Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Claire Kiser (center) practices her ballet at the Center of Dance in Blacksburg. In January, Claire will begin full-time training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C.

BLACKSBURG -- One young Blacksburg dancer has a chance to fulfill her dreams.

Claire Kiser, a 13-year-old ballet student, has been invited to attend the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. Kirov is an intensive ballet school that teaches using the Vaganova method, a Russian training curriculum.

Claire will attend starting in January, living at the school as a boarder and taking both ballet and academic classes on-site.

"I wasn't really sure it was for me at first, but when I went to the orientation ... I knew this was something I wanted to do," Claire said.

The school has about 70 students overall, 57 of whom are boarders like Claire, said Rebecca Rorke, director of programs. The rest are commuters or do not take academics at the school.

Claire attended a three-week, intensive session in July, her first taste of Kirov.

"At Kirov, everyone was really respectful of the teaching," Claire said. "The class wasn't loud, and everyone seemed to really want to learn."

The summer session is looked at as an audition for the full-time program, Rorke said.

"The artistic department sees how students adapt to training and then make offers," Rorke said.

The number of offers made depends on how many students graduated the year before and spaces that have come available that year. This round, about 25 offers were made, Rorke said.

A few weeks after the summer session ended, Claire received an offer to attend the school full time starting Sept. 5.

"It was kind of like a bomb," said Michael Kiser, Claire's father.

The family decided it was too short of notice to attend the fall semester but "agonized" over the decision to send Claire to the school in January, he said.

"The ballet [training] is the easy decision," Helene Kiser said. "Her leaving, and not living here, is the hard decision."

Claire started dancing at 4, stopped for a few years, and began dancing again at 10.

"That's when I really started getting into my classes," she said. "Now I know I want to be a dancer."

The Kisers home school Claire and her brother, Simon, 15, and the family is very close, they said.

"It'll be weird, because my brother's my best friend, and when I come back he'll be in college," Claire said.

But two years ago, when Claire got serious about dance, the family had a discussion about the possibility of her pursuing ballet as a career.

They struck an agreement that if she continued to work hard and wanted a career in dance, her parents would give her all the opportunities they could.

That promise led to the 12 to 14 hours a week of practice, twice-weekly trips to work with the Roanoke Ballet Theatre and classes at the Center of Dance in Blacksburg.

"We've worried, and it's been very hard to make the decision," Helene Kiser said. "But if she's achieved this much so far, we can't wait to see what she can achieve with consistent, regular training."

At Kirov, a full-time student is generally attending ballet classes from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., breaking for lunch, and attending academic classes in the afternoon with mandatory study halls at night, Rorke said. There are also dance classes on Saturdays.

Full-time tuition to the school is $39,000 per year, Rorke said. Claire received a 15 percent scholarship based on artistic merit, Rorke said.

"Claire is a really good student," said Ashley Doyle-Lucas, who has been teaching Claire for the past year and a half at the Center of Dance.

"She works really hard and she has a love of dance, and it shows in class."

Doyle-Lucas also coached Claire last year when Claire competed in the Youth America Grand Prix, a ballet scholarship competition.

A few of Doyle-Lucas' students have attended summer intensives, but Claire is the first to be attend a year-round program, she said.

Doyle-Lucas also traveled from her home in Seattle to attend a year-round dance program as a senior in high school called the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Fla.

As a dancer, going at a younger age like Claire is preferred over going as an older student like Doyle-Lucas did, she said.

"I wish I had gone two years earlier," Doyle-Lucas said.