Julia Levina’s idea about creating a new forum to express ideas received a pensive first response. A bit ironic, huh?
The 38-year-old Maple Grove resident and accomplished professional ballet dancer from Ukraine approached her boss, Jill Rieken of Chanhassen’s Dance Arts Centre, to introduce the concept of starting a dance company. It was 2002, and it would be a stark divergence from the competition-based format at the centre and a step toward artistic performances.
Dance Arts Centre had a 20-year track record at the time, and Rieken didn’t know if it was a good idea. In fact, she called it “almost a crazy idea.” Levina tried to level with her again and again.
“I was just afraid,” Rieken says. “She inspired me not to be.”
Following Levina’s lead, Rieken relented and consented on establishing the theater company. This year, La Danse Fatale Ballet Company will celebrate 10 years. Behind Levina as artistic director, the company will host its performance Three Dimensions February 25 and 26 at the Performing Arts Center at Eden Prairie High School.
Rieken’s understanding of Levina’s courage to uproot her family from Ukraine to move to Minnesota helped Rieken give her the green light.
“I thought about what Julia had done and where she had come from,” Rieken says. “It occurred to me what I respect and admire about her so much is her willingness to dream big and go for it. I just had that revelation, and that’s what we need to do.”
As a girl, Levina’s dream was dancing. At age 10, she enrolled at a state ballet school in the former Soviet Union city of Lvov. It was a rigorous “almost scientific approach” to ballet with critiqued performances and strict exams, Levina says.
Afterward, she toured professionally and internationally with a company for a decade. She danced in Germany, Turkey, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and in Radio City Music Hall in New York City in 1997.
“It was very exciting to tour for a young person [and] to see different cultures and to dance,” Levina says. “It makes you feel good because no matter where you go … you speak the language of dance.”
Levina gave birth to her first of two sons and moved to the U.S. in 2000. She applied for an opening at the Dance Arts Centre in 2001, and her resume with formal education and professional touring only went so far.
“They said, ‘that’s all great, but let’s see you teach the class,’” Levina remembers. “It was great. You have to go and show what you can do.”
She displayed a serious passion and got the job. With her high-level training, Levina thought that would be the standard U.S. students would adhere to. But her teaching style needed to be adapted. The passion for most students reaches pastime only.
“I’m still pretty demanding in my classes, but I try to make them fun,” she says of the jokes, stories and different attitudes she weaves in.
Ballerina Sydney Eidem of Eden Prairie said Levina’s professional expertise is only part of her prowess.
“It’s about her expertise in being an artist and being so heartfelt,” says Eidem, 17, a company member for five years and a centre student for 14. “She gives us the strength and the drive to accomplish what we want.”
Seeing the students’ accomplishments enriches the experience for Levina.
“What I really enjoy is the change in my students,” she says. “Let’s say you have a 10-year-old or a 7-year-old student that you think is lazy in class, they don’t work hard, they have a shorter attention span. What I learn is that this child can succeed so much in the future and surprise you so much.”
She is also looking at enriching the audience’s experience with themes such as World War II, Marie Antoinette, or the Russian Revolution.
“You want a connection to make them think,” she adds, “feel and sometimes cry.”
Levina’s newest production is a philosophical work called Three Dimensions, which will consist of three dance pieces: Romeo and Juliet, Journey of a Pure Soul, and Three Dimensions. The show will premiere February 25 & 26 at Eden Prairie High School’s Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. February 25 and 2 p.m. on February 26. For more information, including ticket prices, visit the company’s website here.
