A 12 year old Corvallis girl will be competing in a ballet competition on Sunday, January 5 at Rumour Restaurant in Missoula. But this won’t be just any competition. Shona Jessop will be competing with her horse, Dreamy, in the Ballet Beyond Borders competition.
“They made a special provision for the horse,” said her mother, Rachel. “They didn’t think the horse would be able to get through into the Dennison Theater at the University so they got Rumour Restaurant to be the ‘stage’ for Shona.”
Shona and her horse do everything together and so Shona wanted to do this dance with Dreamy. Although the horse will move around some, most of the dance will be Shona dancing around and on the horse.
Her parents, Rachel and Don Jessop, own Mastery Horsemanship and teach natural horsemanship and so she has always had a horse. But Shona has not always danced. She joined Ballet Bitterroot a couple of years ago and found a new passion. She says, “Expressing myself through my own choreography and sharing my feelings excites me because I get lost in the music and motion.”
Shona will compete in the young choreograph division. Her mother, who admits she is a newcomer to dance, said the competition will be judged on how well the dance fits the music, how artistic it is, and how much emotion is in the dance.
Shona will dance again next Wednesday but this time she will be by herself. If she does well in that phase of the competition, she, and Dreamy, will be slated to dance in the Dennison Theater and they will have to find a way for Dreamy to get onto the stage.
Ballet Beyond Borders is presented by the Rocky Mountain Ballet Company in Missoula. The competition is designed to not only showcase dance but also provides cultural, educational and diplomatic exchange to further human understanding and spark communication. All genres of dance are featured.