Local ballerinas bid adieu, pursue professional dancing careers

Two local ballerinas who have danced next to each other for 13 years with Ballet Yuma will bow out together as well.

Amelia Gandara and Kyndra Ricker, both 17 years old, have grown up together, won national honors and are now going their separate ways to pursue their dancing careers.

Gandara and Ricker will perform in their last performance with Ballet Yuma as part of the Etudes and Excerpts annual event, and will have a featured duet specially choreographed for them by Jon Cristofori.

The event will consist of three performances at 11 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Snider Auditorium, 400 S. 6th Ave.

Etudes and Excerpts showcases 240 academy students ages 3 to 18.

Gandara and Ricker began dancing at the age of 4 as students of co-artistic director Kathleen Sinclair. "I've known these people since before I was even in kindergarten," Gandara said.

"Our training has brought us to the point where it's time to move on to bigger things. But it is going to be so sad because ... I've danced with all the girls since I was so little," Gandara said. "I feel like they are family, so it's going to be really, really hard to leave them."

Upon becoming "company dancers," they began training six days a week and added Sinclair's husband and co-artistic director Cristofori as a teacher.

"It's crazy to think we are going to be leaving here. We've grown up here and have danced with Jon and Kathy since I was little, so it's like I've grown up with them," Ricker said. "You build a connection where all of us in the company feel like we're their children."

The years of commitment have resulted in the two dancers each receiving numerous awards and honors, culminating in this year's Regional Dance America's National Festival in Pittsburgh, where both of the girls were awarded full-tuition scholarships to train with professional companies: Gandara with the St. Louis Ballet and Ricker with the Atlanta Ballet.

"I think it's going to be really hard to let go, but exciting at the same time to move on," Ricker said. She has an audition in New York for a professional dance company and plans to dance in either Atlanta or New York.

Tickets for Saturday's performances are available at the door, $7 for adults and $5 for children. For additional information, call the academy at 314-4762.

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Stefani Guerrero Soucy can be reached at ssoucy@yumasun.com or 539-6857.