 My name is Michael Greer, executive director here at Portland Ballet. We'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of our dancers and give you an inside look into some of the people that make up Portland Ballet. Welcome. Can you introduce yourself and tell us how long you've been here at Portland Ballet? Sure. I'm Caitlin Hayes and this is my fourth season with Portland Ballet. Great. And what brought you to Portland Ballet? Well, I had a friend from college that was in the company and I was in the process of auditioning. I was living in Boston for a year and I contacted her, asked her what was like up here. She said she loved it and I've been coming to Maine since I was a kid because we are a big skiing family so I came up here and auditioned and I loved the atmosphere. Everyone was amazing in the class, treated me great and then Nell asked me if I wanted to sit and watch and some of rehearsal they were doing armed man and just watching they had done the first half of it and completed it and it was just like I want to be here. This is exactly the reason why I want to come up here. It was everything that I wanted and then I got the job so I moved up here. Excellent. Excellent. And what is your favorite thing about the city of Portland? I guess my favorite thing, I'm not, I have a lot of anxiety as a person. So being in a really big bustling city I get very anxious. I can't handle it. So it's the idea of it's a city but it's not a huge city so I it's a little bit calmer. I feel like I have the idea of a city but I'm not like trying to get from point A to point B as fast as I can with 15,000 people around me. It's a little bit calmer, a little bit more subdued I guess you could say. Yeah, I feel much safer here than anywhere else so. Wonderful. Thanks, Caitlin. Thank you. Welcome. Can you introduce yourself and tell us how long you've been here at Portland Ballet? Sure. I'm Eliana Trenum. This is my fourth season so I've been about three years but starting the fourth came as an apprentice and it's my third year as a company member. And what brought you to Portland Ballet? Well, I've done some auditions around Portland. It's just a really nice city. It's a very cosmopolitan for its size. It's next to the ocean and it has a lot of sophistication. There's a great food scene. I also work in the food industry so I just had a lot of appeal. And what's your favorite thing about the city of Portland? Well, first of all with my opportunity to dance with Portland Ballet it offers a lot of versatility in terms of the rep that we do and being a small company I got to be on stage more frequently than I would in a larger one which is lovely. And as for Portland itself I think just the energy and the creativity of its restaurant scene there's a lot more freedom for young chefs than there is in some other large cities where you have to be more established so and the people are lovely here as well. Wonderful. Thank you Eliana. You're welcome. Welcome. Can you introduce yourself and tell us how long you've been here at Portland Ballet? I'm Jennifer Jones and I am in my seventh season with Portland Ballet. Fantastic. What brought you to Portland Ballet? The people running it. When I came to audition it was Jeanie O'Brien and Nell Shipman. Jeanie the founder is this incredible woman. She has this nurturing lovely soul and a deep deep respect admiration passion for the art form and the artists and she just managed to infuse the whole organization with it and it's still here it's in the walls you know and Nell she taught my audition and after the audition I just I called my parents and I said I need to work with her. She's so talented and I've been around the block of she's a world class I think as a choreographer as a teacher as a coach as a person so talented and also very nurturing she manages to find a balance between she has this great rapport with her dancers with us and she respects us and she has fun with us she appreciates us but at the same time there's no question of who's in charge she is unquestionably leading that room which is really hard to find. Excellent. Excellent. Thanks Jeanie and you know what is your favorite thing about the city of Portland itself? Portland I love that it's it's a little city with the soul of a little fishing village you know you have all of the culture you have the PSO and Portland stage Portland Ballet the museums the restaurants but it's the kindest city I've ever lived in it's like the perfect man you know it's he's good-looking he's sophisticated he's cultured but he's also really sweet it's the man that you can't wait to introduce your parents to that's Portland wonderful thanks Jess it was great all right welcome can you introduce yourself and tell us how long you've been here at Portland Ballet? I'm Savannah Lee and I've been with Portland Ballet been me two weeks now it's been a debut season so fantastic and what brought you to to Portland Ballet? I really wanted stability because I was freelancing in New York City and it's really tough and takes a lot of diligence to you know come up with the money and take open classes and then go and find your work and everything and this seems like a very stable environment where everyone supports each other and you can grow and perform together and it's consistent which is great so yeah wonderful wonderful and so far what is your favorite thing about the city of Portland itself? Beer yeah uh I haven't gotten much time to explore yet but you know I can breathe here it's not very much pollution I practically moved on top of a brewery um yeah it's just been a really nice change and I really needed it so excellent thank you Savannah yeah