Reaching out — Ballet West's Peter Christie helps fifth-graders learn to love dance

For more than 25 years, Peter Christie has been a member of the Ballet West family. He started as a corps dancer and moved up to soloist. Now he's in charge of the dance company's educational and outreach programs, and he teaches company classes.

Audiences have enjoyed Christie's interpretations of such roles as Alfredo in Ronald Hynd's "Rosalinda," Tybalt in Michael Smuin's "Romeo & Juliet," and Dr. Drosselmeyer in the Ballet West perennial "The Nutcracker," to name a few.

Local schools know him from his works with the ICANDO program, which recruits fifth-graders from Utah's schools and helps them create and set dance productions.

"This is my dream job," Christie said during an interview in the Capitol Theatre's Ballet West offices. "I know there are a lot of people in the world who can't say that. I mean, I danced onstage with a great company with great artists, and now, after retiring from dancing, I still can work with dance and still touch lives."

Christie's road to Ballet West was filled with happenstance and some discouraging moments. "I was born in Brooklyn but raised in upstate New York. My family lived on a big farm and struggled to make ends meet. I have an older brother and five sisters. So it was a challenge because we didn't have a lot of money."

Still, Christie's parents were nurturing when it came to the arts. "My older sister wanted to take ballet, and I went with her and my mom to check out the studio. I was 9 at the time and my sister was 8. Anyway, I went along for the ride and met the teacher, Marianne Grey.

"She made a deal with my mother. She said if I would take lessons, my sister and I could take them for free. The reason was because there were no boys in the program. So for the longest time I was the only boy in all the productions."

Through Grey, Christie was introduced to the Syracuse Ballet School, then directed by Anthony and Sirpa Salatino. "The ballet school was an hour away by bus from where I lived. I was in junior high school at the time. So, I would finish school and hop on the bus. After dance class I would take the bus back. I did that every day."

Throughout his dance education, Christie said — emphasizing that it was no one's fault but his own — he developed some bad habits. "When I was 17, I went into an audition for the School of American Ballet. After I danced, I was told to quit."