That may have your mind pirouetting in search for a more sympathetic syntax, but it’s really quite simple: Ballet Arizona and the School of Ballet Arizona work together and support each other–it’s an artistic symbiosis that begins when the leotards are size extra small.

The school’s annual spring show, according to Crowley, who begins rehearsing the 5 to 17‑year‑olds in January, gives “students a chance to demonstrate and celebrate what they’ve done at the school and the public the chance to experience the development of the school itself. It’s a full production so the children can really experience stage etiquette and theater with a live audience.”

Jacqueline Davidson, the principal of the school, says the performance is educational because “the younger students can watch the older dancers perform, to get an idea of what they’ll be doing as they go through the school.”

Joseph Nugent, an instructor at the school who danced with Ballet Arizona from 1988‑91, is “very satisfied” with his Level A‑2 class rehearsals for “Coppelia.” “They’re really learning to work together,” he says.

And the feeling is mutual.

“He’s funny,” 10‑year‑old Alexis Larios says of Nugent. “He uses different voices and plays funny characters like a comedian.”

“Every time we do something hard, he pretends that it’s easy,” says Gina Flickera, who is 10 years old and has been going to the school for 7 years. “He teaches us about famous dancers like Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland.”

Level B student Aisha Tritle, 10, a 4‑year veteran of the school who played an angel in last year’s “Nutcracker,” says, “It’s a really good school because we can look up to the older dancers as role models.” Aisha is looking forward to joining those role models when she graduates to pointe shoes in Level C next year. “It’s going to be totally awesome,” she enthusiastically adds.   

“The prima ballerina Paola Hartley (of Ballet Arizona) is my mother’s friend,” says Ursula Chan, 11, “and she told me I should go to school here. It’s pretty challenging. There’s better technique” than the dance school she attended before coming to School of Ballet Arizona a couple years ago.

Nine‑year‑old Madeline Bez, who was a Girl Mouse in the 2005 “Nutcracker,” has been taking dance classes at the school for 7 years. “Our teachers push us,” she says. “They really push you to work. We actually improve, we don’t just do things over and over.”

Alexis Larios, not shy about her affection for the school, sums it all up: “It’s the most professional school I’ve ever been in.”

Also dancing in the Spring Performance will be 17‑year‑old Ballet Arizona Trainee Chelsea Saari, who joined the company for the 2004‑05 season after attending the school for 11 years. Saari, who still takes advanced classes at the school, remembers that “Ginger (Smith) was sort of my idol when I was going through school.”

In the Spring Performance, both company dancers will be on stage in excerpts from Marius Pepita’s “La Bayadere.”

The program, which included modern and well as ballet, begins with the “Presentation of the School,” in which the entire class is introduced, says Crowley, by way of “Bizet’s inspiring, rousing ‘Symphony in C,’ culminating with the advanced levels and then with everyone on stage at the end.”

That’s about 135 young dancers, short and tall, boy and girl, experienced and novice, in full regalia, on the baroque grandness of the Orpheum stage. And if that’s only the beginning, this promises to be quite a show.

The School of Ballet Arizona’s Spring Performance is Saturday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 14, at 2 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 W. Adams, Phoenix. Tickets are $27.50 and $22.50. Seniors, students and children under 12 are $20 and $15. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster outlets by calling (480) 784‑4444, on the Web at www.ticketmaster.com, and at the Ballet Arizona box office, 3645 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix, (602) 381‑1096, www.balletaz.org.        

Reach the reporter at cmoore@thedesertadvocate.com.