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He discovered ballet in our own Whitby Public Library By JAN DODGE By JAN DODGE Free Press Staff The reading room of the Whitby Public Library seems a strange place to begin a career in ballet, but that's where it started for 20-year-old Loney Forde. By chance Forde picked up one of the books lying on the table and skimmed through it, noting the leaps and dynamics of the dance. He thought he'd like to try that. He was then a high school student attending the Oshawa Legion Track and Field Club, specializing in hurdling, although he . had also participated in cross country and high jump. Forde had always been athletic and he loved music. Combining the two in ballet meant he could also be creative, and enjoy himself too. At 16, he began studying ballet with the Gail Dorfman School of Ballet (now the Davis School) in Whitby. "I thought I was too old, but Gail - who trained at the National Ballet told me to keep pushing." The following year he received a scholarship to attend the school of dance in Ottawa, where he finished grade 13. He did well enough in school to be an Ontario Scholar. This com- plicated matters because he had then to decide whether to at- tend university or ac- cept a two-year scholar- ship with the National Ballet School in Toron- to. Forde chose the National Ballet reasoning he could go to university later. Choreographer, Anna Wyman, came to the school to stage one of her ballets, using students from the school. After that she gained three new dan- cers for her company. Forde was one of them. He is performing in Toronto at the Premier Dance Theatre at Har- bourfront until Saturday with the Vancouver- based Anna Wyman Dance Theatre. The 10-member com- pany (five women and five men aged 20 to 40) is touring cities in Quebec, Ontario, Alber- ta and British Columbia after opening in New York city a month ago. The tour will end in a gala performance in Vancouver, featuring such celebrities as Karen Kain, Toller Cranston, and Veronica Tennant. "On the evening before our first perfor- mance one of our dan- cers (40-year-old Neil Worthley) was hit by a bus," Forde said. This meant Forde had to learn three new dan- ces for the next night's performance. Forde said his two younger sisters, Engelbert, who attends Henry Street high school, and Akilah, who is at Kathleen Rowe, were supportive of his dancing "in their own way." His peers at high school had been suppor- tive too be said, in part because in order to at- tend his Whitby dance class he had to sneak out of the end of his physics class. Forde said they were curious about what he was doing and probably wanted to get out early too. The Anna Wyman Dance Theatre stays in Vancouver for six mon- ths of the year and tours for the rest of the year. This spring they will go to South America, then Europe. The company will tour Japan and China the following year. CRAFT SHOW St. Paul's PTA will hold a craft show and sale on Wednesday, Nov. 27, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at St. Paul's School, 200 Garrard Rd. in Whitby. Door prizes, booths including corn husk and wreaths, cab- bage patch corner, make-up and more. Admission is $1.50, in- cluding Drizes and PAGE 12 Typew riter .' RENTALS also SALES & SERVICE