those events. Now, it's taking place three months before the Olympics; and in the two weeks of the trip, only two performances are nailed down as certain.
As recently as this past March, Campbell was still receiving messages such as one from a Chinese handler who, after more than $60,000 worth of plane tickets had already been purchased by RMBT, cheerfully noted that the dates of the visit were being changed.
To this day, anticipated costs change, as various officials offer conflicting information on what, exactly, the Chinese cultural authority will be paying for during the group's visit.
"It's always pretty confusing - is this gonna cost me $1,000 or $100,000? - but I just keep sending e-mails and pecking away until I get the information I need," says Campbell.
"I think at some point a lot of people would have said, never mind, we're not going," adds Campbell. "But I just can't give up on this idea."
Asked if such loose plans are easy for her to deal with, Campbell responds without hesitation.
"No. I'm a control freak, a total control freak," she says, emphasizing the last two words with no hint of irony. "As a choreographer, my hands are on everything, and ultimately it's my responsibility to make sure it all works together and lines up in both the big picture and the little details. It drives me crazy if I can't keep on top of that."
Yet as she speaks, Campbell seems far from exasperated. In fact, she seems to be smiling more than usual lately. She counts the blessings of a long list of people, from a U.S. senator to Chinese students at the University of Montana to local businesses and international corporations that have thrown financial and human resources into this project.
She has even developed a soft place in her heart for the Chinese officials who have been involved in organizing the project.
"They're so warm, so even though there's been all these communication difficulties, I've grown to feel that I really have developed friendships and been offered so much by all of the Chinese," says Campbell, her eyes becoming moist as she speaks. "I just can't believe they've hung with me through all of the back-and-forth, and done so much for us."
Despite all the confusion, she ultimately knows she is going to China this coming Wednesday. She knows she's going to be part of changing the lives of the dancers involved in her project, and perhaps of the dancers they will interact with in China.
Libby Jones: adjusts part of her costume. The culture of Montana plays into much of the performances. Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian
"It's so important that we're doing this," says Campbell. "Whatever the experience, it's so important that we're doing this during this year and at this time and with all of these people who've gone through these hoops for Montana to be a peacemaker in the world. What's important isn't how we perform on stage, it's how we perform as American citizens. I think we all recognize that and are really excited to have an opportunity to be in that role."
As close as Shonto Pete can figure it, the highest he has ever been off the face of this earth is the top of Seattle's Space Needle. Though he has traveled across the continental United States, drumming and dancing at powwows, he has never been in an airplane or a helicopter.
Nor has he ever visited a foreign country, with the exception of Canada.
So it's understandable that Pete has built up more anticipation than some of the other people involved in this trip to China, where he will perform alongside the dancers of the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre.
"We're flying there over the Pacific (Ocean), so I figure if we crash we'll land in the water, and I can swim pretty good," he says with a laugh.
Pete is one of several Native American dancers and drummers who were asked to participate in the tour of China, as a way of giving a broader sense of the culture of Montana. A Salish/Navajo traditional dancer, Pete admits that his primary exposure to Chinese culture has been through samurai movies, as a youngster.
He knows that's not what modern China is about - just like movie images of Native Americans rarely reflect what his culture is about.
"Sometimes when I'm traveling in the United States, people will ask if we still live in tepees," he says. "I say yeah, I've got my satellite hooked up in there too."
If cultural misconceptions about Native American culture persist even in the United States, it's likely those issues will be compounded in China - and that the misconceptions will probably go both ways. Pete says he can only do his best to represent the spirit of his culture as it exists today, and open his own mind to what he experiences.
"I'm just going to try to stay true to myself, give a true representation of my culture," says Pete. "I'm representing a lot here, and so I feel it's important to take that seriously and act appropriately."
Louie Plant, who will perform as a fancy dancer with the RMBT in China, was the first Native dancer to be enlisted for the trip, after Charlene Campbell contacted the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes looking for dancers.
Prior to meeting with Campbell, Plant had never been to a ballet performance before.
"I'd seen it in movies, but never in person," says the 28-year-old from Arlee. "So obviously, I was pretty surprised to hear about this whole thing and be invited to participate."
Plant and Pete exemplify the fact that this trip to China is about more than just performing a dance concert in a foreign country. Just as importantly, it's about the collaboration of divergent Montana cultures: aspiring ballet dancers trained in the old traditions of European culture, Native dancers drumming and dancing according to their own cultural traditions, and a lone cowboy - Idaho native Wade Black - who will demonstrate the elegant roping techniques that have become their own form of art in Western culture.
"I think that what we're all doing together shows that dance is dance, no matter what culture," says Ashley Hagler, a 15-year-old ballet student with RMBT.
As to Hagler's own expectations, they probably speak for all involved in this trip.
"I think it's going to be really interesting to share all of what we're doing with people over there, and to see what they have to share also," she says. "It should be interesting and fun to see the differences between our American culture and theirs."
Reach reporter Joe Nickell at (406) 523-5358 or by e-mail at jnickell@missoulian.com.
Photographer Tom Bauer can be reached at (406) 523-5270 or by e-mail at tbauer@missoulian.com.
