SALT LAKE CITY — Sounds of pointe shoes can always be heard inside the studios of Ballet West, but you would never guess the person wearing those shoes is 23-year-old Jonas Malinka-Thompson.
His ballet journey started when he was just six years old.
“My parents had me on our kindergarten soccer team,” Thompson said, "but I was never really focused on the ball. I was always kind of off to the side, twirling and leaping around.”
When he started dancing, it felt like the right fit, but nearly 17 years later, he was cast in a role that required him to do the unthinkable.
“I had never put my foot in a pointe shoe before I learned I was doing this role,” Thompson said. "It was really just, 'Here, you're going to be learning this. You're going to be doing it, so start practicing.'”
He was cast as the role of Bottom, a character who turns into a donkey during "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," which requires the male dancer to go on pointe shoes — something you don’t see too often.
“Men don't usually get to do this, and we're usually focusing on big jumps and partnering and a lot of turns,” Thompson said. "For this role, what makes it really fun as well, is that it’s not really supposed to look like perfect ballet technique. It's supposed to look clumsy. It's the comedic part of the ballet.”
He started practicing back in June and was not ready for the pain that comes with it.
“The solo in the dream is a lot of just hops on pointe, and it's not something you really learn in a beginner ballet lesson,” Thompson said. "I think as ballet dancers, we're used to being in pain a lot and being sore, but this is a completely different feeling with blisters and bruised toenails.”
After a lot of trial and error, however, Malinka-Thompson was able to take his routine from the studio to the stage.
“I love hearing the audience laugh and respond to my acting. It means I've done my job. I'm being funny and portraying the story,” Thompson said. “Dancing is my passion. I love doing it, obviously, but I think acting is what really makes it fun.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs at the Capitol Theatre through Nov. 15.
