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Young Students Pass Their Barre Exam

Tribune photo By CHRIS URSO

The girls, ages 3 through 16, move swiftly across the stage in Theatre 1 on the USF campus, showing their agility through various combinations of jumps. Also during the recital they showed their expertise of the four basic classic ballet poses.

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By JOYCE McKENZIE

jmckenzie@tampatrib.com

Published: December 24, 2008

TEMPLE TERRACE - Allegro, arabesque, pirouette, sauter and soutenu are French words many Americans have difficulty pronouncing, much less defining.

That is not the case for the children in the Temple Terrace Ballet.

During their Dec. 14 holiday recital in Theatre 1 at the University of South Florida, the all-female ensemble not only showed their skills but demonstrated their keen knowledge of these frequently used terms.

In a two-part performance, the dancers, ages 3 through 16, moved swiftly across the stage, showing their agility through various combinations of jumps allegros. All exhibited their burgeoning expertise of the four basic classic ballet poses arabesque.

A few girls executed multiple one-leg spins pirouettes, others leaped sautered high into the air and all but a couple of the littlest performed their moves in a leisurely, sustained soutenu fashion.

Parents who filled the theater attribute their children's accomplishments to the program's director, Matilde Rabina Baretto, who in 1969 began teaching dance in Cuba. Baretto moved to Temple Terrace in 1984 and since 1992 has taught summer/fall and winter/spring classes at the Temple Terrace Family Recreation Complex.

Jutta Sorondo's daughters, Sabina, 13, and Elisa, 10, have been enrolled in the program for years.

"She's always challenging them, so it's never boring for them," said Sorondo, of Temple Terrace. "She's taught them how to focus and really concentrate, something they've been able to apply to their school work."

Sorondo also is thankful Baretto has kept the class affordable for families such as hers with more than one child.

Sabina Sorondo thinks of Baretto as a "second mother."

"She's strict, and she makes us always strive to be the best we can be, but she really cares about us," she said.

Temple Terrace resident Erin Petty also has two daughters, Brenna, 6, and Lauren, 3, enrolled in Baretto's classes.

"Miss 'B' is wonderful. She's stern, but she loves her kids," Petty said.

Monica Tsun of New Tampa said she sort of "pushed" daughter Katrina, 10, into the classes five years ago because she had difficulty doing things in sequence.

"Once she started with Miss Maggie Baretto that all changed," Tsun said. "She's demanding, and she wants them to practice, but she's also very nurturing."

Alicia Arbelaez cannot thank Baretto enough for accepting daughter Thalia, 16, into the program nine years ago. Thalia, an eighth-grader, has Down syndrome.

"No other studio would take her," said Arbelaez, who watched Thalia perform in several of the recital pieces, including one in which she danced alone.

Thalia, also a flamingo and tango dancer, will travel with the help of the Casa Taller Artesas Foundation to Colombia in the spring to perform.

Baretto "treats her the same as the others, and it has really helped her," Arbelaez said.

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849.

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