Touch of Ballet Adds Culture to Academia : Oxnard: Classically trained ballerina teaches students joy and rigors of dance. They will perform this weekend at Ventura College Theater.

Linda Strangio-Hedberg didn’t like what she saw in public schools. Plenty of academics, but little in the way of culture, she decided.

So the classically trained ballerina, now an Oxnard mother of three, took action. Four years ago, armed with little more than determination, she formed her first troupe of five ballet students at Hollywood Beach School in Silver Strand.

Today, she teaches 77 students at two local elementary schools and a community center. With the cooperation of school administrators, most receive training on campus after regular classes.

“She is very attentive and strict,” said Diane Baker, whose 9-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, has been taking Strangio-Hedberg’s classes for three years at Mound School in Ventura. “She makes them toe the mark and will give constructive criticism. I like that.”

Baker said she also likes the training occurring at school, so her daughter can take lessons with classmates.

Georgeanne Lees, who heads up cultural arts programs for the city of Ventura, said she is impressed with Strangio-Hedberg’s work. Lees helped Strangio-Hedberg coordinate the ballet program at Mound School.

“She teaches in the old-school, disciplined manner,” Lees said. “The kids have a lot of fun, but they go into class prepared to work.”

Rigorous ballet training not only broadens a student’s understanding of foreign dance and traditions, it teaches a child how to set difficult goals and then achieve them, Strangio-Hedberg said.

“Ballet is very disciplined,” she said. “And I think that carries over into the classroom. Students feel a sense of accomplishment when they finish my course.”

A group of her students will perform an original ballet choreographed by Strangio-Hedberg this weekend. The ballet, called the “Wish Kid,” is the story of a young girl who magically enters the world of ballet as it existed a century ago in Europe, she said.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Ventura College Theater, Strangio-Hedberg said. Tickets are $15 at the door or $12 in advance at Henson’s Music Store on A Street in Oxnard, at the Dance Dress’r on Main Street in Ventura or at the Performance Studio on Palm Street in Ventura.

Dance troupes from Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Santa Paula also will perform at the show, called the Festival of Dance, she said. It is the second year for the festival, funded in part by a $2,000 grant from the city of Ventura, she said.

The prima ballerina in the “Wish Kid” is 11-year-old Courtney Fredette, a Hollywood Beach School student who has been taking Strangio-Hedberg’s classes for four years.

Strangio-Hedberg, 37, said she started the ballet program out of her love for dance. She was born in Munich, Germany, and took classical ballet training for years.

But she found few opportunities for her 8-year-old daughter, Mykala, to study ballet in Oxnard-area schools. That is when she approached the Hollywood Beach school administrators about providing ballet lessons for students after school.

They agreed and gave Strangio-Hedberg the use of a large auditorium to conduct classes. The Hollywood Beach School of Ballet was formed in May, 1991. The Mound Institute of Ballet, at Mound School in Ventura, was created the following year. And in the fall of 1993, she opened La Colonia Academy of Classical Ballet.

La Colonia classes are held in a community center, but Strangio-Hedberg said she hopes to move it to Caesar Chavez School in Oxnard later this year. She charges La Colonia students $3 an hour for the classes, $2 less than her other students, because most of them come from low-income families, Strangio-Hedberg said.

Strangio-Hedberg said she tries to prepare her students for the rigors involved in formal ballet training. Of her 77 students, 75 are girls, and many dream of becoming a prima ballerina, she said.

“I want them to have their dreams,” she said. “But I also want them to know it will take a lot of hard work.”

Aubrie Allen, 12, one of Strangio-Hedberg’s Hollywood Beach School students, said she knows about the long hours and stunted social life. But she still wants to become a professional ballerina.

“When I first go out on stage, it’s kind of scary,” said Aubrie, who will dance in this weekend’s festival. “But when it’s over, you want to do it all over again.”