The acting's the hard part, he said. But for the sake of the company and his career, ballet student and budding apprentice Ezra Thomson, who will be performing in the Pacific Northwest Ballet School's upcoming rendition of Pinocchio, a narrated, one-act ballet based on the illustrated storybook by Carlo Collodi, will stick it out.
Thomson is one of 60 PNB School students in the production. Many of them live in Magnolia and Queen Anne including Siena Ang, Ryan Cardea, Colby Lewis, Katharine Grimm, Eileen Kelly, Ashley Ochsner and Clare O'Connor. At 19, Thomson is one of the older kids in the production and plays Geppetto, Pinocchio's father. A fitting role as he has felt the challenge in setting the example for the younger performers.
"Since it's a school program a lot of the kids are young and shy in front of their colleagues so being one of the older members, that's the hardest aspect: to set an example and do well," Thomson said.
He is a professional division student and has been offered an apprenticeship with the PNB, which is the starting point in the company. From apprenticeship, one moves up to corps member, soloist and then principal - which as a lifelong dancer, and former hockey player, would be Thomson's dream.
While his parents and sister were heavily involved in the arts, a 10-year-old Thomson was crashing into the boards at ice hockey matches in Southern California where he grew up. He never broke any bones but several on his team did. The arts and his parents beckoned. Give ballet a try, they said. It stuck.
"I did my first show, "The Nutcracker" when I was 10 and that was it," Thomson said. "I was done with ice hockey." His sister, now 21, had long hung up her ballet shoes and is transferring to UCLA School of Medicine.
But ever since "The Nutcracker" Thomson has been making an impassioned go of it. At 15, he left home in the summers to train with the Orlando Ballet School. There weren't many opportunities in California to continue his dancing, and after hearing word about Orlando's program, he went for it. It began with summer programs and then developed into yearlong. He got a scholarship, and to a couple of donors and his parents helped with his living expenses.
Then last January, while still training in Orlando, Thomson learned of an opportunity to audition for the PNB, what he said was considered one of the best companies in the nation. PNB choreographer Peter Boal presided over the audition and Thomson got the thumbs up.
"He let me in and gave me a scholarship to come here," Thomson said of Boal. "It is my life and has always been a dream of mine to come to he PNB."
Since Orlando wasn't a union outfit, Thomson cancelled his contract and in September, moved into lower Queen Anne where he quickly made friends with several other dancer transplants who earned spots at the Seattle dance school.
"Most of us, when we found apartments, we found them in the Queen Anne area and that's nice," Thomson said. "Ryan Cardea, who plays Neptune, he lives a half block from me."
What now? What after "Pinocchio"?
"I've been offered the apprenticeship with the company but the budget hasn't cleared it yet," he said. "You have to start at the bottom."
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