You could feel the concentration in the room. Ten young dancers, each with her own make-up station, watched intently as Alberta Ballet’s Skye Balfour-Ducharme and Alexandra Pera demonstrated step-by-step how to apply stage make-up. Then it was their turn. By the end of the two-hour session, the lovely ladies were in full make-up, snapping pictures of each other.
“They took it very seriously,” says Kirsten Andersen, Dance Outreach Coordinator at the NAC. “After all, dance is their passion. It’s not just a hobby for them. This workshop taught them how to put their best face forward.”
The workshop is a new initiative for NAC Dance Education and Outreach. Young artists were taken through the process of getting hair and make-up ready for a show by professional ballerinas. “It’s about learning the tricks of the trade and increasing confidence as they go from studio to stage,” Kirsten explains. “Hair and make-up is something you learn from watching other people so this is a huge opportunity for the participants. It gives them a sneak peek into the life of a dancer.”
This story appears in the fall 2013 issue of Full Circle.
