WENDY ROLLIN

Special to The Jewish News

1

1here's something
about graceful
young girls and bal-
let. Slender limbs
and wistful poses.
Tutus, taffeta and dreams of
pas de deux. The dance is
romance and who knows
where it will lead.

Sitting in the living room of
her family's Farmington Hills
home, 14-year-old ballerina
Bonnie-Elizabeth Dock is a
picture of delicacy and
discipline. Petite for a dancer,
not quite 5'2", her posture is
tall, her manner composed.
Fair-haired and daintily slim,
she wears black suede slip-
pers adorned with tiny gold
stars, musical notes and dan-
cing figures.
In a markedly gentle voice,
she describes her footwork

thus far and steps yet to be
taken.
"When I dance I feel free
and able to express all my
feelings," Bonnie says.
"There's a great satisfaction
in knowing I can excel in
something difficult."
However her future is
ultimately choreographed,
Bonnie has already made
some pretty impressive leaps.
For the past two summers,
she's been one of an elite
corps of dance students
selected to study at the
prestigious School of
American Ballet in New
York. Out of several thousand
applicants, only 200 were
chosen in a national audition
tour. Bonnie was one of three
from Michigan.
During five-week sessions
in both 1989 and 1990, she
and her mother, Beverly
Dock, took an apartment
near the Juilliard building

where the ballet school is
housed.
"I love New York City," Bon-
nie says. "And it was very ex-
citing to be at the school
where so many famous
dancers had trained."
A celebrated alumnae is
Suzanne Farrell, recently
retired prima ballerina,
choreographer George Balan-
chine's enduring inspiration
and Bonnie Dock's cherished
role model. In 1988, Bonnie
spent the summer with Far-
rell and her husband Paul
Majia, director of the Fort
Worth Ballet. Each year they
invite 12 young dancers to
live and study with them at
their studio/home in the
Adirondack Mountains.
"They're very special peo-
ple," Bonnie says with obvious
admiration and affection.
Beyond pointe classes and
barre exercises, Beverly
Docks adds, Farrell also cook-
ed oatmeal breakfasts for her

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 81