Lilit Hogtanian (Winter 08)

Alene Tchekmedyian
atchekmedyian@ucla.edu

A dancing prodigy on stage, Lililt Hogtanian is a 15 year-old Armenian girl with a love for ballet at heart.

At age six, when a simple flyer advertising ballet lessons grabbed her attention, Lilit vaguely envisioned her future. Nine years later, the future is clear: ballet competitions, traveling abroad, winning awards and starring in ballets.

Yuri Grigoriev’s School of Ballet, which Lilit discovered through the flyer advertisement, has essentially become her second home.

When she first enrolled, she would dance two-three hours a week. She currently spends over 2-3 hours dancing there, six days a week. Last year, she began home schooling in order to create flexibility in her schedule, which has in turn caused her to become increasingly flexible in her body as well.

Lilit and her mother often spend over two hours a day driving to and from the studio. "I have created a living space in the car," said Mrs. Hogtanian. Luckily, the studio is located in Venice, so when Lilit has a break between classes, she can take a breath by the beach.
With Lilit’s talent, ballet is a rewarding career. In December, she was asked to play Clara, the leading role in Los Angeles Ballet’s The Nutcracker. She was asked to return again next Christmas season.

Ballet fans viewed the traditional ballet at the prestigious venue, Royce hall at UCLA. Among all the venues at which she performed, Lilit said Royce was the most thrilling. She also performed at the Alex Theater in Glendale, and the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.

Because there is so much acting involved in the part, Lilit never gets bored rehearsing or on stage. "You can do Clara ten million times and it will still be fun," she said. On acting on stage, she said, "It is really nice because you get to show your personality and you can’t hold back. You are not worried about what people are thinking about you."

Lilit has become quite a celebrity within the ballet community, yet she remains humble. "You must focus on yourself and not worry about how other people are dancing because everybody is so different. Dancing is about expressing your self. The movements and technical things you do should actually express your emotions. It works together, the technical movements you do correspond to emotions," she said.

A ritual that she has adopted before going on stage is spraying her pointe shoe ribbons with hairspray to prevent them from untying.

Lilit’s dancing endeavors have led her to travel around the world, becoming globally recognized for her talents. This month, she competed at Prix de Lausanne, the international dance competition in Switzerland, with her classical ballet variation. Last year, she competed in Monaco, and this summer, she will attend a summer intensive program with the American Ballet Theater in New York.

As she is growing older, Lilit plans to receive more formal training, perhaps at a ballet school abroad. "You need to get a higher and more intense training. Ballet schools can be anywhere in New York or Europe, so I am going to try out for them. At the Lausanne competition, a lot of different representatives from schools will be there recruiting," she said.

Through these experiences traveling, Lilit has been forced to grow up fast. "Dorming during summer intensive programs is a lot of fun. I have had good roommates fortunately, so it has been no trouble," she said. "I am not good at doing my own laundry and I can’t really cook anything," she said on the difficulty adapting to the responsibilities of living alone.

Despite the rumors about the strict diets of ballerinas, Lilit said her teacher "doesn’t really put pressure on people to loose weight." She adds, "They expect you to eat healthy food that gives you energy so you can dance. Yuri tells me to eat more."

Ballet is the only genre of dancing Lilit has tried. If her schedule permits, she would be interested in trying Armenian folk dancing in the future. "It would be helpful because they have a lot of hand movements," said Mrs. Hogtanian. She knows however, that she will continue dancing for years to come.

"I wouldn’t want to do anything else," she said.