Planting seeds of dance

Datyon, Ohio – Her name means flower.

Appropriate, as Xochi Atienza of the Dayton Ballet helps her art bloom with younger audiences. Xochi dances in the cast of Who Wants to be a Dancer? playing October 17 at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts as part of the Fitton Family Fridays series.

“I just kind of came out of the womb dancing,” she said. “From a very young age I knew what I wanted to do.”

Both her parents were professional dancers – her mom worked with the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, among others – and Xochi loved to dance. But growing up in Maryland and the Washington D.C. area, she didn’t necessarily want to follow in their footsteps.

“The parents being dancers as a little kid didn’t always go well,” she said with a chuckle. “I didn’t always want to listen to their advice and just wanted to do my own thing. But they’ve always been very supportive, which I appreciate now. They understand what it takes to work in the arts, in the dance world.”

From the nation’s capital, Xochi went on to train in Orlando and study with the renowned Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. This is her second season with Dayton Ballet’s Studio Company.

She and her fellow Studio Company Dancers recently appeared in the Dayton Ballet mainstage production of Giselle - opening the day before her October 11 birthday - in front of an audience that included her parents and grandmother.

Thrilling as that production was, performing for children has its own rewards.

“The reaction from the kids is absolutely worth everything,” Xochi said. “There are always kids who have never seen a ballet and are amazed. There are kids who are hanging on every word and watching every move.

“(Ballet) can be such an exclusive art form. It’s not always available to kids in every community. It’s very rewarding to be part of a company that brings this form of art to people for the first time.”

Tickets for Who Wants to be a Dancer are $9 for Fitton Center members, $11 for non-members, and are available online right here, by phone at 513-863-8873, ext. 110 and in person at the Fitton Center box office.

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