Ballet prodigy’s dancing is en pointe

By Adwoa Fosu

Sunday, April 5, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Seventeen-year-old Monika Haczkiewicz leaps across the dance floor, a blur of limbs as her slender body keeps time with the music of “Don Quixote’s” “Kitri.”

Her wiry, flexible muscles tighten and relax with every movement as she executes the routine she has practiced hundreds of times over the past five months — the same routine that earned her a trip to New York City this month to compete in the finals of the Youth American Grand Prix, the world’s largest ballet scholarship competition.

It’s what you might expect from the daughter of two Cirque du Soleil performers.

As a little girl, Haczkiewicz accompanied her parents to rehearsals for “Mystere,” which she saw for the first time when she was 3.

“It was like I was in a different world,” Haczkiewicz said. “It was so exciting and magical.”

Hoping to teach their daughter her own set of tricks, Haczkiewicz’s parents enrolled her in gymnastics, a gateway sport for many Cirque performers. But Haczkiewicz had hypermobile limbs, meaning she was capable of an unusually wide range of motion and was at greater risk for injury.

She started taking classes at the Nevada Ballet Theatre instead and took to it quickly.

In January, Haczkiewicz won second place in classical dance at the Youth American Grand Prix’s semifinals at UNLV’s Artemus Ham Hall. She beat hundreds of dancers from across the country and world to become the first dancer from the Las Vegas Valley to reach the finals.

“I’m really representing Las Vegas, I feel, and Nevada in general,” Haczkiewicz said. “It’s pretty cool to have a hometown girl do this.”

To prepare for the finals, Haczkiewicz trains seven days a week with ballet teacher Tara Foy. Weekdays consist of fine-tuning legwork and movement to polish Haczkiewicz’s routines. Weekends are reserved for Pilates.

Sometimes, Haczkiewicz performs routines at home for her mom so she can get some extra critique.

“I do get tired of doing the same dance over and over, but at the same time, I love it because this is one of my favorite variations,” Haczkiewicz said.

Dancing isn’t just an after-school activity for Haczkiewicz. She is a dance major at Las Vegas Academy and dances for three hours at school before practicing with Foy for two hours in the afternoon.

“This last week, I’ve been sick, and they told me to miss ballet, and I was like, ‘I really can’t, Mom,’ ” Haczkiewicz said. “It’s impossible for me to miss right now. This is so important.”

Her drive is fueled by a passion for ballet, which “has taught me to be elegant, to be proper and also to have a love of the arts in general,” Haczkiewicz said.

Her father still performs in “Mystere,” but her mother recently retired after a back injury.

“I am so very proud of Monika,” Ursula Haczkiewicz said. “Not only because she gets to experience what we did performing for audiences on stage, but also because she has worked so hard to get to this point.”

“She has a gift,” said Foy, who danced with the Royal Ballet in London. “Physically, a gift. This girl has everything that you want: hyperextension, the most incredible feet, flexibility, and she’s just exquisite.”

Haczkiewicz insists she’s no different than the average teenager. In her free time, she likes to binge watch “Grey’s Anatomy” on Netflix, go window shopping with friends and indulge in McDonald’s.

In the future, she would like to study psychology at the University of Washington, which has a partnership program with Pacific Northwest Ballet — one of many ballet companies she’ll perform for in New York.

For now, though, Haczkiewicz remains focused on training. She continues her routine across the floor, then flexes her muscles one last time as she falls into a final pose, signaling the end of the dance. Her calling as a ballerina has just begun.