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The Roanoke Ballet Theatre’s executive director has a stubborn sense of purpose that keeps her going.
Ashley Wilson Fellers
Sandra Meythaler’s love affair with dance started early – so early that she says she can’t remember it.
Ask Sandra Meythaler if — as a girl growing up in Ecuador — she could have imagined where life would take her … that she’d one day rise to become a principal ballerina with the National Ballet of Ecuador, perform on stages around the world, and then move to a Virginia mountain town and found a professional ballet company. To that question, Meythaler might laugh.
But if her path sounds unlikely, it’s one she thinks was meant to be.
“I actually believe I was meant to do what I’m doing,” says Meythaler, executive director of Roanoke Ballet Theatre.
In her 15-plus years at the helm of the small nonprofit, Meythaler has managed to accomplish a lot – building a company of professionals to perform alongside the school’s educational arm, introducing guest performers from around the globe, and – as of last year – hiring internationally known dancer Rolando Sarabia as artistic director.
“From now on, the doors are open for RBT to keep growing,” she says.
And yet, as impressive as those accomplishments might sound, what might surprise you most about Meythaler is her backstory.
Meythaler’s love-affair with dance started early – so early that she says she can’t remember it.
“My mom said I used to dance, when I was four, on the table,” says Meythaler. “I feel like it was something inside of me from the time that I was born.”
Still – she wouldn’t get a chance to try out dance in any serious way until after her father’s death, she says, when her mother and siblings moved to Quito, Ecuador’s capital. It was there where her older brother discovered the Compañía Nacional de Danza, a professional dance group that also offered lessons to children.
“He came all excited and said … ‘Mom, we should sign her up,’” Meythaler remembers. “My mom was in opposition, completely … She said, ‘I am a widow, I can’t afford to pay [for] dance lessons.’”
But Meythaler’s brother was determined to help her follow her passion. He bought her a bright red leotard when all the other students wore black – and brought her to auditions. Those auditions happened to land her a scholarship, she says, and before long she was cast in a child’s role in an upcoming ballet.
It was a chance occurrence, though, that ultimately made way for Meythaler to pursue dance as a career. When an adult performer was injured, she says, the choreographer asked Meythaler to step in, and she’d soon been invited to become one of the youngest members of the professional company.
“It was a dream come true,” Meythaler remembers. “I travelled to different places around the planet – Japan, Brazil, Paris, Germany, Italy … It was so exciting, the life I was living – touring, performing, dress-up, makeup. I [thought], ‘I am never going to change.’”
Ultimately, it was marriage that brought Meythaler to the United States. The man who would later become her ex-husband travelled frequently at the time, and Meythaler found herself at an important crossroads, deciding to leave dance behind for a new life with her family in Southwest Virginia.
But life without dance just wouldn’t stick.
“The pain in my soul … I couldn’t [have] imagined it,” she admits. “I missed my country badly … At some point I didn’t feel I belonged anywhere.”
Meythaler found belonging in performing again – creating presentations for schools and colleges that highlighted the Latin influences in her dance background – and soon others took notice. Meythaler was invited to join Roanoke Ballet Theatre as a dancer and then an instructor … and she said yes.
“It was inside of me, that hunger to teach,” she remembers.
Through the years that followed – years in which Meythaler would be promoted to executive director and see the company through rocky financial straits – it was a stubborn sense of purpose that kept her going.
“I’m very persistent in everything I do,” she admits.
And, in the end, that persistence allowed her to build a life pursuing a singular passion.
“I left dance, but the dance never left me,” she says. “And my goal as director of this beautiful organization is to show the world how much life can change with art.”
The story above is from our September/October 2022 issue. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!