The Manhattan Times

An 11-year-old’s ballerina dreams

by Corrine Ramy

Ballerina Rafaela Dench started dancing while still in diapers. “She danced in her high chair,” said her mother, Amy Dench. “When she was little, we’d be in the grocery store, and she’d pirouette down the aisle.”

Today, the Washington Heights resident is no longer twirling in the supermarket, but has moved on to bigger stages. Although Dench is only 11 years old, she already has her heart set on a career as a professional ballerina. She has won competitions, most recently winning first place at the Youth Dance Festival of New Jersey, and played a servant girl in “Le Corsaire,” performed by the American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House in May 2009.
Rafaela, who goes by the nickname Fae, first became interested in dance when she was four years old and a ballet dancer came to her preschool class. She asked her parents for ballet lessons, and has been dancing ever since.

The best part of ballet, said Fae, is performing.

“When I dance I can show my expressions,” she said. “I can show the audience if I’m happy or sad.”

She prefers full-length story ballets, like “Romeo and Juliet,” “Don Quixote” or “The Nutcracker.” Her favorite role that she’s danced so far was that of Clara, the female Nutcracker lead, with the Hudson Valley Dance Theater.
She trains five days a week, for about two to three hours at a time, at Manhattan Youth Ballet on the West Side.

Fae, who is half Guatemalan and half Puerto Rican, is adopted, and was raised in Bloomingdale, N.J., and then moved to Harriman, N.Y. with her family. In November 2008, she moved to the city to study ballet seriously, and moved with her parents to an apartment in Washington Heights.

“The owner of the upstate dance studio said, ‘She’ll make it, but I can’t train her professionally here,’” said Amy.

When not dancing or talking about ballet, Fae acts like a fairly normal seventh grade girl. A student at P.S. 187 on Cabrini Boulevard, Fae enjoys hanging out with friends, watching movies and spending time on Facebook and AOL Instant Messenger. Her favorite things to talk about, she said, are boys and ballet. Although she sometimes has to make sacrifices for ballet – such as less social time and junk food – she said it’s worth it. “Sometimes I miss being normal, but when I go to class I realize that this is what I want, and friends can wait,” she said.

Her mother doesn’t always agree.

“I want her to be a kid and have fun,” said Amy. “I make her go to the park with her friends.”

Fae will likely be home-schooled for high school so that she can focus on dancing.

By the time she’s 22 years old Fae hopes to be a principal dancer with the New York City-based American Ballet Theater. The ballet world is notorious for discriminating against non-white dancers, and the American Ballet Theater is known as a more diverse institution. “ABT just cares whether you’re a good dancer,” she said.
Other companies, and dancers, are less accepting, said Amy. “At a competition, a former ballerina said, ‘Your foundation is too dark.’ I was so mad.”

Fae has what it takes to succeed in the professional dance world, said Nadege Hottier, Fae’s teacher at Manhattan Youth Ballet. “She wonderful – very focused, determined and passionate,” said Hottier. “She has the ability to make it.”