A ballet for Mother's Day

When Keiko Sagami was a toddler she loved to move around and make noise, so much so that her mother, Kelly, enrolled her in dance classes at the age of three. At the time Kelly had no idea that she was setting up her daughter, who is currently a freshman at Bigfork High School, for over a decade of dancing, or that it eventually would turn into a Mother's Day surprise for her.

Kelly knew that her daughter would be performing in The Northwest Ballet Company's annual Mother's Day show, which took place on Saturday and Sunday at Flathead High School, but Keiko decided to keep what parts she was assigned a secret, as well as the not-so-minor detail that she had received her first solo.

"My mom has always been a huge part of my life," Keiko said. "She's really important to me so I wanted to do something special for her for Mother's Day and surprise her."

For her debut solo, Keiko danced Kitri's variation from Don Quixote, a Spanish-style dance.

"It was really exciting," Keiko said of her solo performance. "I was full of adrenaline I guess. Right before I went on I had to take some alone time. I stood in the wing and closed my eyes for about a minute and tried to relax."

After the show Keiko asked her mom if she was surprised about the solo, and Kelly finally revealed that she had seen a poster for the show while buying tickets that mentioned Keiko as a soloist.

"Apparently she couldn't help herself," Keiko said.

Even though it wasn't s surprise, Kelly still got to see a great performance.

"Keiko was spectacular," NWBC Artistic Director Marisa Roth said of her performances. "She was strong, consistent, dynamic and a pleasure to watch both in her solo and throughout her group dances. I'm very proud of her hard work and her dedication to the art, and I think the audiences this weekend benefited from that as well. She is a beautiful asset to her Northwest Ballet Company."

Her other two parts in the show were much different, which keeps to the company's tradition of their Mother's Day show being a mix of many different kinds of dance. Keiko opened the show, titled "A Night at the Classics," with three other girls performing a piece called "Pas de Quatre," which she describes as a dainty, classic dance. Keiko and the rest of the girls closed the show with a performance of "One" from the movie "A Chorus Line."

"A lot of this show is about the solos and duets," said Roth, who has worked with Keiko for three years. "It was time for Keiko to step out and take on a solo."

Keiko started taking ballet classes when she moved to Bigfork while in the 5th grade from Texas, where she had been taking just tap and jazz dance classes. Her mom wanted to sign her up for jazz classes at the NWBC's school in Kalispell, but felt that they were too advanced for Keiko and that she would need some ballet training to prepare for the new school.

"I took a couple of classes and ended up really liking it and never switched back to jazz," Keiko said. "I really like that with ballet you go into the studio and you can let go of everything else. You have to focus on what you're doing so you aren't thinking about anything else. It's very relaxing."

While taking ballet with NWBC, she also took tap for two years and hip hop for one year through Feet By Feet in Kalispell. Then she switched to taking tap with NWBC as well.

Over the years Keiko has performed in several shows, including the "Nutcracker." Her first year in ballet she played the role of a soldier in the Christmas classic. She has since worked her way up, and this year performed as a Russian dancer. At last year's Mother's Day show she took on the part of a blue fariy in the company's performance of a "Mid-Summers Night's Dream." Though she said that the Nutcracker is a bigger show, her parts in last weekend's show were the biggest Keiko has ever performed.

"I feel like I've been working really hard for this," Keiko said. "I'm really excited to get to do something on my own, but it's definitely not something I expected."

While rehearing for the solo Keiko said that it was lonely and she had to try harder to focus since she was practicing without other dancers.

"It started with a great excitement that she got the solo and that helped her get into her role," Roth said. "It has been a challenge for her just like it has been for all of the dancers. It doesn't come easy, but they do a good job of getting there."

The dancers were assigned their parts at the end of February and rehearsals began for the show a couple of weeks later. All of the company members were assigned three parts and guest dancers were given two. Rehearsals for the show were three times a week, a continued testament of Keiko's commitment to dance.

"Her commitment is unwavering," Roth said. "She's very prompt and prepared. She is a very dedicated person."

Even when there isn't a show to prepare for, Keiko still fills her time with dance. She attends ballet class twice a week, pointe once a week and tap class once a week.

"Dance is really important to me," Keiko said. "I love to hear the music and express myself through movement. It is very freeing and relaxing."

Keiko attended a two-day dance workshop last month in Missoula hosted by the Montana Dance Arts Association, part of which included auditioning for scholarships for local and out-of-state summer camps. Keiko ended up receiving a scholarship to a camp at her top in-state choice of schools, "On Center Performing Arts' in Missoula.

During the winter sports season she tried a new type of dance, she joined the BHS cheerleading squad.

"I've always liked dancing and I'm very much a people person so I had always thought about trying it," Keiko said. "Between dance performances there's a little bit of time, which happened to be basketball season."

So, Keiko used her time off from dance performances to learn some new things and revisit some skills from her past.

"I loved cheerleading," Keiko said. "It was so much fun and I learned so much with the dancing and stunting. In stunting I learned how to use the muscles in my body better. The dance was in a sense like jazz. So it was good time memories. It was nice to be able to do it again."

In fact, her dance routines in cheerleading made her miss jazz so much that she will likely be adding jazz classes to her schedule next year, as well as modern dance.

As for goals further into the future, Keiko said that she would like to be able to keep dancing after high school and even plans on auditioning for some national companies when the time comes. However, she also has a backup plan of going to medical school and becoming an orthodontist.

Her interests vary in other ways as well. She was a member of the BHS golf team this year and she is part of the school Book Club and Interact, which is a school community service program aligned with Rotary Club.