Bené Arnold - Legendary Ballet Dancer and Instructor

Published February 16, 2024

Bené Arnold - Legendary Ballet Dancer and Instructor

One of the missions at A.V.A. Ballet Theatre is to provide our audiences with the best in professional ballet. To do this, we bring in guest principal dancers to perform alongside the local dancers from our own company. Over the years, more than 100 of these guest dancers have graced the stage at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. These performers come from ballet companies such as the San Francisco Ballet, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet and Ballet Idaho. In addition to showcasing their unbelievable talent, they are an inspiration to the dancers from northern Nevada.

The incredible rigors of ballet make for a relatively short career for professional dancers. It is rare for a dancer to perform more than a few years. Imagine working in ballet at some capacity for 60 plus years as did the legendary Bené Arnold. Arnold recently passed away but her career in ballet was so impressive that I thought it should be celebrated. I first met her when she came to Reno to perform in her role as Carabosse in A.V.A. Ballet Theatre’s production of “Sleeping Beauty” in 2015. Carabosse is the evil fairy godmother who casts the spell on Princess Aurora. Eighty years old at the time, Arnold stole the show with her dynamic performances.

That Arnold had a career in ballet is hard to believe when you hear about her childhood. She was bedridden with an unusual type of tuberculosis from age four until nine. Living in Los Angeles, dance was recommended as a therapy. The rehabilitation was successful and she began dancing ballet. An admirer of her dance suggested that she head north and attend the San Francisco Ballet School. She made the move and began intense training under the stewardship of San Francisco Ballet cofounders Willam, Harold and Lew Christensen.

Beginning in 1949, Arnold enjoyed a successful career at the San Francisco Ballet——first as a member of their corps de ballet, then soloist, and finally as a ballet mistress. A ballet mistress trains, directs and sometimes acts as a choreographer for a ballet company. After ten years, she decided to make a change. She followed her former ballet instructor Willam Christensen to Salt Lake City and assisted him with the development of the University Theater Ballet——later known as Ballet West. She was the first ballet mistress for the company. Said Arnold, “That was one of the joys of my career——taking Ballet West from absolutely zero and watching it continue to grow into what it is today.” Ballet West is considered one of the top five ballet companies in the United States.

After receiving her master’s degree in dance and education, Arnold left Ballet West having spent 13 years in a job she truly loved. She felt a need to teach, however, and joined the faculty at the University of Utah’s Department of Ballet.

Thirty years after her last performance with the San Francisco Ballet, Bruce Marks, the artistic director at Ballet West at the time, asked her to return to the stage in a character part. Character performers do not dance in a ballet but are essential to the story. Her first character role was in the Bournonville ballet, “Abdallah” followed by Carabosse in “Sleeping Beauty.” Both of these performances were received with rave reviews and it was the start of a new performing arts career. One reviewer of her performance as Carabosse described it as a defining role with her perfect flamboyant and malevolent presence.

Following 26 years on the faculty of the University of Utah, she retired with the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita. However, by invitation of the Dean of Fine Arts in 2008 she became the interim Chair of the Department of Ballet. She moved to St. George where she was an active teacher for the Westside Studio of the Performing Arts and worked at the request of Adam Sklute, Ballet West’s artistic director, on special assignments for the company.

All of this leads me to her work as Carabosse in “Sleeping Beauty” in Reno. After the performances, she returned to her home in Utah and sent a letter to A.V.A. Ballet Theatre board president, Robin Fuller.

In a portion of it, she said, “When your Artistic Director, Alexander Van Alstyne, called and asked me to come out of retirement by appearing in his version of “Sleeping Beauty” I accepted without any knowledge of the level of professionalism your company possessed.

“From the first rehearsal to the last performance, your enthusiasm was contagious. From those with the smallest role to the Director of your company, Mr. Van Alstyne, I could feel the spirit you brought each day, whether it was a rehearsal or the performance, to do the best! All of this caused me to reflect upon the 1950s when I was in the San Francisco Ballet School and Company and later as the Ballet Mistress, (1960s-1970s), helping to build Ballet West into a professional company. During those days, we worked, as you are working, from our heart and our reward was not money but the fulfilment of performing our best, at each performance.”

Bené Arnold left us all with these final words of wisdom, “Always be a student by listening, learning and striving to do your best, continue to help the arts, dance and perform with love and joy, and regardless of how difficult life’s journey can be, remember, as I will, these wonderful moments.”

“I was so honored when Bené came to Reno to perform,” said Van Alstyne. “Our lives came full circle with me as the artistic director and Bené the performer. A copy of the letter she sent after the performances is one of my most cherished possessions.”

Steve Trounday is a board member at A.V.A. Ballet Theatre, the resident ballet company of the Pioneer Center. The next performance is Cinderella April 13^th and 14^th with the Reno Phil.