The Midwest Regional Ballet Interview With Kaye Lewis

Kaye Lewis, Director of the Midwest Regional Ballet, L.L.C. in  Joplin, Missouri, sets her studio apart from other ballet studios because MRB not only performs many classical ballets such as The Nutcracker, Cinderella, or Swan Lake but they also perform her original ballets, which are her favorite things for her studio to perform.  Kaye creates her own original ballets and just recently had her dancers do Alice in Steampunk Wonderland which she set to Queen music.  Their Cheshire Cat did a Lyra (which is is a metal hoop suspended from the air) solo and the Caterpillar performed on a hammock which gave the illusion of turning into a butterfly and danced to Spread your Wings.  She also creates her own costumes for the performances.  Kaye has created her own version of Dracula, Nightmare Before Christmas, Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Grinch,  and Snow White to name a few.  Midwest Regional Ballet often utilizes their aerial ballet work in many of these performances.  In Dracula, they had 22 flying vampires at different times during the show.  Nightmare had an aerial ghost and skeletons.  The studio also had the opportunity to perform with American Opera Studio out of Kansas City.

Their area is just now becoming very integrated into the arts, so Kaye feels it’s been really nice to see it grow. She was nominated as one of the fourteen “People to Watch in 2014” by the Joplin Globe our area newspaper. Which is truly honor!

When asked what advice she gives her dancers to keep them motivated, she responded, “Wow! What advice do I not give them! . . . I’m like a second mom to them. I try to set the example by keeping myself motivated, which after 28 years of teaching is sometimes challenging.” Just this past year she started letting other people teach.  Previously she had been the sole teacher, choreographer, costumer, P.R. Person, etc.  She tries to make sure they understand how blessed they are everyday to be able to do what they love.  She strives to instill in them that their talents are not only for a future career in the field of arts but also should be used for community service.  Midwest Regional Ballet has donated many of their proceeds to charities such as Children’s Miracle Network, Susan G. Komen, Hope 4 You Breast Cancer Foundation, and the Arthritis Foundation. The Ballet donated free performances to children with disabilities who can’t really come into the public and large crowds with all of the equipment they need to survive.  Kaye is big on family, responsibility, respect, hard work, dedication and artistry.  She thinks if you have those things you can accomplish anything.

Kaye says she has many, many things to make her proud.  She is proud when a dancer who has worked endlessly on one movement and finally achieves it.  The look on their face brings her to tears.  She’s proud when a dancer hugs her and says, “Someday, I want to be just like you.”  She’s proud when they get contracts to companies, or when she sees them on a video or commercial.  She’s proud when they come through the door and are excited to work on their craft.  She’s proud when they get married and have children, although it makes her feel old.

She’s proud when they have worked on an original ballet of her crazy ideas and it looks just like it did in her dreams.  She said that she could go on and on.  Kaye never had children so she guesses she must feel as a parent feels when they see their children accomplish goals. She also says that she’s a pretty emotionally-charged person. The joke at her school is if you want Ms. Kaye to cry, hand her the microphone and ask her to say something nice.  Usually within two words she’s done. Not because she doesn’t have nice things to say.  She just gets too emotional with love and she just can’t say anything.

Probably the biggest mistake she sees dancers make when competing is getting caught up in the hype of “Oh, you’re going to be such a big star.”  That just really irritates Kaye.  So, she has to give the ego a good stomp.  She believes that once you think like that, you have closed off the learning process.

Midwest Regional Ballet doesn’t do a lot of competition.  She doesn’t like the “we all must feel great about ourselves” mentality and “we are all winners.”  She wishes life was like that but it isn’t – especially in the arts.

Kaye’s not into all of the hoochy momma costumes and the moves some of these young dancers are doing today.  She says that she is by no means a prude.  However, she feels that the artistry of ballet, ‘Pointe’, is not foremost anymore.  It’s more about how many fouettes you can do good or bad – how many “crotchments,” as she calls them, you can do.  It doesn’t appeal to her.  She remembers one of her first classes in a professional school. The guest teacher looked around the room and said, “Well, you’re all too fat to be dancers.”  She was stunned!  For a week the teacher would just walk around the room and degrade everyone.  Kaye doesn’t tell her dancers that stuff, but she does make sure they understand the reality of what they do. She will be the first one to tell her dancers how amazing they are.  But she will also be the first one to tell them how amazing hundreds of other dancers are and how only hard work is the recipe for success in any field.

As far as “must have” dance wear items that every dancer needs, Kaye feels it obviously includes a leotard and tights and that they should always have warm-up gear so that they can strip down.  Kaye hates being cold after she warms up.  She always tells her dancers to keep a bag of must haves such as hair nets, bobby pins, extra leotard and tights, powder, extra toe pads. These are things that they commonly need in class.

Kaye’s goals for this year include having a new state of the art facility so that they can continue to grow.  She also hopes to be able to offer more to their community and to be healthy and injury free.  Lastly, she hopes to continue to be blessed with amazing dancers.

Kaye is really looking forward to their opening of Midsummer Nights Dream in May which they have not done since 2007.  She is also looking forward to their performance of Nightmare Before Christmas in December 2014, Dracula in the Spring of 2015 and the Nutcracker with the Southeast Kansas Symphony in December 2015.  Other than these highlights, she doesn’t want to give away all of her secrets about what she’s working on.  It seems she’s always working on new ideas for shows.  However, she did divulge that she is currently writing out ideas for Scrooge for a future holiday ballet and something along the line of Gatsby for a future ballet.

If you have experience with Midwest Regional Ballet or Kaye Lewis please leave a comment below about your experience!