Long Time Coming for a Very Long Post

This is the post I've been planning for a long time.  I don't know how long it will take me to write it.  I don't know how long the post itself will be.  I likely will cry during the process.

This is the post in which I write about Cannon's journey with ballet.  I am finding it uncomfortable to begin what feels like a daunting process-- that of trying to capture and express what Cannon's involvement with dance has meant to him, to me, and to our family.  So here goes.

This picture was taken on Cannon's first day of his first dance class.  I swear he was not wearing a skirt-- rather baggy black shorts at a rather unfortunate angle for the picture.   It was a tap class at Wasatch Arts Center.  He was seven years old.  Cannon was such a performer and entertainer as a child.  Abe and I though he'd probably want to do some theater when he got older so he ought to have a bit of dance experience.  

HE LOVED IT!   

In his first little dance, they were baseball players.

I said, "You know, Cannon, if you really like dancing, maybe you'd want to do a ballet class-- because all good dancers have some ballet training."  

He readily agreed.  Was he the only boy in his class?  Yep!  But he didn't seem to care.  He really liked it.

We attended his first ballet performance-- the dance "Arabian Dance" from The Nutcracker".  Abe and I looked at each other and whispered, "Oh my!  He's better than the girls!"

So I called up Ballet West and said, "I have an 8 year-old boy that loves ballet and is pretty good at it.  What do you recommend we do?" 

Because of our location, they recommended we contact Jennie Creer-King, who was, at the time, the Principal of the Ballet West Thanksgiving Point campus.  Interestingly, our family and her family had been in the same large ward in Draper quite a few years back, so we sort of knew her.  We were struggling financially at the time and paying big bucks for big-time ballet training wasn't an option for us.  I was hoping praying for a scholarship for Cannon at Ballet West.  Jennie said that was a possibility, but first, we would need to pay $300 for him to do a summer intensive.  That doesn't seem like that much at this point, but it was a LOT to us then.  We felt strongly, this was something he needed to do.  The above picture was taken on his first day at Ballet West.

Here he is with his first evaluation at the end of that summer session.  He was so proud of himself and he LOVED BALLET even more.  Shortly after Cannon began at Ballet West, Jennie Creer-King moved on to other projects.  A lovely woman named Maricar took over as Principal and Cannon loved her.

So now he is 9 and at auditions for Ballet West's Nutcracker 2017.  

It was so exciting for him to be a party boy at the big downtown production!

Here are the party kids of his cast-- he is top right.  In a fun turn of events, he ended up dancing for many years with the gal on the bottom left-- Mariah Frisby-- whose mom will come into play a little later on.
He did end up getting a full scholarship to train at Ballet West.

Meanwhile, cutie little George started dance classes at Wasatch Arts Center.  

And wouldn't you know it, he loved ballet too.  So the two of them auditioned for Nutcracker the next year.

Psyching each other up for the big audition

Cannon was Fritz and George was a Party Boy.  That was almost more than my mother heart could handle.  They were so cute!

Here is Cannon's reaction to breaking the Nutcracker.  I remember he got a mention from the theater critic for the Deseret News saying how comically he danced the part.

You can see him just to the right of the flowers.  This was also the year that PBS produced a special about BW's Nutcracker that they boys are in.

George was soon to join Cannon training at Ballet West.  

And so continued the almost daily trips to Thanksgiving Point for dance classes.  I remember driving home one day with Cannon and he said, "I don't know what I would do if I couldn't dance.  I don't think life would be worth living."  It was a wee dramatic, but that was how he felt.  

 He liked his teachers and the harder they worked him, the more he seemed to thrive.

He didn't complain-- but he would be worn out by the time class was done.

It was about this time that his contemporary teacher-- Lindsay Folkman (pictured below)- said to me, referring to Cannon,  "Of all the boys I've ever taught, I've never had one work as hard as the girls."

He was in a production of Swan Lake

I believe this photo is from a parent observation in Spring of 2019

I think was the end of Summer Intensive.

The boys were in Oquirrh Mountain Ballet's Nutcracker for several years.

It's not Christmas time until the lights go down and the Nutcracker overture begins playing.   It LOVE that moment.

Cannon has always had such poise on stage-- he is a natural performer and immediately draws the audience in.

The BW Thanksgiving Point campus did it's own abridged Nutcracker production in late 2019

Remember, this was a late 2019 production.  About four months later....

BOOM!  COVID!  In person classes are cancelled.  Introducing Zoom ballet classes.  We all did what we had to do.

We limped our way through the last couple months of the dance year.

I believe this picture was taken on the last day of Summer Intensive.  It was also Cannon's last day at Ballet West.

Mid-summer I got a phone call from Mariah Frisby's mom.  She wanted to make sure I had heard that Jennie Creer-King was opening a new studio in Lehi--Central Utah Ballet.  It was just a bit farther south than Thanksgiving Point. Many of the teachers she had brought on while the principal there, and a great many of the students who had trained with those teachers, were going to this new studio.  

I had not heard anything about a mass exodus until that moment.  I felt VERY torn as to how to proceed.  Ballet West had been VERY good to us and a new studio was an unknown.  I emailed Jennie about what we envisioned for Cannon and ballet moving forward.  I explained to her that we had two items that were extremely important to us:

 1.  Gain the discipline, skill, and technique to be able to dance in college if he wanted to (preferably on scholarship) 

2.  And most importantly, we didn't want any teacher to ever discourage him going on a mission.

Those were our goals for him and while we thought Ballet West could very well help him achieve the first, we had concerns about the second.  Jennie, who currently had a son on a mission, assured me that she understood and the staff of Central Utah Ballet could and would support both goals.

With that, we decided to make the switch.  And that moment-- that switch point has proved to be providential. Central Utah Ballet (henceforth to be referred to as CUB) has a been a home away from home for Cannon, George, Peter, and Greta.  Jennie-Creer King has been a mentor and their second mother and we couldn't be more grateful.

Kudos to Jennie--opening a ballet studio in the thick of a pandemic is no easy feat.  And dancing in masks is no walk in the park!  Even now, looking at these pictures, I feel so bad for them.

Cannon 12 years old when he was placed in Junior Company. 

This piece, choreographed by Lindsay Folkman,was definitely one of my all-time favorites.

Cannon's personality and acting ability was brilliant

It was magical.

Jennie and the boys

Cannon and Maricar

Jr. Company 2021

A private lesson for the boys with Jennie

And just like that, it is Nutcracker season again.  This is a rehearsal at CUB

Nutcracker 2021 backstage at the Covey Center

A few weeks later was Oquirrh Mountain Ballet Nutcracker

Another all-time favorite, once again choreographed by Lindsay Folkman-- "Mr. Cellophane" from Chicago

It was brilliant!

Here is Lindsay with the boys

Cannon as the Nutcracker 2022

I've always loved this picture of the boys

All he wanted after the show was some Sunkist soda

I always loved it at shows when another parent would ask who my dancer was, and I could respond--"most of the boys in the show"

Parent Observation Spring 2023

Senior Company 2023

And just like that, it's time for Nutcracker rehearsals again

Finally Cannon could enjoy having another guy in Senior Company with him-- Jackson

Cannon danced the Chinese variation for six years at CUB-- here he is with the Jackson sisters.

It was about this time that Cannon stopped looking like a kid learning to dance, and finally began to look like a dancer.

Nutcracker 2024

The family has been SO good about coming out to support the dancers.  I especially credit the menfolk that have married into the family.  They didn't grow up attending the ballet-- not many young men do-- but they have been supportive and happily accepted this is part of the holiday season for their foreseeable future. Dare I say, they are becoming more appreciative and discerning audience members.

Midsummer's Night Dream 2025

And we're headed to Nutcracker 2025 dress rehearsals.  Cannon's last one.  

Now prepare yourself--- here are a lot of pictures.  I cannot help myself-- I love his final Nutcracker pictures so much

December Parent Observation 2025

Kudos to Cannon-- at the beginning of summer 2025 he started hitting the gym and being extremely mindful of his diet.  He really transformed his body and it showed!

We were all on cloud nine at this point, because Cannon had recently learned he had been offered a full tuition scholarship to dance ballet at Brigham Young University.

The final production was Hansel and Gretel

Pay no mind to the misspelling on the poster.

Quite possibly the last production all four of them will be in together.

At the beginning of each show, the seniors came out on stage and announced how long they'd been with Jennie and what their plans were following graduation.  I'll be honest when I say, this was a moment both Abe and I had looked forward to for a long time.  We are very proud of Cannon and who he has become and what he is planning for the future. His ballet training has A LOT to do with those things.

Brianna made Cannon such an awesome cash bouquet!  

Bethany and Ben came to the show on another night.  Faith and Landen were on their honeymoon in Hawaii.  It was a reasonable reason to miss the show.

Ruthie was Cannon's Gretel and she was his Snow Queen in Nutcracker.  She is a gorgeous dancer and she'll be at BYU dancing as well.

And MAJOR credit to Abe-- he is a very good dance dad!  He has always been so supportive and has spent many, many hours driving back and forth from Lehi in the afternoons and evenings while I'm teaching piano. 

We are grateful for the example Cannon has been to his younger siblings.  He has led the way in ballet and they are all reaping the benefits.

Jennie with Cannon at his final parent observation.  Let it be noted, I was in absolute tears at this point.

Jennie's generosity in providing scholarships to Cannon has changed the trajectory of his life.  She and her staff at Central Utah Ballet taught him discipline, respect, stage presence,  respect for women,  punctuality, responsibility, focus, appreciation for the what is beautiful in the world and a desire for a strong, healthy body.  To say I'm grateful doesn't begin to express how I feel about Jennie Creer-King.  She is all of our kids' favorite teacher.  They've all said they like her because she pushes them hard, and while she is not mean, they really don't want to disappoint her.  She expects a lot from her dancers and they deliver.

I will gratefully share the title of Mother with her.