(gentle orchestral music) - [Narrator] And now Cathleen Huling looks back on her career as Artistic Director for the Ballet Arts Ensemble and her last performance of the "12 Dancing Princesses," which she wrote with her father.

(gentle orchestral music) - Cathleen Huling, where were you 40 years ago?

- I had just moved to Kalamazoo from Grand Rapids.

I sought out a place to dance, which was Ballet Arts.

Jerry James was the owner of the school then.

She started this youth ballet company, so I got involved with it right from the very beginning, back in 1982.

So I started out dancing and then I did some choreography, some teaching, gradually became Ballet Mistress, and then in 2001, became the director.

(gentle orchestral music) - To present day, what's it like to know that you're experiencing a 40th anniversary, and hind of the end of a reign?

- Well, it hardly seems like 40 years.

I think that's part of one of the wonderful things of being involved with the youth, because it keeps you young.

- How would you describe Ballet Arts?

Who are these dancers?

- The ensemble is made up of anywhere from between 18, 20, 22, young ladies.

They have to audition to get into the ensemble.

They are students of ballet, of course, for many years, it's a very strict discipline, they have to be well-trained, they have to achieve a certain skill level in order to get into the ensemble.

These kids have been dancing, most of them since they were, you know, four or five years old and study very hard.

(jaunty orchestral music) - I am Ashlyn Coburn, and I'm the oldest of 12 princesses.

- How does it feel just having come off a weekend of performance?

- It's awesome, honestly.

It's such a good experience to be on stage like that.

It's just so fun to be a part of that.

- And how would you describe how the weekend went?

- I'm happy with how the weekend went.

It was bittersweet for it to be Ms. Huling's last show, but it was awesome.

- What's it like under her direction leading up to the show?

- It's great, it's such like, an amazing opportunity, what she gives to us to be able to rehearse and put on a show as young dancers.

It's great, yeah.

- [Shelly] What's your history with Ms. Huling and the Ballet Arts Ensemble?

- I've been dancing at Ballet Arts since I was about six years old, so 10 years now.

And Ms. Huling has guided me all the way from pre-point to now.

- Wow.

And where do you go from here?

- From here, I hope to continue dancing.

I'm only a junior in high school right now, but I would love to keep dancing after this.

(gentle music) - Describe what we see with the "12 Dancing Princesses."

- Well, you see, first of all, a very lovely group of dancers in beautiful costuming and gorgeous colorful sets with an orchestra down in the pit in the front.

My father, Dale Crooks, composed the music for this ballet.

Ah, I had such a good time working with him on this.

You know, I need a waltz, dad, for this, and I need some scene music here, and I need maybe a mazurka over here, and so we put together this story and I choreographed it, and then Harrison Orr wrote it for our orchestra and we performed it in 2010 with the KSO.

Very, very special, and it was very timely, because he passed away very soon after that performance, but he was able to enjoy the creation of it with me.

And listening to his music played by a symphony orchestra was, I think, very, very special.

So I could think of nothing better to do for my final concert as artistic director than to revisit that ballet.

(bright orchestral music) - "The 12 Dancing Princesses," give me a favorite scene.

- Well, there is a scene where the young gentleman, the gardener, meets one of the dancing princesses.

This is the love interest in the ballet, and they perform a beautiful pas de deux, a waltz.

And what's special about this dance is that the waltz was music that my father wrote for my mother before they were married.

And so I put that in the ballet and I made that part of this little scene between the two.

So that was a special moment.

(gentle orchestral music) (gentle orchestral music) - What do your dancers get from this experience with you and your team?

- These children learn a discipline.

The demands that we have of them physically are challenging.

While they're in a structured environment, they also are encouraged to be creative.

So, so important for the development of these young people.

And I say it over and over again, because our alumni, vast majority of them, of course, don't go on to be professional dancers.

That's not why I'm here, to produce professional dancers, but rather, it helps prepare them for whatever they end up doing.

It gives them self-confidence, poise.

They can be in front of people, they can be up on stage, they can be in front of an audience.

It gives them all of that, too.

- I'm Ella Cammond, and I played Eleanora, who got married in the end of the show.

- How has it been performing and rehearsing right up to this point, knowing that it's Ms. Huling's last show?

- Yeah, it's been so fun.

I'm actually a senior, so this is my last show, too.

But yeah, we've been at the studio a lot the past few weeks, so we've been working hard, but it's all worth it.

It's been really fun.

- [Shelly] When did you start and why did you start this?

- I started dancing when I was super young, but then I moved to Ballet Arts when I was in middle school, and I just like, wanted to focus more on ballet, and I think Mrs. Huling's done a really good job of like, just teaching me throughout the years.

- How would you describe Ballet Arts Ensemble to someone who is new to it?

- I think it's like, a really like, positive environment.

And we all are such hard workers, and I think Mrs. Huling pushes us to be our best, and just like, it's just a good environment overall.

- How will you use the skills you have learned here in your later years?

- I think hard work is a lot of it.

It's just been so much like, of my week every week, just dancing.

So I think of time management, just like, everything.

So yeah, I think it'll help me a lot in in the future.

(lively music) - What do you want 40 years from now for the ballet?

- I hate to see the classical ballet art form disappearing.

We're forgetting our 17th century beautiful roots of classical dance.

I don't wanna see that lost.

When I teach the ballet, "La Sylphides," I teach the girls an art form that was established hundreds of years ago.

The way they hold their bodies, the discipline that it takes to maintain poses.

When I teach pas de chats, beautiful ballet, it's all about precision, it's all about artistry.

And so while I'm all in favor of contemporary and doing your own thing and making, you know, all of the different takes that we have on "Swan Lake," for instance, even "The Nutcracker," I don't want us to lose our roots, I don't want us to lose that wonderful history that we have, and I wanna see it in the classroom.

(bright dance music) - You have a last class, we'll say today, what do you do Monday morning when you know that your job has been well done here?

- I have a lot of pride in what I've done.

It's been very hard to make the decision to quit, because I think I'm probably the best teacher now that I've ever been.

Well, I could be around teacher, I've had teachers who are teaching from a chair on an oxygen machine, but I didn't wanna go that far.

So I just feel like this is the right time.

(audience applauding) - Why support the arts in Kalamazoo?

- Well, because of all of the things I just said in developing the human body, the human mind, the imagination, the creativity, the self-discipline, all of those things are so important for young people.

And with the collaborations that we do with other arts organizations in the community, our relationship with the KSO is just incredible.

The opportunity for our dancers to perform with live musicians is so special.

And I tell them this all the time, because it's very unique that these kids get an opportunity to dance with live music, as opposed to recorded music.

Our relationship with the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus, they perform in our "Nutcracker" as well, so these young, beautiful singers are there, singing, accompanied by the symphony, and our dancers are dancing on stage to their singing.

I mean, those kinds of relationships are important for all of us.

(gentle music) - My name is Macy Pong, and I was the Diamond Fairy in "12 Dancing Princesses."

- How would you describe Mrs. Huling's work with you?

Will you be missing her once she's off and retired?

- Oh, of course.

She's very interactive and she has just pushed all of us, and she has made me the dancer I am, and she's definitely made an impact on all of the dancers in the ensemble, so it'll definitely be hard without her.

(gentle ensemble music) - You might get some hugs and some tears.

Congratulations to you, Cathleen, for a job well done.

- Thank you.

(bright lively orchestral music) (audience applauding) (gentle bright orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (melancholy orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively dramatic orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively dramatic orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (audience applauding) - [Announcer] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.