Passing the barre

A dancer stood on stage at Farkas Hall in the “B-plus” position, her back leg bent and big toe on the floor. She was rehearsing for the spring production of Harvard Ballet Company (HBC), a student-run group that feted its 25^th anniversary last year. The 50-member company’s biannual performances fuse classical and contemporary dance and feature the choreography of students, alumni, and guest artists.

The spring show’s theme was searching. Mara Milner ’20, an HBC board member and co-director who studies social studies and economics at Harvard, said a show celebrating women is in the works for fall.

Milner contrasts the “familial atmosphere” of her troupe with an industry often characterized as “extremely cutthroat and competitive.”

“We share jokes and endless laughing … and genuinely love spending time together,” she said, adding that the dancers “stand in the wings during shows cheering each other on.”

At HBC, Milner has done a little of everything, from running auditions to doing makeup. She’s even worked as a tech producer, wielding a radial arm saw and pneumatic wrench. “You get to touch every aspect of production at a student-run ballet.”