Dancer Ailis Kinney stars as Clara in Pacific Festival Ballet’s performance of the classic ballet
“It’s magical when you have a dancer like Ailis!” exclaimed Romy Rapoport, who instructs Ailis Kinney, a Malibu High School student, as she discussed Kinney’s forthcoming performance of the lead role as Clara in “The Nutcracker,” which will be performed by the Pacific Festival Ballet, a resident company of Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Plaza, at that venue at 2 and 7 p.m. on Dec. 21.
“I’m so excited for Ailis — it’s like she has lived her whole life to do this role,” Rapoport said. “She is every teacher’sdream and she is very focused and just pours her heart into it, and she is talented, gorgeous, and beautiful, yet so respectful and sweet.”
The roles of Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier will be performed by Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia, principal dancers with the New York City Ballet. The performances by those master dancers will be most impressive and not to be missed, especially since Peck is widely recognized as one of the top American ballerinas of our time, whom The New York Times once described as “the ballerina who can stop time — and restart it too.”
California Dance Theater was founded in 1985 and is a Westlake Village facility that has five studios spanning over 10,000 square feet with more than 30 teachers on staff, Ailis’ very proud father, Brendan Kinney said. “Artistic Director Kim Maselli is a former member of American Ballet Theatre II, Joffrey Concert Group, LA Ballet, LA Chamber Ballet and numerous film and television appearances,” he said. “Kim is also the artistic director of PFT, and she has staged full-scale productions of ‘Swan Lake,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Cinderella,’ ‘The Nutcracker,’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Her original ballets include ‘Heaven & Hell’ … ‘The Journey,’ ‘Mary Poppins,’ ‘Peter Pan,’ and ‘The Secret Garden,’ and her most recent collaborations with composer Eric Allaman are world premieres of ‘The Sea Princess,’ ‘Noah’s Ark’ and ‘Camelot.’”
Rapoport elaborated about Ailis’s precise and agile ballet performances.
“Ailis pours her heart into her dancing,” she said. “I have watched her grow up in ballet and have been most impressed as she always has carefully observed dancers performing in the role she wants to do — it’s a distinct pleasure to work with her.”
Ailis will be joined on stage by her younger sister Ronan Kinney, who, Rapoport notes, will herself “perform a very technical and demanding role, as well as by her father, Brendan Kinney, who will be one of the male actors in the Nutcracker’s party scene.
“Brendan is a good, strong father and Ailis’s family is a special, beautiful family. It’s so special and sweet to have all three of them in ‘The Nutcracker.’”
Attaining such accolades derives from years of ballet practice and instruction, her mother Kathleen Kinney notes, stating, “Ailis practices at least 30 hours a week and that’s before one counts her rehearsals.”
How in the world does she balance her ballet craft and her academics? By being very rigorous and adhering to a very strong work ethic.
“I participate in the Independent Study Program at Malibu High School, mostly learning remotely,” said the most impressively focused Ailis. “I only go to MHS campus to take my French class.”
The Malibu Times reached out to the MHS ISP program to inquire about Ailis as an academician.
“I know I speak for all three members of the Malibu High School independent study program (ISP) teaching team — myself, Chris Cullen and Nancy Levy — when I say that it is absolutely our pleasure to work with Ailis Kinney,” said Jill Matthews, an Independent Study Program teacher at Malibu High School. “She is strongly committed to her academic studies and brings joyful positivity to her learning and to all that she does.”
Her future’s so bright, she has to wear shades!
When The Malibu Times asked Ailis what intensive class she hopes to participate in next summer, she said she’sundecided, but notes that she participated in Carolina Ballet one summer.
When asked what she hopes to do in the future, she responds that she is considering both an academic and a pre-professional dance experience.
When asked about whether The Malibu Times should reach out to Peck to discuss her upcoming performance as Clara and about her ballet abilities — a question the journalist asked because Tiler has watched Ailis grow as a ballerina, the shy, somewhat embarrassed teen dancer responded, “Oh My! No! That would be like asking a coach about his students!”
That humble response didn’t surprise Rapoport. “Aside from Ailis being so talented and gorgeous, she is humble and shy,” she said.
Rapoport, Mr. and Mrs. Kinney, all who admire and support Ailis’s burgeoning ballet craft, know that one day, a publication somewhere may well report something to the effect that Ailis too is, “a ballerina who can stop time — and restart it too.”
Clearly, it is her time to shine.