“When you say ‘once upon a time,’”
offers the Fairy Godmother
in the Debbie Allen
dance musical, Alex in
Wonderland, “that’s the
beginning of the transformation…
so you can open your mind to the possibility
of the future.”
And once upon a time there was a talented young man who found the niche he didn’t know he was seeking and, thanks to scholarship funds, spent seven transformative years becoming an award-winning student of classical ballet with his college-bound eye now on a host of uplifting options. Let’s hear it for open minds and future possibilities.
Los Angeles native Kris Nobles enrolled at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in the school’s founding year and has received two full-year and eight partial-year scholarships since that time. The most recent were made possible by a grant from the Summa Children’s Foundation.
Kris, who turned 18 in January, is articulate and soft-spoken as he talks of his experiences and aspirations, describing a journey of self-discovery that has its genesis in that most cherished of holiday traditions, The Nutcracker. “I saw it on cable when I was 3 or 4,” he says, “and thought it was so cool. I loved the music… I even asked my parents to buy me the CD.”
You read that right. Age 3 or 4.
“Kris was special from the beginning,” says Debbie Allen. “He had a presence, a real presence.”
When the Debbie Allen Dance Academy opened its doors in 2001, they were serendipitously right across the street from the studio where young Kris took gymnastics classes. A visit was inevitable. But though Kris’s fascination with ballet hadn’t waned, it also hadn’t translated into a burning desire to do more than watch from the wings.
He enrolled all the same, though, encouraged by Allen, who “knew he was special from the beginning. He had these big, old puppy dog feet and didn’t much know what to do with them,” she says, “but he had a presence, a real presence.”
And after the first year, Kris himself began to feel what Allen had seen. “I was like, ‘I could really do this,’” he says with a touch of almost-wonder.
In the fall of 2002, Allen cast Kris in Pearl, her
own song-and-dance version of the Snow White story,
which was to have its West Coast premiere at the
Geffen Playhouse. Two days before the November 12
opening, Kris broke an ankle in 
rehearsal and missed
not only the show, but more than two months of class.
It was, he says, a major turning point. “I realized then how much I love to dance.”
Major turning point number two came along the following year, with his casting as the title character in Pepito’s Story, a Caribbeanflavored musical based on the Eugene Fern novel with choreography by Allen and music by jazz superstar Arturo Sandoval. This time no injury intruded—not when the show was performed at LA’s Wadsworth Theater in November… nor when it played a 10-day run at the Kennedy Center the following April.
Yes, that Kennedy Center.
“I was so happy to be at that prestigious venue,” he says, “and it really broadened my horizons. It made me realize this is a major profession… that could be my profession.”In the four years since that East Coast debut, Kris’s horizons have continued to broaden. He won a gold medal at the 2005 Tanzolymp International Dance Festival in Berlin—competing with students from the likes of Bolshoi and Kirov—and has applied to colleges in three states, with New York (Julliard and Fordham) topping the list. In the process, he’s realized what a formidable education he’s received at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy.
“I have found as I’ve represented my studio just how disciplined and well trained we are,” he says. “So I’ve encouraged my peers to go out and try new things, too. Four of them auditioned for the ABT [American Ballet Theater] and Kirov summer programs,” he adds.
With his big picture perspective and innate graciousness, it’s no surprise that Kris is also forthcoming in expressing thanks to the Summa Children’s Foundation and others whose scholarship support has helped pave his way. “I wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for them,” he says quietly.
Once upon a time, indeed.