EuroGymnastics trains Olympic hopefuls in Summerlin

Balls rolled magically along extended arms. Ribbons snaked gracefully through the air. World-class rhythmic gymnastics has been transplanted from Eastern Europe and has landed in Summerlin.

Summerlin resident Maia Tabakova and her sister, Lina, who lives in northwest Las Vegas, head the program, called EuroGymnastics.

Both competed in the sport on the world stage. Maia Tabakova was a member of the Bulgarian team that won gold at the 1996 Worlds in Budapest, Hungary, and took the silver medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and a bronze at the 1994 Worlds in Paris. These days, she dances in Cirque du Soleil’s “Zumanity.”

B.B. Ignatova, who has coached winning athletes in Bulgaria, Canada and the United States, established the program here. Ivelina Hamel, a champion in the sport in 1987, is another instructor.

EuroGymnastics classes are scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Veterans Memorial Leisure Services Center, 101 N. Pavilion Center Drive.

“It’s a good facility,” Hamel said, gesturing at the open ceiling. “You need height when you throw the apparatus in the air.”

“It’s a lot about grace, that one word. It’s just grace,” said Lina Tabakova. “What we’re trying to do with the students is to give them beautiful bodies, graceful lines. It’s on the border of art and sports. It’s a dance, done with apparatus.”

She said a lot of the movements are based on ballet. Dances are performed with ribbon, rope, hoops, a ball and clubs.

EuroGymnastics offers recreational classes for girls as young as 4. There are about 20 students enrolled.

The competitive team has 11 girls, ages 7 to 14.

This day, mothers and grandmothers brought the students, some already prepared and dressed for class, others with duffel bags of clothes. Leotards on and hair up in ponytails, they unrolled the carpeted mats. Warming up including running around the basketball court a few times, then doing jumping jacks.

The 11 students then gathered in a circle for stretching. These were not “touch your toes” moves but were more along the lines of what ballerinas might do –– ballerinas and contortionists. The little ones kept up with their instructor, pointing their toes, arching their backs, twisting themselves into pretzels and even doing a preschooler’s version of a Russian split.

“It almost makes you hurt to watch them,” said Mary Killion, principal community program specialist at Veterans Memorial.

Killion said being affiliated with such a group at a city facility was not a first.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of the Cirque performers ... they started the ‘O’ show, ‘Le Reve’ and the mermaid show all at city pools, coming in to block them out and work on ideas. ... I think it’s nice to have the opportunity to have the kids do something new.”

After warming up, the students learned to perform a sidestep sort of move across the full length of the carpet. Lina Tabakova and Hamel demonstrated and told the girls to join them. The girls ventured out, imitating the moves. The exuberance was there if not the full mastery of the technique. The instructors made corrections here and there.

“Point your toes, then feet together,” Lina Tabakova called out. “That’s it, better.”

Forward somersaults began with a ballerina-like step and concluded by jumping up with a flourish. Rhythmic gymnastics is nothing if not executed with panache.

When two girls got into a giggling contest, Lina Tabakova redirected their attention.

“After class, you can play; right now, show me your forward roll,” she said.

Parents said they appreciated the way class was conducted.

“What I look for in a teacher is what they do with the kids, their focus with the kids,” said Kate St. Pierre of Summerlin as she watched her daughter, Alex, 5. “(I ask,) is what they’re doing developmentally appropriate for the age of the kids; how well do they keep them engaged?”

She said the instructors did a good job, were not overbearing and, knowing the short attention span of the children, changed things up frequently.

After her first lesson, Alex “came home and wanted to leap everywhere,” St. Pierre said.

Deanna Panin, 4, began in the program when she was 3. Her mother, Irina Grigorian, is a professional ice skater from Russia. Grigorian said trying to find a studio for the sport was frustrating.

“We were looking before she was born, and we were kind of disappointed because there was no program here,” Grigorian said. “Then this came around, right in time. We almost thought we’d have to move” to find a program.

The instructors acknowledged that the girls had a ways to go before they mastered the sport.

“Once they get the hang of it, once they are actually doing skills, start spinning and jumping with the rope, then they really start to enjoy it,” Lina Tabakova said. “The fun comes with accomplishment.”

Each class lasts 1½ hours. Costs start at $90 a month, and one-on-one instruction is available for $60 an hour.

For more information, call 646-270-0250 or email info@eurogymnastics.net.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.