Two local dancers are set to compete in an elite international ballet competition this month. After winning the semi-finals in Detroit, MI, Isabella Simonie, 15, and Lucy Cusenza,11, will represent compete in the finals of the World Ballet Arts Competition (W.B.A.C) in Niagara Falls, Nov. 14-15. The pair practice six days a week at the Windsor Ballet Academy. “She’s kind of mischievous but nice and fun,” said Simonie, about the character she is performing from ‘Le Corsair Gulnara Variation,’ a high energy classical ballet solo from the ballet Le Corsaire. “I like performing it because it brings out a side of me, I can’t really bring out when I’m just talking.” Cusenza is performing a character from Flames of Paris, a ballet that depicts the events of the French Revolution. “There’s a lot of turns, pirouettes, leg lifts, arabesques,” details Cusenza. “When you’re backstage, you start to get a little bit nervous because there’s a lot of people in the crowd but it’s kind of like exciting.” McGuire, a former professional ballet dancer herself, is a teacher and owner of Windsor Ballet Academy. “I was 13 when I started. That’s very late. But I was lucky enough to find a really great teacher in the States that we drove six days a week to. And she taught me everything,” she said. “I ended up going to schools in Winnipeg, Washington and Belarus…and later danced in productions like Sleeping Beauty with a company in Belarus.” She decided to return home to Windsor and open a studio to help train the next generation of ballet dancers. “It’s great to win, but the goal is always for them to learn a little bit, try to get a scholarship, maybe to a big school somewhere,” said teacher and owner Riley McGuire, Windsor Ballet Academy.
