Sep 30, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read

Ballet school, if you’ll pardon the expression, is not exactly a dance in the park. Just consider Kyra Piper’s routine.

“Every day, I start technique class at 8:30, and usually that is an hour and a half. After that, I either have pointe for an hour, or an hour and a half of variations or pas,” she said, referring to ballet’s two-person pas de deux.

Then it’s on to academic studies for the next three to five hours, followed by a healthy cross-training and/or Pilates workout in the gym.

“And that’s it,” she’ll joke.

Even for a 16-year-old, that’s quite the schedule. But she’s making the most of the opportunity to study at Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet School, one of the nation’s most prestigious such institutions.

Kyra, who otherwise would have been a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School, is keeping up with academics online while gaining an inside track on a career in dance by studying at Pacific Northwest.

“She had auditioned in the winter for their summer program, and was accepted and received a scholarship,” her mother, Lindsay, said. “While she was at the five-week program, Peter Boal, who’s the director of the company, watched their class, and he invited her to come for the year. They ended up giving her a full scholarship, which was awesome for us.”

For Lindsay and her husband, Steven, equally awesome was seeing their eldest daughter follow in their footsteps: Both were dancers, and since 2006 they’ve owned and operated the Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh in Castle Shannon.

Kyra is a student in her school’s professional division, which mostly includes college-age dancers and serves as a feeder into the acclaimed Pacific Northwest Ballet.

“Ultimately, the hope is that she would be asked to join the company upon completion. If not, she would audition for other companies nationwide,” Steven said, with an impressive résumé in hand.

She started dancing when she was 4, alternating between lessons and other childhood activities such as swim teams and Girl Scouts.

“But I always quit them because I wanted to go to ballet class,” Kyra recalled. “My mom and dad always told me that I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to, but I always wanted to.”

The same goes for the other Piper children.

“Our two daughters Ava and Stella both dance, too,” Lindsay said, and about their son: “Griffin is into sports and other things, which is nice. It’s a good change of pace for Steven and me.”

While growing up in South Park Township and Jefferson Hills, the former Lindsay LaFrankie took ballet lessons because her mother liked that type of dancing but never did it, herself.

Meanwhile, her future husband had an older sister and younger brother who performed in “The Nutcracker” in their native Washington, D.C., and Steven decided to join them when he was 11, then started lessons shortly after.

Lindsay and Steven got to know one another while attending summer programs at the American School of Ballet in New York City, going to boarding school at Washington’s Kirov Academy of Ballet and eventually dancing for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater.

As far as “The Nutcracker,” tickets already are on sale for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production, which will include Kyra.

“I’m excited for rehearsals to start soon,” she said. Of course, they will have a substantial impact on her already-packed schedule, but she doesn’t mind: “From what I’ve heard, it gets really crazy. But it’s a lot of fun.