Penn Township native to perform in Pittsburgh Ballet's free Hartwood Acres show

Caitlyn Mendicino has been dancing since she was 4 years old. The Penn Township native took lessons from the Ballet Westmoreland Academy in Murrysville.

This weekend, she will take the Hartwood Acres stage as the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre kicks off its 55th season with a free performance Sunday that will include classical and popular music.

“I love the intricacies of ballet,” said Mendicino, 28, of Pittsburgh. “There’s so much technical knowledge you have to have that makes it beautiful and interesting to watch.”

Mendicino moved out of the area when she was 16, graduating from the North Carolina School of Arts in 2014. She was about to come back home to attend Point Park University, but, after taking a summer program at the Charlotte Ballet Company, she was offered an apprenticeship.

“I feel like I always wanted to dance as a career, but it never really clicked for me until I was offered the apprenticeship,” she said. “I spent two years there, and then I auditioned and got into the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s graduate program, where I was eventually offered another apprenticeship in 2018.”

Today, Mendicino is part of PBT’s corps de ballet, and is looking forward to returning to Hartwood Acres.

“It’s a chance to show ballet to a lot of people who wouldn’t normally see it,” she said. “As an audience member, I think it’s interesting to watch the footwork of the dancers. When you’re watching Olympic diving, you know they’re going to splash more when their foot isn’t straight. Watching how accurately a dancer can do their footwork will help someone get a grasp on how technical the artform is.”

The Hartwood performance will include selections from shows coming to the ballet in late 2024 and 2025, such as “Peter Pan,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Nutcracker Suite.”

It also will include an excerpt from Igor Stravinsky’s feral, dissonant masterpiece, “The Rite of Spring” — which famously caused a riot during its 1913 premiere — and a piece choreographed in the classic George Balanchine ballet style, “Allegro Brillante.”

“Balanchine said it was everything he knew about ballet in about 13 minutes,” Mendicino said. “It’s a lot of fast footwork, it’s a lot of fun to watch and it exudes the essence of what ballet is supposed to be.”

The evening will begin with preshow family activities at 5:30 p.m., including food trucks, free children’s activities, face painting, balloon art and a mini-dance class led by a PBT teacher.

A “Picnic in the Park” will also take place starting at 5:30 p.m. with a chance to meet PBT Artistic Director Adam McKinney and PBT performers. Tickets for that specific event are $100 for adults and $25 for children. For more, call 412-454-9127.

The company’s performance will begin about 7:30 p.m. For more, see PBT.org.