Learning ballet with Naomi Schmidt

Schmidt liked the discipline and coordination that came withlearning ballet and immensely enjoyed dancing as a whole. She saidit was also a fun experience performing and practicing with thesame group of girls for seven years. During her junior year of high school in 1999, Schmidt severelyinjured her foot and had to have a knuckle on one of her toesremoved. She said doctors told her that her foot had been injuredfor some time and had noticed before that she had trouble wearingcertain types of Latin Dance Shoess since they hurt her feet. When a ballerina wears a point shoe, Schmidt said all their weightis pressed upon their feet, which can cause injuries over time. Ifa ballerina can't dance in a point shoe, it becomes impossible topursue a professional ballet career on the Royal Academy's level,she said. "It was sad because I was no longer able to dance for that companyanymore," Schmidt said. One of the hardest aspects of not being able to dance for the RoyalAcademy anymore was how much it affected her parents, Schmidt said.The classes weren't cheap and they invested so much time and moneyinto giving her an opportunity to become a ballerina, she said. After taking a temporary break from ballet, Schmidt began takingballet classes in her freshman year of college at NAU in 2001. WhenNAU shut down their dance program, Schmidt continued to performballet at Coconino Community College until she moved to Tucson in2004, where she danced for a semester at the University of Arizona. Since that time, Schmidt and her husband, David, moved to Reno andLas Vegas, Nev., before they moved to Benson in 2006 to purchase ahome and raise a family together. While living in Benson, Schmidt noticed there weren't a lot oflocal opportunities for young people to learn about ballet and hadan idea to teach classes at her own ballet studio. "I didn't see a lot things for kids to do, especially girls andthought it would be nice for the community," Schmidt said. Due to her injury earlier in her ballet career, Schmidt could onlydo soft shoe ballet, which served as the inspiration for startingthe Soft Shoe Ballet Studio. Schmidt said she feels much morecomfortable performing in a soft shoe since she can do anything sheneeds to compared to a point shoe, which is much more difficult. Schmidt began making plans to open her studio in early May and heldan open enrollment on May 17 to sign up students for balletclasses. Schmidt held her first classes on May 28 and had 13 girlssigned up in the 4-5 year-old and 6-8 year-old groups. "It's taken off more than I had expected, which is a good thing,"Schmidt said. "I have a good group of girls and parents." Schmidt said she currently has classes open for older children andis considering teaching a class for adults. Schmidt would also liketo offer tap and jazz dancing classes in the future as well. As her studio continues to grow, Schmidt would like to keepteaching as long as she can and wants her students to have theposture, discipline and knowledge of correct ballet terminologywhile still having a love for ballet and dance. Schmidt is lookingforward to teaching what she's learned about ballet and passing herknowledge to her students. "I would like to share with them the passion I have for dancing,"Schmidt said.