When Ballet Internationale-Indianapolis, a world-renowned ballet company, abruptly closed its doors last November due to financial hardship, it took its professional ballet school, the Clara R. Noyes Academy, down with it.

Many of the students were devastated, especially those girls, ages 13 to 17, who feared their dreams of becoming ballet dancers were doomed.

"If you want to be a professional as much as we do, it was just, like there is no other training in Indiana like it," Mary Ann Schaefer, 14, said.

But Alyona Yakovleva, who had been a Ballet Internationale instructor and choreographer, quickly came to the rescue as if she was the dancers' fairy godmother. She understood the girls' commitment. After all, she had been dancing herself since age 4 and has taught, choreographed and danced in several prestigious dance companies.

"When these things happen, some students get stressed. Simple stress could result in them quitting ballet and never doing this again. And I couldn't let this happen," she said.

Yakovleva led the charge to open the Russian Ballet Academy and continue the students' training. For months, she arranged to provide classes in other dance studios throughout the city. She works 12-hour days, six days a week.

"I'm broke," she says, laughing. "But I'm not worried that much about money now because I really wish for this school's and the students' success."

She also recruited her husband, Russ Smith, to handle the business side of the academy as a volunteer. Her fellow teachers and many students stuck with her, too.

"I called the teachers and I asked them, 'We can't stay here, but we have students who would like to take classes from you still, could you come please?' And they said: 'Yes, of course!' And everybody came, that's how it was started," Yakovleva said.

The school has grown from 60 students to 120 students since November.

Rachel Phipps, 15, Fishers, has been dancing for seven years and said she feels that her teachers are emotionally invested.

"Miss Alyona has so much dedication toward her students, and we want to do everything -- work as hard as we can for her," she said.

Parents pitch in

The student dancers' parents are committed to making the new academy thrive, too. They've filled in as volunteers for staff positions and have worked hard to raise money.

"The parents association is the backbone and support of the entire academy," Smith said. "They do everything that a normal company would pay for because they have made the commitment that ballet is their kids' life."

Along with their parents, the dancers sacrifice to continue their training.

Hailey Agran, 17, originally moved from Iowa to attend Ballet Internationale. After locating a host family in Indiana, she left her family and her hometown to pursue her passion for ballet. A fellow dancer, Averie Timm, 15, and her family are the hosts.

When Hailey found out that her school was closing, she had to rely on her family's support from long distance over the telephone.

"I called my mom. We were bawling because I had like uprooted my whole life just to move here for Ballet Internationale," she said. The Russian Ballet Academy has allowed her to continue her professional ballet training.

The academy teaches the Vaganova method, a particularly rigorous and well-regarded dance technique. It's embraced by many of the world's most famous dancers and was developed more than 100 years ago by a Russian, Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova. It involves precise movement, and the students dance with their whole bodies and express emotion through those movements.

For most teenage girls, school is their primary focus, but these girls have to balance their school education with their ballet education.

Their school days have flexible hours, whether they are home-schooled or in private or public school. One dancer is graduating from high school a year early so she can focus on dance school in place of high school.

They need flexible hours so they can study ballet at least 25 hours a week, and that often doesn't include performance rehearsals.

"This is your main top priority, so you don't have time to socialize," said Wynter Veal-Drummond, 15.

Worth the effort

For the academy's young dancers, both male and female, who stick with their classes, every day brings them a step closer to dancing on a professional stage.

"There are days when you're really tired and exhausted, and you're like 'I don't know if I can do this anymore,' " Hailey said. "But then you think of how your life would be without dance, and it's not complete."

And when they attend a ballet performance, they often critique other dancers.

"Whenever I watch a show with my mom, she'll look at it from an audience standpoint, and then I'll look at it from a dancer's standpoint," Rachel said.

Because the girls spend so much time together, they rely on each other for support -- much like sisters. When one of the dancers performs well in a competition, the others join in celebrating success. That's what they did last spring when Averie, Wynter and Mary Ann placed in competitions.

"It's like we eat, sleep, live with each other and dance with each other," Rachel said.

Through the stress of the closing of Ballet Internationale, the excitement of the academy's opening and the sharing of their passion for ballet, the girls have made friendships that will last a lifetime.

"We've been through so much together, just all of us. We've been together in every single thing. . . . We all support each other a lot. It's so cool," Rachel said.

REPORTERS: Ariana Gainer, 11; Renee Wellman, 12; Colleen Drew, 14.

Photo by Ariana Gainer

Copyright 2006 Y-Press