Costa Mesa ballet duo to vie in international competition

Luladey B. Tadesse

COSTA MESA -- Wendy Harber is going through a pair of o7 pointef7

shoes daily.

The 16-year-old Costa Mesa ballerina and her dance partner and brother,

Ben, 18, have been rehearsing five dances for 23 hours a week since

January.

The pair are preparing for the 19th International Ballet Competition on

July 19 in Varna, Bulgaria. An estimated 150 dancers will compete at the

event, which is like the Olympics of ballet.

It’s a place where some of the world’s best dancers in the world,

including Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1969, are recognized and begin

establishing themselves as professionals.

“We have competitions that are national and local, but this is really

special,” said Stela Viorica, primary dance coach for Wendy and Ben.

“I would do this with students only who are this caliber. And this is not

happening every day.”

Viorica, artistic director of Ballet Montmarte in Costa Mesa, believes in

her dancers.

“I have high expectations at least to go to the third round,” she said.

“I have more expectations than they do. I think they are raised to be

modest.”

Batting her eyes at the siblings, Viorica tells them that they have to

aim for the gold.

“We are just going there to dance our best,” Wendy said. “The competition

is a great experience. We are learning how the classical dances should

be.”

Ballet has been a part of the siblings’ lives since they were young.

Wendy was 3 when she tried on her first tutu, given to her by her

grandmother.

“She wore it for days and days,” her mother, Linda Harber, said. “She

just loved to run around the house dancing. I think it was a part of

her.”

But her brother fell upon the art partly out of boredom.

Ben began taking jazz and tap lessons when he was 10. Classes were often

not too exciting for him, he said. It was when he noticed Wendy and her

classmates practicing ballet that his interest was piqued.

“They looked like they were having fun and he said, ‘Why can’t I do

that?’ ” his mother said. Ever since, Ben has been dancing ballet; the

last five years with his sister.

“It’s more of an addiction to movement than a conscious, ‘I want to

dance,’ ” he said. “I can’t imagine myself in the near future not

performing.”

Ben and Wendy take dance lessons six days a week in addition to attending

Orange Coast College, where he is studying drafting and her focus is on

mathematics.

They spend almost all their time together.

“For the most part, we are joined at the hip,” Ben said.

Not only are they dance partners, but each other’s closest friends. They

were home-schooled together and slept in bunk beds in the same room.

But this could be the last year the siblings will dance together. Ben is

graduating from OCC in a few weeks. Wendy has one more year to go.

After the Varna competition, Ben is going to start looking for employment

with a dance company.

“It’s more likely that we won’t go to the same company,” Ben said of

potential recruiters at Varna. “She could end up in Europe somewhere and

I could end up in Colorado.”

Even though they are willing to separate, it won’t be that easy.

“I have actually been jokingly thinking about making us a packaged deal,”

Ben said. “But we don’t know if we can really do that.”

For now, the two are concentrating on the biggest challenge in their

career--representing California in a worldwide ballet competition.

They also are trying to raise $20,000 needed to purchase 10 costumes and

pay for extra coaching and travel expenses.

“You can’t dance forever,” Wendy said. “That is why we are working so

fervently.”