SF Ballet School student gives back as a teacher’s aide

Two years after joining the school’s full-time program, she has completed its top level, finished high school online and become bilingual. The always celebratory event will mark the stage debut for the school’s dozens of ballet hopefuls. “She had a really great work ethic and lovely physicality,” he recalls of the then-13-year-old dancer, who had already been training for seven years. Messaoudi’s sound-engineer father, child-caregiver mother and three sisters have always supported her dancing, and they encouraged her new goal of training at the Ballet School — but the tuition proved beyond the family’s reach. “I thought she was somebody who deserved to be helped,” says Armand, who secured a scholarship to cover her tuition and board. Since her arrival, Messaoudi has returned the school’s generosity by volunteering as a girls’ teaching assistant in the Community Scholarship Program. Started in 1979 and currently taught by faculty members Pollyana Ribeiro and Jeffrey Lyons, the program sponsors twice-weekly ballet classes for 60 San Francisco public-school kids, ages 7-9, and provides them with dance attire. At the end of the September-May term, kids with exceptional aptitude and enthusiasm may be invited to join the school full time; Ballet corps member Sean Bennett is one of the program’s success stories. Maynard’s piece is one of several sophisticated works planned — the Showcase is as well known for its repertory as for the pageant of class demonstrations that starts with the 9-year-old beginners. John Neumeier’s “Yondering” and an excerpt from Petipa’s classical “Le Corsaire” are on the bill, along with contemporary works by Ballet soloist James Sofranko and corps de ballet dancer Wei Wang.