Mary Kate Shearer’s vision for her future leaped nearly as high as the dancers did that summer afternoon she saw her first ballet onstage. She was only 3 years old, knocking on 4, at the time, and maybe mature enough for a USA International Ballet Competition matinee in her mom’s view.

“I bought tickets way at the back, in case we needed to sneak out,” her mother Janet Shearer recalled. No need, as it turned out. “She was rapt … just so attentive through the whole thing.

“When we walked out of Thalia Mara Hall that afternoon, she looked up and said, ‘Mommy, I want to do that.’”

“Since then, I have not stopped,” Mary Kate Shearer said, “except when injury forced me to.” The young dancer is now a company member of Chattanooga Ballet (CHA Ballet), a small regional company bound for Jackson as part of its Art/Motion tour Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24-25. The homecoming highlights Shearer in performance, with the opportunity, too, to share her newfound love of teaching.

The weekend’s two performances in Jackson showcase works by legends in contemporary ballet — a rare treat for area dance fans — and newer works as well. The flirty, energetic “Tarantella” by New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine and the deeply romantic “Sea Shadow” by Joffrey Ballet co-founder Gerald Arpino are key showpieces on a program that also features the new “Intersections of Life” by Dance Theatre of Harlem member Ingrid Silva, and “Copacetic,” a fun and jazzy work choreographed by Chattanooga Ballet Artistic Director Brian McSween. This is CHA Ballet’s 50th anniversary season. Shows will also include contemporary ballet performances by Belhaven University dance students (“In One Accord,” choreographed by Belhaven dance alum Rachel Bitgood) and by Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet (“Timelapse” by Andrew Brader).

Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at Belhaven University Bitsy Irby Visual Arts and Dance Center’s Studio Theatre.

CHA Ballet’s tour includes master classes for local dance students Saturday morning, with intermediate and advanced sessions for ages 12-15 at 9 a.m. and for advanced students ages 16 and older at 10:30 a.m. Find tickets to CHA Ballet performances and master classes and more information at https://givebutter.com/Belhaven. Advance purchase is recommended; parking is available in the lot behind the building.

The tour’s Jackson leg is sponsored by Janet Shearer Fine Art. “I wanted Mary Kate to come home and dance so that family and friends can see her locally, but more importantly, what Chattanooga Ballet does, serving communities with world-class dance,” Janet Shearer said.

The daughter of Janet and Dale Shearer grew up in Ridgeland, developing the passion she pegged as a pre-schooler through lessons with the Madison-based Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet and summer camp training. Shearer, 26, graduated from Indiana State University and its Jacobs School of Music’s dance department in May 2021 and joined CHA Ballet just months later as one of its seven professional dancers. 

“She’s a very determined and dynamic dancer, and highly intelligent,” CHA Ballet CEO/Artistic Director McSween said of Shearer, also praising her range across contemporary, modern and classical works and even character roles. “She’s a great technician. She’s an even better artist.”

“I love to dance and I think it’s incredible that I get to do that as my job,” Shearer said. 

When company director McSween floated the possibility of a Jackson tour, she thought it was a fantastic idea. 

“That would be so much fun, for a lot of reasons,” she said. “It’ll be really cool because I haven’t had the opportunity to teach in Jackson much at all. … Since I’ve been at Chattanooga Ballet, teaching is a part of my job that I’ve fallen in love with in a way that I didn’t really expect. So, I’m excited to share with my hometown this newfound love of sharing my knowledge about my art form, not just performing.”

In classes, she continues ballet’s strong oral tradition of passing down instruction from one generation to the next. In Chattanooga, she embraces teaching 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds. 

“Something about that age group — it’s their first year where they come to ballet twice a week, and they’re not self-conscious yet, so they’re still just so excited and wanting to try new things. It’s just been really cool to share my knowledge with the next generation of future dancers and dance lovers,” Shearer said.

She recalls her own childhood ballet classes at MMB, and some of the imagery MMB Artistic Associate Crystal Skelton used to describe steps. 

“It’s still stuff I tell my students now, like talking about our hip bones as the headlights of our car, and making sure they’re staying facing forward all the time at the barre, and things like that,” Shearer said. “Young, young dancers can say, ‘I don’t know what my hip bones are, but I know what the headlights of a car look like.’”

MMB Artistic Director Jennifer Beasley recalled Shearer’s dedication, strong work ethic and her sponge-like eagerness to learn. “I always knew she could have a career in professional ballet if she wanted it. … I’m really excited to see her dance — I haven’t in a little while, and I’m most excited because our students get to meet her and take class and see that dancing professionally is attainable if that is something they want to pursue. Seeing her, being from here and from the school, is going to be great for them.”

Belhaven University Dance Department Chair and Dean of the School of Fine Arts Krista Bower welcomed the opportunity for her students, too, in classes, demonstrations and Q&A with McSween and Shearer. “That’s a great opportunity for the Belhaven dance students to hear about pathways to a professional career, and it’s wonderful for them to get to see a professional dance performance right here in Jackson.”

For Shearer, the tour’s hometown spotlight weaves artistry and memory in a reach back to her roots and a reach out to young dancers who may want to follow in her footsteps. Her self-described strengths and personality that come through in her dance easily trace back to her earliest intro to the art form. “I love to jump , so that’s one thing,” she said with a chuckle. “So, I’m very dynamic in that way.

“I really try and show the audience that I’m up there having fun, and I think that comes through onstage — that I love what I’m doing and I want other people to feel that love, too.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Jan. 23, 1955

Leontyne Price became the first Black American to sing opera on television, appearing in the title role of Puccini’s “Tosca.” It was the culmination of a childhood dream for the Laurel, Mississippi, native after going on a school trip at age 14 and hearing Marian Anderson sing. 

“The minute she came on stage, I knew I wanted to walk like that, look like that, and if possible, sound something near that,” she said. 

When she performed alongside a White tenor, many NBC affiliates in the South refused to air the broadcast. But 11 years later, her hometown and many other radio stations across the South carried her live performance in “Antony and Cleopatra.” 

With her soaring soprano, she became the first woman to open the new Met at Lincoln Center in 1966. She has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Kennedy Center Honors and 19 Grammy Awards. In 2017, she was inducted into The Performing Arts Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center alongside the likes of Louis Armstrong, Plácido Domingo and Yo-Yo Ma. Her interview in the documentary, The Opera House, prompted The New York Times to rave, “Leontyne Price, Legendary Diva, Is a Movie Star at 90.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Low-income women would be able to access free prenatal care faster under a bill that passed the House Medicaid committee Wednesday. 

The same law passed the full Legislature last year, but never went into effect due to a discrepancy between what was written into state law and federal regulations for the program, called Medicaid pregnancy presumptive eligibility.

House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, author of the bill, revised last year’s bill to remove the requirement women show proof of income. She is hopeful the policy will garner the same support it did last year when it overwhelmingly passed both chambers. 

“CMS (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) had some issues that they really did not approve of in our law, and after we talked it through we realized that the changes they wanted to make do no harm to the intent of the Legislature, do no harm to the law itself, do not add any costs to the fiscal note of the program,” McGee said during the committee meeting. 

Changes include that a pregnant woman will only have to attest to her income – not provide paystubs – and will not have to provide proof of pregnancy. 

McGee’s bill also makes changes to the time frame for presumptive Medicaid eligibility. Last year’s legislation said women would only be eligible for 60 days under the policy, with the hopes that by the end of those 60 days her official Medicaid application would be approved. Federal guidelines already have a different timeframe baked in, which state lawmakers have included in this bill. 

The federal timeframe, now congruent with McGee’s bill, says a pregnant woman will be covered under presumptive eligibility until Medicaid approves her official application, however long that takes – as long as she submits a Medicaid application before the end of her second month of presumptive eligibility coverage. 

“Let’s say a woman comes in for January 1 and is presumed eligible. She has until February 28 to turn her application in,” McGee said, adding that if Medicaid took a month to approve her application, the pregnant woman would continue to be covered through March. 

Eligible women will be pregnant and have a household income up to 194% of the federal poverty level, or about $29,000 annually for an individual. 

The bill does not introduce an additional eligibility category or expand coverage. Rather, it simply allows pregnant women eligible for Medicaid to get into a doctor’s office earlier. That’s notable in Mississippi, where Medicaid eligibility is among the strictest in the country, and many individuals don’t qualify until they become pregnant. 

An expectant mother would need to fall under the following income levels to qualify for presumptive eligibility in 2025:

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.