New Dancers August 18,2003 As the Carolina Ballet’s national reputation grows, so does the Company. Six years ago Robert Weiss launched the first season with a company of 20 dancers. Carolina Ballet begins the 2003-2004 season with 37. As in past years, the company continues to be enriched by dancers of diverse nationalities and backgrounds. Along with the new dancers, Carolina Ballet welcomes back a founding member of the company, Edgar Vardanian, originally from Armenia, who is returning after three years at the North Carolina Dance Theater in Charlotte. Three of the dancers, Zlato Fegundes, Radoslaw Kokoszka and apprentice Miriam Rowan are graduates of the School of American Ballet in New York City. All three graduated from the program in the spring, having completed their academic work at a school for performing arts. Miriam, a native New Yorker, spent 7 years at the school, Zlato, originally from Brazil, 6 years, and Radoslaw, nearly 10 years. “I was in the second class of the ‘Young Boys’ Program.’ I started at nine.” He then explains, “The program was begun as a special incentive to get boys into dance.” His parents, both dancers, came to the United States from Poland when he was four. Several of the new company members have performed with Carolina Ballet in past productions. Wei Ni, who comes to the company from the Pittsburgh Ballet, is a native of China. He danced in last season’s Fairy Tales program. Simon Hoy performed in last year’s Nutcracker. A graduate of the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, he joins the company after dancing in Denmark for four years. What brought him to Carolina Ballet? “I’d heard good things about the company,” he says, echoing several others, “and I was ready to make a change.” Myrna Kamara, an American who resides in Switzerland, will also join the company. She has danced as a guest in previous productions. Four of our new apprentices have appeared with the company in previous performances as well. Yvette Summer is from Raleigh and has been trained at the Raleigh School of Ballet. She has danced in our productions for the past two seasons. She is a graduate of Enloe High School and says she’s happy to be able to continue her career in her home town. Also from North Carolina, Heather Waymack comes from the North Carolina School of the Arts. She danced in the first Nutcracker. Samantha Boik, coming from Milwaukee Ballet, and Eszter Toth both performed in Messiah and Fairy Tales last season. Eszter comes from Hungary by way of Nashville, where her husband continues to reside. “We’ll see each other every other weekend or so,” she says somewhat wistfully. The mention of a long-distance relationship brings us back to Edgar. After three years in Charlotte he’s returning to Carolina Ballet…and to his fiancee, Heather Eberhardt, a member of the company. Will they be dancing together? "We get to dance a pas de deux in the ‘Allegro Brillante,’" he beams. "Then maybe next summer back home we’ll dance at a big Armenian wedding."