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Bonsall ballet dancer earns scholarship from Royal Ballet

Bonsall ballerina, Keliah Peterson, 14, said she hopes to fulfill her dream of studying full time at the Royal Ballet School in England. Her mother, Hope Peterson, isn't quite ready for that just yet, however.

"If you had told my husband and me that we would be considering allowing a minor child to move away from home, let alone move across the ocean, we would have told you that you were crazy," Hope Peterson said. "It's only because in the very specific career is that she is pursuing and that she wants to pursue, that's how it goes."

Hope Peterson explained that the elite dance companies in the world want the students to be ready to train full time by the age of 16.

"We've had to be very thoughtful and intentional about whether or not that's something that we're willing to do as a family," Hope Peterson said. "I think we're still kind of navigating those questions. We told the Royal Ballet School at this time that we're not interested in her going full time because they did ask. We're not quite ready for that with her only being 14."

The question came out of a February performance by Keliah Peterson at a Los Angeles audition for the Youth America Grand Prix that resulted in the world-renowned school awarding her a short-term scholarship.

"They probably see 15,000 kids or so all over the world," Hope Peterson said. "And then they invite about a thousand dancers to New York for the final audition. It wasn't specifically for the Royal Ballet though. It was just for that scholarship organization."

Keliah Peterson has been to Royal Ballet before, spending a week there last summer. But when she got the news of this scholarship, "I was thrilled," she said. "The Royal Ballet is my dream school and company to work for as a career someday. I just love it there."

Of course, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the school, like a lot of things, is closed down. Keliah Peterson and her mother aren't sure when she will have the opportunity to go train in the UK.

"The tentative plan was sometime in September, but that's all dependent on whether or not travels allowed and whether or not we're locked out of the UK," Hope Peterson said. "But since it's just her, they're not working around a whole group of students that they have to bring out. If it doesn't happen in September, they'll just kick it back probably to the spring when it's safe."

Keliah Peterson, along with the rest of her siblings, trains with Pablo and Casandra Infante at North County Academy of Dance in Bonsall, just five minutes away from the family home.

That distance makes it easier for Hope Peterson to shuffle them to and fro, she said, – especially since Keliah Peterson is home-schooled to allow her to train more.

"I'm a part of a charter school called Inspire, and it helps fund some of my dancing, which is really nice," Keliah Peterson said. "(They fund it) as part of my education, because you can really learn a lot from dancing."

She said that at this point in her training, she couldn't really attend Bonsall or Fallbrook High schools in the fall.

"I take classes in the mornings and evenings now, so it would make it very difficult for me to dance as much as I do," Keliah Peterson said.

"There are kids that do it, and I'm really impressed by their ability and dedication to be able to do all of that," Hope Peterson said. "It's funny. We didn't start home schooling because of dance. But at this point, I don't think that she would want to go back to a traditional classroom education system because if she does, she wouldn't have time to breathe."

Keliah Peterson said she has been dancing since she was 6 years old, but even before that, she took a ballet class for a few months at age four. It wasn't until she was 9 years old that she knew she wanted to be a ballet dancer.

"(It was when) I first went to Youth America Grand Prix," she said. "As soon as I took classes from those teachers, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I really like working hard. It allows me to see growth over long periods of time of extremely hard work. And it's really cool to see that progress. And I also love it because I get to express my emotions through movement."

Even before then, Hope Peterson said Pablo Infante knew Keliah Peterson had promise as a dancer when she was 7 years old.

"He said, 'You know, I think she has what it takes to really be a beautiful ballet dancer, and I would like to spend some extra time working with her,'" she said. "And at the time I kind of laughed and was like, 'Are you sure, she's kind of clumsy and forgets things a lot, but if you want to work with her, yeah, go ahead.' And so they've just been pouring themselves into her and investing in her and they really love her.

"I think we have this really special place here in Bonsall where we have these teachers that are super gifted and talented at what they do and they care a lot about their dancers. They do care a lot about their technique, but they also care about what type of humans they become. And we just really couldn't ask for more than that," Hope Peterson said.

Keliah Peterson said she is equally thankful for her teachers at the academy.

"I would really want to think my teachers, Cassie and Pablo, because even from a young age they saw something in me and they really made me into the dancer I am today," she said.

Until recently, North County Academy of Dance has been unable to open its doors to its dancers due to the pandemic.

"All the kids were dancing in the garage for the last three months until the studio was able to open up with restrictions a few weeks ago," Hope Peterson said. "She's working on getting back into shape and just enjoying being back in person with our teachers and classmates."

"Right now I'm just trying to get some extra classes in and train extra hard since we just came out of quarantine," Keliah Peterson said. "I have a summer recital that I get to go to now because I'm not going to summer intensive anymore since they all got canceled."

With the Royal Ballet Academy waiting and dance training resuming, everyone said they were happy. It's also given the family time to reflect on this journey.

"We didn't really set out to be a dance family. It feels like dance kind of found us and has become this like huge, beautiful part of our lives," Hope Peterson said. "We have four kids and they all dance right now, and it's just become a really beautiful piece of our life.

"I feel like she kind of dragged me along at first, getting me on board, like realizing this is something that she's really passionate about and seeing that she really wants to do it. It's just been a privilege to kind of watch her grow into this really beautiful, gifted dancer who just really invests herself and is so disciplined and dedicated to something that she just really loves. It's not easy. It's a lot of work. She spends a lot of time in the studio and a lot of time dancing.

"She has a lot of great relationships where teachers and community have just invested so much into her. And we definitely couldn't do this without the huge village that has helped her along her little journey here," Hope Peterson said.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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