Dreaming in Dance: Scholarship program removes barriers to young ballet talents – Argonaut News
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Updated: September 11, 2025 @ 12:27 am
Adrian Mitchell gives corrections to Karson St. Claire who is a new rising talent training at Westside Ballet in Santa Monica.
Eight-year-old Karson St. Claire practices on a barre.
Westside Ballet’s new rising star Karson St. Claire works on her technique.
Dance to Dreams is a scholarship program launched in 2022 to give children ages 5 to 12 from underserved communities access to professional-level training.
Adrian Mitchell gives corrections to Karson St. Claire who is a new rising talent training at Westside Ballet in Santa Monica.
Eight-year-old Karson St. Claire started out twirling in her living room. Eight-year-old Leah Reyes can still remember the first song that made her dance when she was just two. Today, both girls are training at Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica, their dreams taking shape on a stage they once could only imagine.
Their journeys began with Dance to Dreams, a scholarship program launched in 2022 by former Mikhailovsky Ballet soloist Adrian Blake Mitchell, now its artistic director. Created to give children ages 5 to 12 from underserved communities access to professional-level training, the program covers tuition, transportation, meals and supplies — opening doors to students who might otherwise never step inside a ballet studio.
From the moment faculty met Karson at a Dance to Dreams workshop, they recognized her focus and natural ability. What began as a trial summer class turned into a path toward serious ballet training at Westside School of Ballet, where Mitchell also serves as associate executive director.
“She was very, very talented to the point where when we have guest faculty from a major dance school or company, she still stands out to them. It’s pretty spectacular,” Mitchell said. “Those kinds of talents don’t come around often. We’re very lucky to have found her and have her in the school and she’s very lucky to have landed in the right place for her development as a dancer.”
Eight-year-old Karson St. Claire practices on a barre.
The Dance to Dreams program began as a single-day pilot with 28 students and then evolved into a 3-day workshop in 2023 and week-long intensives in 2024 and 2025.
While the Dance to Dreams program targets underserved youth who might not otherwise have access to ballet, the scholarships are merit-based, a way of giving those with talent an opportunity to cultivate their abilities. This year, five students received full scholarships to the Westside School of Ballet.
“It’s just so important that the most talented dancers, from the most underserved neighborhoods, get access to scholarships,” Mitchell said. “I want to work with kids who have said to themselves, ‘I’ve been dying for it.’ I’m living proof you can have this life, and that’s what I want to share — that there is something there for them too.”
The 2025 workshop gave students daily instruction in classical ballet, jazz, contemporary and hip-hop dance. All participants were given ballet shoes, program t-shirts and any needed supplies. Community partners such as Urth Café, California Pizza Kitchen and Coral Tree Café provided free lunches for participants while HopSkipDrive helped students get to and from the classes.
“Transportation has been one of the biggest barriers preventing underserved youth from accessing quality arts education,” said Jewels Solheim-Roe, Community Outreach & Media Development coordinator for Westside Ballet. “HopSkipDrive’s sponsorship of our Dance to Dreams program has been transformative — providing safe, reliable rides for students traveling from communities like Inglewood, Baldwin Hills, and Venice to our Santa Monica studios.”
Westside Ballet’s new rising star Karson St. Claire works on her technique.
Solheim-Roe said the partnership has helped them provide ballet experiences to more than 160 underserved youth.
Mitchell said scholarship winners are students who can embrace the demands of ballet. He said they want to make sure that the children they offer scholarships to are able to take the most advantage of it.
“That involves a multitude of things — having a body that wants to dance and feels comfortable dancing, having some sort of natural coordination,” Mitchell said. “Also, a dance studio is a very specific place. It takes a lot of discipline. It takes a really intense sense of focus to be able to even get through a ballet class, let alone do it every day for the rest of your life — or at least your dancing career.”
Mitchell said they look for students who can adapt to the environment, and that sometimes means having them wait a year and mature a little before joining the full-time program. For those students, they offer a Sunday outreach class so they can continue to develop their talents before taking on full-time training.
Leah Reyes, one of the children whose talent and skill qualified her for a scholarship, is clear about what she wants to do.
“When I was two, I heard a song and I started dancing,” she said. “I knew that was what I really liked to do. I also want to be a dance teacher when I’m big.”
Her mother, Nancy Reyes, said that from the time Leah was a little girl, she loved to dance. As she got older, she would put on costumes and perform shows for her family.
“We knew that she had talent,” Reyes said, adding that she was glad they found the Dance to Dreams program that let her daughter grown and learn more. “It’s an amazing program. The kids can really express what they love to do. They introduce the art of dancing to the kids.”
Dance to Dreams is a scholarship program launched in 2022 to give children ages 5 to 12 from underserved communities access to professional-level training.
Mitchell described Leah, who is now in level two, as “very smart and hard working and talented.”
Mitchell said the process for selecting students for the scholarship is rigorous and it means that many of them become leaders in their classes and the top dancers at their respective levels. He expects that some of them will have successful dance careers and rise to the top of the art form.
The program also benefits the other dancers at the Westside School of Ballet.
“It helps the entire class,” Mitchell said. “Everyone benefits by seeing the determination and focus of some of the kids that have come through Dance to Dreams.”
Mitchell said they’ve been focused on young children because it gives them more time to develop their skills.
“A ballet body is more flexible, more easy to mold at a young age,” Mitchell said. “So, we try to catch them under the age of 10.”
After three years of dancing at the Westside School of Ballet, Karson has skipped two levels and at age 8 will be dancing her first Nutcracker this year. Earlier this year, she danced in the company’s gala performance.
“She picks up material very quickly,” Mitchell said. “We have a syllabus for the little ones — four- and five-year olds — but it’s much more about creative movement, coordination and musicality. But we could see that (Karson) had a focus. She wanted to do a tendu (extending the leg by sliding the foot across the floor). She wanted to do plié (a smooth, controlled knee bend). She wanted to do ballet technique. She progressed faster than most do through the primary program.”
Karson, who comes from a family of athletes, said she started dancing at home.
“When I dance, it makes me happy,” Karson said, talking about how turning is her favorite part of ballet. “I’m the youngest in my class.”
Karson’s mother, Hajar St. Claire, said that the Dance to Dreams scholarship made it possible for Karson to study as did the transportation HopSkipDrive provides. Without it, ballet would have been out of reach.
“It’s humbling and it’s a beautiful presentation,” St. Claire said. “It definitely makes me cry a lot. You get teared up seeing her perform. But when people are given a gift, I’m just here to nurture it and I’m just happy to be able to do that.”
Mitchell said the parental support also makes a difference for Karson.
“They’re very committed,” Mitchell said. “They want the best for her and they trust me as her teacher, but they’re incredibly committed to her and her development.”
Mitchell said that cultivating young talent like Karson was part of the reason he founded Dance to Dreams.
“It was about providing opportunities, but it was a little bit more selfish,” Mitchell said. “I wanted to make a difference in the industry. It was very important to me that we were able to develop talent (like Karson) and provide opportunities for them to flourish. I’m happy to see that happening.”
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