Ballet means
Fortunately, the school knows Erica is Jewish and supports her when they can. The cafeteria is quick to serve up chicken when pork is on the menu, and when she is fasting for Yom Kippur, the school doesn't make her dance. They don't want her to faint in the midst of a performance.
"I've had to fast now for about three to four years," she says. "It's kind of hard, but I know it's something I have to do because it's part of the religion."
Maintaining the Jewish holidays far from home is tough enough, but for Erica the first year of ballet school posed another hurdle — she was not only the youngest student, but the only Jewish student in her class. Since then support has come from unexpected places. One of the school's counsellors is Jewish, and also worked summers in Camp Hatikvah in the Okana-gan. It's almost like finding someone from home, says Erica. The teen also discovered a senior student was Jewish and convinced her to attend synagogue together.
Erica started dancing at age three, trying out everything from tap dancing to Highland dancing before she settled on classical ballet. By the time she was 12, she had been accepted at the Royal Winnipeg school. But tuition fees near those of a university, and
the family needed some help. Kelowna's Jewish community embraced Erica's ambition and she became the first to receive a community education scholarship. Before she knew it. Erica was off on a plane headed for Winnipeg where her mother's family promised to save a seat for her in the Rosh Pina synagogue.
"Moving away from home was really hard the first year," says Erica, who readily admits she sometimes phoned her mom just to hear her say goodnight. "Now I do my own laundry and vacuuming — Tm really independent. It's just leaving that's hard."
Erica gets two weeks holidays in the winter, another one during spring and then, if she passes her exan}s, is expected to return for summer school. Between dancing, keeping up with regular school classes, along with correspondence school during the summer months, it's a grueling schedule. But Erica doesn't mind. She just wants to dance.
"I like all of it," she says. "It's a bit of everything. I like it when the dancer keeps in time to the music, flows with it, has a nice expression on her face and can show that she loves it. I want to continue with it as far as I can, and if I don't get into the Winnipeg company, there's lots I can try out for." n
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