Former Bozeman ballerina signs with Berlin company

By CAMDEN EASTERLING Chronicle Staff Writer

Marie Sascha Khan is a dreamer - and a doer.

DEIRDRE EITEL/CHRONICLE Marie Sascha Khan, 19, at the Gallatin Gateway Inn, is living her childhood dream. She signed a contract with the world renowned Staatsballet Berlin in March, but was home for a recent visit and to help with the Youth Arts in Action's annual fundraising event. Since she was a young girl, Khan dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina. Now with a contract in hand from a major ballet company in Berlin, Germany, she's done it.

Khan, who grew up in Bozeman and just turned 19, joined the Staatsballet Berlin in March. The ballet is Berlin's state-sponsored company. She recently returned home for a three-week visit with parents Teresa Khan MacKay and Greg MacKay, and to help with Youth Arts in Action's annual fundraiser.

When asked how the reality of working as a professional ballerina compares with her childhood dream, Marie Khan had two simple words: “It's beyond.”

Signing with any professional dance company is a major feat, said Sallyann Mulcahy, director of dance at Carroll College in Helena and a former professional ballerina, whom Khan studied under when she was younger.

But the Berlin company is more than just any professional company, said Christine Austin, a former professional ballerina who teaches ballet in Bozeman and instructs the MacKays' two sons.

“The Staatsballet Berlin is really high caliber and is probably one of the top ballet companies in the world,” Austin said.

Khan is well aware of the company's prestige and the odds of anyone her age being asked to join, particularly since the company didn't have any openings when she auditioned.

But she talks about her new job with pride, modesty and a good bit of disbelief. “It was really not something I thought would be happening,” she said.

She has already performed in one show with the company and will start work on the next production when she returns to Berlin.

Being away from home, even in another country, is nothing new for the teenager. She first left Bozeman at 14 to attend the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C. She later moved to Monaco to attend a dance school there and trained in London, France and other locales.

“She announced it at 10,” that she wanted to be a ballerina, Teresa Khan MacKay said, laughing as she recalled her daughter's declaration. “But I didn't really listen because she was 10.”

But as Khan began applying for dance programs out of state and the family heard how well she danced, they realized she'd have to leave Montana to get the intense training needed to eventually dance professionally.

Montana can be a tough place to find truly qualified teachers who can give students the attention necessary to reach such a goal, Austin and Mulcahy said.

After living in and visiting so many places, Khan, who is fluent in French, speaks with a touch of an accent that is hard to place -- noticeably American, slightly French, but with a bit of something else thrown in.

But she doesn't speak much German.

“It's not such a big deal, though,” she said, “because dance is artistic, dance isn't with words.”

Staatsballet Berlin's members come from various countries and speak numerous languages, including English and French, so she can usually follow what's being said.

When Khan joined the company, she said upfront that she would have to return to Montana in April to help with Youth Arts in Action's annual “Fairy Tea for the Arts.” Her parents run the nonprofit group, which provides opportunities for young dancers and artists in the form of awards and scholarships.

Khan and her younger sister, Nadia, who studies dance at a New York City school, help coordinate the annual tea.

The MacKays are a close-knit family when it comes to giving back as well as supporting each other, Khan and her mother said.

The family keeps in contact with Maria and Nadia through frequent, if not daily, phone calls.

“My kids know if they don't communicate with me, they're coming home,” Khan MacKay joked.

She and her husband are able to visit the girls frequently because Greg MacKay's job as a computer consultant often requires travel to the East Coast, and generates a steady stream of frequent-flier miles.

Khan MacKay was in Berlin this spring to see her daughter dance in her first professional production.

“It was very, very emotional,” she said.

Mother and daughter laugh easily with each other and seem to have a more mature and friendly relationship than many mothers and their teenage daughters.

“To let her go like that is fundamental," Khan MacKay said of her daughter's move to Germany. "(It's) the freedom to find out who you are, what you can achieve.”

“Say what you want, Mom,” Khan said, smiling at her mother. “I could not have gotten this far without the support of my family.”

But Mulcahy said Khan's talent and determination is what earned her a professional contract.

Signing with the Berlin ballet, particularly when it wasn't actively recruiting, is like winning “the luck of the draw on a shooting star,” Mulcahy said. “And she just happened to be that shooting star.”

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