After touring around Saskatchewan earlier this year in a residency program, ballet master Jaime Vargas has been back in the province to share with more dancers, including Dance Connection students in North Battleford.
In a partnership between Dance Saskatchewan and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, where Mexican-born Vargas was principal dancer for many years, Vargas is sharing his knowledge with dancers at various Saskatchewan venues, teaching an intermediate and an advanced group at Dance Connection after an afternoon with students at McKitrick School.
He found the Grade 6 class at McKitrick attentive and enthusiastic.
He shared a little of what it means to be a professional body, such as preparing the body, conditioning, stretching, warming up, strengthening. He showed them how, in a ballet class, they could learn specific movements to achieve specific outcomes, and he also did some choreography with them.
"They did great," he said. "They followed the whole sequence. It was quite fun and everybody was active."
From McKitrick, he went to Dance Connection to work with two of ballet director Margaret Stephen's classes, also getting a chance to meet studio owner Virginia Winterhalt.
There, he shared with the dancers ways to work from an energy movement point of view rather than a posing point of view, addressing energy patterns and stabilization.
"I don't really work on style," he said, "it's from the movement points of view."
Although Vargas did a residency in Saskatchewan in March of this year, also in partnership with Dance Saskatchewan, this is his first visit to the Battlefords.
Dance Saskatchewan Executive Director Linda Coe-Kirkham of Battleford said it was one stop of many.
"It's a nice mix of urban and rural," she said.
Vargas would be working with young children to the university level.
Stops on the tour were to be Lanigan, Prince Albert, the Battlefords, Saskatoon "and all parts in between," said Co-Kirkham.
Vargas has an extensive career in dance. Born in Mexico City, Vargas began dance training when he was 14 years old at the Centro de Arte y Ballet in his hometown. Studying with teachers Tita Ortega and his older brother Alejandro Vargas, he graduated with a RAD designation with honours in four years and received the prestigious Solo Seal Award, the highest vocational graded examination of the RADance, focusing on solo performance. Vargas also studied at the London Studio Centre in England, as well as the Australian Ballet School where he graduated from classical ballet studies.
To further his studies, Vargas received scholarships and grants that gave him the opportunity to travel the world. He made his professional debut in 1989 with the Compania Nacional de Danza in Mexico City and has since performed with many other companies.
Vargas joined the RWB as a principal dancer in July of 2004. During his time with the RWB, Vargas has danced various lead roles such as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Bob in Val Caniparoli's hit A Cinderella Story, Captain Hook in Jorden Morris' Peter Pan, Tamino in Mark Godden's The Magic Flute and the title role in Godden's Dracula.
During the 2007-08 season, Vargas took on the role of Don José, one of the male leads in Mauricio Wainrot's world premiere of Carmen, the Passion. He also danced the roles of Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, the Prince in Nutcracker and received the praise of critics for his soloist performance in Balanchine's The Four Temperaments. For the 2008-09 season, Vargas performed in Itzik Galili's acclaimed Hikarizatto and Mark Godden's As Above, So Below.
Vargas has competed internationally and won several awards including the silver medal in 1992 during the Fifth International Dance Festival in Paris, France; finalist in the First and Second International Dance Competitions in Nagoya, Japan; and the silver medal in the First National Ballet Competition in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Mexican Union of Journalists and Critics in Theatre and Music also officially recognized him in 1994 for his contribution to the improvement of art in Mexico. Vargas was nominated for the Benois de la Danse prize for 2006 for his role of 'Tamino' in Mark Godden's The Magic Flute.
He also performed at the International Stars of Ballet 2006 performance in Fukuoka, Japan in 2006.
In May 2007, Vargas travelled to Moscow to perform his nominated piece for the 15th Anniversary award ceremony held at the new Bolshoi Theatre.
Also in 2007, along with his brother Alejandro, he organized and directed Soloists of the RWB, touring to six different cities in Mexico.
He has danced the role of Basil in Okamoto Ballet's production of Don Quixote in Fukuoka, Japan and was a guest artist with Compañía Nacional de Danza in their famous production of Carmina Burana. He also organized, along with Danza Sin Fronteras and INBA, a shared performance between the RWB and Compañía Nacional de Danza de Mexico, held in Mexico City in the prestigious Palacio de Bellas Artes. This was a significant milestone in Vargas' vision of developing a cultural exchange between these two companies.
Vargas also enjoys teaching. For three consecutive years he taught ballet class, repertoire and pas de deux classes at a summer workshop for Ballet de Monterrey, run by Robert Hill. He also directed the summer workshop, Fopika 2005, organized by Nriko Seyama in Takasaki, Japan.
Vargas debuted his 2009-10 season as Zidler in Jorden Morris' Moulin Rouge - The Ballet. He also danced as the evil Baron Von Rothbart in the quintessential classic Swan Lake.
He retired as principal dancer in 2011 and continues to coach and teach.
