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Here is a group of girls who are taking ballet to new heights. Rejoice! Ballet is a Bentonville-based ballet group just finishing its first year. Founder Kim Seim desires to teach and equip girls from Northwest Arkansas to glorify God through worshipful ballet. Rejoice! is more than a ballet school, though. It’s also a training ground for developing godly character and a sense of teamwork and pride in a job well done.
With locations in Bentonville and Bella Vista, Rejoice! has trained girls in four levels of ballet in the past year. The school currently accepts students ages three through teens. Each class includes prayer and a Bible-based devotion, and Christian music is used for both instruction and performances. Three local ministries have offered the use of their facilities, helping to keep costs low for dancers’ families.
While the group trains dancers in God-honoring performance skills, that’s not where the good stuff stops. The ultimate goal of Rejoice! Ballet is to train enough dancers to a high enough level to create a professional company that will donate 50% of its ticket profits to building water wells in underdeveloped countries. The Rejoice! students are currently training to compete in their first Ballet Olympics in late May. Rather than competing against one another, each girl is competing against herself, trying to reach the highest level of award for her own sense of accomplishment. The girls are training for bronze, silver and gold medal awards. The group has also performed in three end-of-session performances to the music of Fernando Ortega and Robin Mark.
Kim Seim, the school’s owner and Intermediate Performance Team teacher and choreographer, is a classically trained ballet dancer, having danced for over 30 years. She danced at the acclaimed Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and her choreography skills earned her a scholarship to University of Utah’s ballet program. She went on to direct Rejoice! Ballet in California for five years and a professional-level ballet ministry for two years. Kim’s daughter, Esther, teaches and choreographs for the first three levels of classes. A homeschooled junior in high school, Esther has danced her entire life for many different schools and has received private instruction from her mother throughout the duration of her training. Visit the Rejoice! Ballet website for information on class schedules as well as the ballet camp offered later this summer.
All photos courtesy of Rejoice! Ballet
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