Dancer realizing her dream Dancer realizing her dream (July 30, 2004)

Local student studies with renowned ballet teacher in Washington, D.C.

By Julie O'Shea

Amanda Grimm has known since she was 3-years-old what she wanted to be when she grew up. Grimm's father had brought home a copy of "The Nutcracker" one night, popped it into the VCR and that was it -- the little girl was hooked.

With a laugh, Grimm, now 17, recalled last week how she'd watched the holiday classic over and over again, completely mesmerized by the dancing snow queen and sugarplum fairies.

Fourteen years after that fateful night, Grimm's love affair with ballet is still going strong. When she turned 12, the young dancer enrolled in the San Francisco Ballet School, where she quickly advanced to become one of her class's top ballerinas. Her unique style and flair eventually captured the eye of celebrated prima ballerina Suzanne Farrell, who last year tapped Grimm to come study under her during an intense, three-week summer workshop in Washington, D.C.

Grimm, who grew up in Mountain View, was invited back this summer and is currently immersed in Farrell's four-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She is one of just 32 teens from across the nation chosen to work one-on-one with the famed ballet mistress, who once taught First Daughter Chelsea Clinton.

"She's so famous and so experienced," Grimm said of Farrell during an interview on the steps of the San Francisco Opera House last week. "I'm hoping to improve my art, my expression.

"It's always a different experience in class," she added.

Grimm, an only child who lives with her mother in a rented San Francisco apartment during the week and commutes home to Mountain View on the weekends, traveled to the East Coast on Sunday with four other girls from her ballet school.

Last Friday was Grimm's final day of dance class. She will return in the fall for one more year at the San Francisco Ballet School before she begins auditioning in the spring with companies across the nation, and possibly in Europe, where she was born and lived for a short time before moving to Mountain View with her parents.

Grimm, a willowy teen who seems to float when she walks, has trouble putting her love of dance into words. She's dedicated, no doubt, and extremely driven, enthusiastically explaining how she spends nearly every waking hour in the dance studio. But asked how dancing under the spotlight makes her feel, Grimm giggled before growing quiet.

"I just like the music a lot," Grimm finally said, stretching out her long legs on the opera house steps. "I've always liked the music."

This kind of attitude is what will someday make her one of the world's top dancers, said Marlene Cooper, manager of the "Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell" program.

"She's a very serious student, very diligent," Cooper said of Grimm. "She remains very dedicated and focused on ballet. It's evident in the way she dances."

To enroll in the program, which includes field trips to some of the capital's finest museums, theaters and dance shows, students must have had five years of ballet classes and girls must have four years of experience dancing en pointe. Tuition is $1,000. For more information, visit www.kennedy-center.org/education/farrell.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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