Auburn’s Charmaine Butcher started dancing ballet to be like her big sister. But it didn’t take long for younger sister Charmaine to dance out of older sister Margo’s shadow.
Margo wore her ballet slippers only a year, while Charmaine has been a ballerina the last seven years.
As a performer for Evergreen City Ballet in Renton, Charmaine has danced in several productions. She’s played leads in “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker.”
But no role so big as her lead in this weekend’s “Cinderella.”
“… It’s really cool and exciting, but also it’s really scary ‘cause it’s my first really big lead role, so there’s pressure and stress,” Charmaine says. “But it will definitely be worth it…”
Performing, with “all those lights and stuff,” is Charmaine’s favorite part of ballet. She becomes energized while on stage in front of a crowd of faces.
“It’s a feeling that’s so hard to describe,” she says.
As Cinderella in Cast A, Charmaine will be on stage most of the 90-minute performance.
Dancing that long isn’t the biggest challenge for her though.
“The hardest part, the newest part, is all the acting,” Charmaine says. “You’re Cinderella, so you have to be sweet and sad and all the parts.”
Without talking.
It was Charmaine’s skill at conveying all those emotions that helped land her the role as Cast A’s Cinderella. ECB artistic director Kevin Kaiser and ECB Ballet Mistress Andi Bryndza cast the production. Kaiser is directing and Bryndza is staging “Cinderella.”
“She has a really great acting ability that makes her perfect for this role,” Bryndza says.
Because she was the understudy for “The Nutcracker” lead last year, Charmaine suspected she may be tapped for Cinderella. But she didn’t think she’d actually get the part.
“I’m only 15 …” she says.
Also 15 is Cinderella’s Prince Charming, James Pfleger.
Fifteen is “very young to be able to do a full-length role,” Bryndza says.
Charmaine is just getting started. When she turns 18, she plans to become a company girl at ECB, which means she would get paid to dance. She then plans to attend college and ultimately become a professional dancer.
“It’s like my art, it’s everything,” Charmaine says of ballet.
The homeschooled Charmaine dances at ECB most every day, Tuesdays through Saturdays, and sometimes Sundays. She can cast off any bad mood at the Renton studio.
“I’m not the kind of person who expresses myself through talking a lot,” she says. “I definitely feel like I can express myself through dance.”
Charmaine says she is both excited and nervous for her spin as Cinderella. But her excitement outweighs her nerves.
“I’m really excited to say I am Cinderella and I am 15,” she says. “I don’t know, it just seems really cool to be able to say that.”
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SHOWTIMES
• Evergreen City Ballet’s “Cinderella” is at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday at IKEA Performing Arts Center, 400 S. Second St. Tickets are $18-$38. For tickets or more information, visit www.evergreencityballet.org,
call 425-228-6800 or e-mail info@evergreencityballet.org.
• Charmaine Butcher is
Cinderella in Cast A, which performs Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
