Rossland dancer headed to National Ballet School
By Kyra Hoggan
Sophie Hargreaves has been accepted into Canada’s National Ballet School and will be moving to Toronto this fall. At 15 years old, (turning 16 in October) Sophie is pretty excited about this opportunity.
If you’ve been lucky enough to catch Sophie performing locally, you won’t be surprised at her acceptance. Sophie has long dreamt of attending the NBS and identified the National Ballet School as her “dream school”.
As a child, Sophie spent many hours watching footage of Karen Kain performing. Sophie attributes her mother, Renee Salsiccioli, as integral to her success, as her instructor, mentor and mother. Renee is the Artistic Director of Kootenay Danceworks and has an impressive resume as both a dancer and dance teacher.
Renee also left her home in the Kootenays as a teen to train at a professional school. In her case, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Professional Division. We are extremely fortunate to have a teacher of her calibre in Rossland.
Some of us have heard the stories of Sophie putting on her mum’s old pointe shoes and dancing in her upstairs bedroom (before technically being allowed to train in pointe shoes).
She’s definitely got the drive and passion! Sophie is the latest in a fairly impressive list of young dancers who have benefited from Ms. Renee (as she is known to her dancers) expertise and dedicated teaching, and who have gone on to professional careers in dance. It’s great to see the hard work of the past few years paying off for Sophie. Talent and potential can take you only so far and at a certain point, hard work and determination play a role in success as a dancer.
When asked what her favorite ballets are, Sophie said she loves the fast pace of Don Quixote but also loves La fille mal gardée. We hope one day to see Sophie performing in one of these ballets. Best of luck Sophie!
