Ballerina mindset: Seabreeze senior to perform solo during Ormond Ballet's production of 'The Nutcracker'

Ormond Ballet will present two shows of Tchaikovsky's famous ballet: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at the News-Journal Center.

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Seabreeze High School senior Alexis Stockhammer has been dancing since she was 5 years old.

But her transformation into the dancer she is today started four years ago, during a ballet class. Michelle Boutros, co-director of Ormond Ballet, noticed Stockhammer was not putting in her full effort into the dance. 

Boutros said she didn't understand why. Stockhammer was dedicated and never missed a class. 

"She finally said, 'Well if I try, I'm just going to fail,'" Boutros recalled. "And then I was like, 'Hold everything.'"

Stockhammer said it was then that she looked around the studio at her fellow dancers and asked herself why she felt that way. 

"I just didn't know how to start becoming better," she said.

Over the course of the next year and some private lessons later, Stockhammer started changing her mindset. Now, she's set to perform a solo during the Chinese Dance in Ormond Ballet's upcoming production of The Nutcracker.

The ballet — which will feature Madeline Fleming as Clara, Sabrina Bobeck as Snow Queen and Eliza Dent as the Sugar Plum Fairy — will be performed at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at the News-Journal Center.

Ormond Ballet performs the full two-act ballet by Tchaikovsky. This will be their fifth year doing the show.

The studio also moved into a new space on July 1, located at 333 W. Granada Blvd. 

Stockhammer has played different roles in the ballet throughout her five years with the studio, but this will be the first time she's featured as a soloist; she is also a demi-soloist during the snow scene. 

At first, Stockhammer said she didn't notice her dancing had gotten better. But she started receiving compliments, and after about a year, she saw the change in herself.

"I just feel like it's all about the mindset," she said. "You just can't feel scared and embarrassed. You just have to go for it and not hold yourself back."

Being afraid to fail is a mentality they have to change with the youth, Boutros said. That, to be able to succeed at something, you will likely fail in the beginning. 

"Young people who struggle with perfectionism, it really breaks my heart because that's going to hold them back for the rest of their life," she said. "And in dance, that is something we attract — perfectionists. Especially in ballet."

A big part of what Ormond Ballet does, she added, is be a training center. Boutros and her co-director, Jeremiah Garner, often tell their students that the studio is like a lab — a safe place where they all come in, perform experiments, and be able to come out of their shells. 

Boutrous said Stockhammer has made a "huge transition" in her dancing, and that Ormond Ballet's mentality to train students is to help them bloom.

"And that's the best way to describe Lexi," she said. "She actually bloomed into this beautiful human being — not just dancer. She's literally become this beautiful human being and someone who just exudes love and joy in the studio with her peers."

Tickets for "The Nutcracker" cost $25-$35, plus fees. Visit ormondballet.com.

 

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