Shaela Yeager (center) stretches at the bar at the beginning of the advanced level ballet class at Munro Ballet Studio located at 5610 Everhart Rd. Behind her are Cheyanne Roland (left) and Alex Morgan, working with instructor Heidi Erin Alford. Photo by Carrie Robertson Meyer/Third Coast Photo
Christmas begins early at the Munro Ballet Studios in Corpus Christi. While others drag boogie boards to the beach and plan trips to band camp, the students and faculty at Munro are prepping for fall registration and auditions to their biggest annual production: “The Nutcracker.”
Performed by the Corpus Christi Ballet, “The Nutcracker” utilizes more than 150 dancers and actors. As the official school of the city’s professional ballet company, Munro provides a large portion of the young dancers who will grace the stage of Selena Auditorium as sugar plum fairies, snowflakes and warring mice.
School founder Cristina Sterling Munro serves as artistic director of the Corpus Christi Ballet. Her daughter, Alexandra Trevino, is assistant director. Trevino danced with the Corpus Christi Ballet for eight years and now teaches at the studio, which has a faculty of 15 instructors. Four of them dance professionally.
Munro has been dancing since the age of 9. As a child, she traveled six months out of the year to perform. Born in England, where she first became a professional dancer, she has taught ballet nationally and won an Emmy for a television special on ballet. She has danced with the Dutch National Ballet and the London Festival Ballet to name a few.
Munro has lived in Corpus Christi for 30 years now, placing a permanent stamp on the city’s cultural heart. She has been in charge of annual “Nutcracker” performance the entire three decades.
Also a professional dancer, Trevino was a principal with the Corpus Christi Ballet company after a stint with the Louisville Ballet. Along with the Corpus Christi Ballet company, she and her mother produce two major performances a year. The 2015-16 season will include a full-length “Swan Lake,” Munro told Corpus Christi Business News.
“Certain ballets are sacred,” Munro said. “Choreography is handed down generation to generation. It has to be done a certain way.”
Classes at the Munro Ballet Studios include classical ballet as well as jazz, tap, hip-hop, pointe, pas de deux and lyrical.
“It’s good to cover all styles because some dancers are comfortable in one style more than the other,” Munro said. “It’s good for them to be versatile if they are really serious about dance.”
Although adult classes are offered, the heart of Munro lies with its youngest dancers. From 3 years old to high school students, it was the children who drew Munro to Corpus Christi in the first place.
“I was in Houston, and came down here to stage a ballet and teach a summer course by the people who had the studio before me,” she said. “They were getting ready to retire and told me I needed to come here, that it was a great place to raise kids, and so I did and it was.”
Dance grows students in more ways than just the physical, she said.
“Mentally, it can be stimulating for students who have to connect music with dance and telling a story,” Munro continued. “A love of dance makes the student much more active and less likely to have a problem.”
Students from Munro grow up to become doctors and lawyers, she said, achieving success that comes from learning to focus and commit to reaching a goal. Dance can provide that and more in a child’s life.
“They learn good discipline and life skills,” Munro said. “The biggest reward is watching the students grow and enjoy dancing.”
Trevino agreed.
“Sometimes, students come back years later and say they loved their childhood and dancing here,” she said. “It makes me feel good to know I contributed and made them feel good about themselves.”
To find out more about classes at Munro Ballet Studios, 5610 Everhart Road, visit the website at munroballetstudios.com or call 361-991-6151.
