A cygnet no more

Young Chang

The circle began when Catherine Sebring saw a newspaper photo of the

Sugar Plum Fairy wearing a tiara and standing en pointe. She was 3 then.

She told her mother she wanted to be a ballerina.

The circle continued with ballet classes, years of training at New

York’s School of American Ballet and a slew of competitions including the

Disneyland Creativity Challenge.

Sebring’s life now comes full circle as the 20-year-old ballerina

returns to the Orange County Performing Arts Center -- where she first

danced 11 years ago as a Party Girl in “The Nutcracker” -- as part of the

swan corps for American Ballet Theatre’s production of “Swan Lake,” to be

staged Tuesday through Feb. 17.

“We’re very excited for her to come back as a professional after

dancing there as a child,” said mother Donna Marie Sebring of Newport

Beach. “It’s a major accomplishment.”

Though she is not dancing a principal role like Julie Kent or Paloma

Herrera, the 20-year-old Sebring’s role in the show’s corps is a personal

spotlight because family and friends will be watching.

“We have family coming from all the way around the U.S. -- Chicago,

West Virginia and Colorado,” Donna Marie Sebring said.

Catherine Sebring’s apprenticeship with the American Ballet Theatre is

one bit of proof that she is living her dream. The fact that she gets

more scared now than she did as a child going on stage shows she knows

more, therefore can fear more.

And the simple fact that she’s never satisfied with her skills

signifies that Sebring has become a professional.

“You constantly need to be improving,” the Newport Beach native said.

“There’s always something more you can improve on. It’s kinda like you’re

never really perfect. But you’re always striving to be.”

Sebring remembers being younger and picturing the life of a

professional ballerina. It was all glamour and beauty, she thought.

“That was, of course, being on the outside looking in,” she said.

She’s since learned it’s a lot of work, a lot of diligence, and for a

while was a lot of juggling between school and rehearsals, filled with

long walks to get from one place to the next in wintry New York.

Sebring left her Corona del Mar home, where her first pair of pink

pointe shoes are framed in her room, when she was 16. She studied at the

School of American Ballet and attended a professional children’s high

school in New York at the same time.

“It was a little scary,” Sebring said of life on her own. “Very fast,

very busy, very cold. But it was what I wanted to do. It was the best

ballet training I could’ve gotten at the time.”

When life got upsetting or sad, she’d call her mom and vent.

“As an adult, you know all the things she’s gonna miss,” Donna Marie

Sebring said. “You try to warn them and they don’t care. They just want

to dance.”

Catherine Sebring’s unwavering ambition will pay off this week as she

performs in what she calls one of her favorite ballets.

Another favorite is “Romeo and Juliet.”

“I want to dance Juliet,” the dancer said. “It’s very sweet and

innocent. I just love the music and it’s probably one of my dream roles.”