Jessica Laskey
Jessica Laskey is a freelance writer and professional actress who has lived and worked in Sacramento, San Francisco, Dallas, New York City and Paris. She is also the co-founder of Theater Galatea and Indomita Press.
Career Leap
Hard work and months of rehearsal come together when Sacramento Ballet’s Second Company performs its spring showcase May 11–12 at Hiram Johnson High School Auditorium.
Second Company was started two years ago by Jill Krutzkamp as a way to give dancers ages 18–21 intensive training before leaping into the professional dance world.
The company encompasses the Trainee Project for promising students who pay tuition, and SB2 for dancers who receive scholarships and stipends.
“Our mission is to get them jobs, help them get to know themselves more and have time to figure out if this is really what they want to do,” Jill says. “Second Company gives them that pre-professional leg up. We want to create the best dancer we can so they’re more marketable.”
Life Coach
Kids on Foy Reynolds’ YMCA basketball teams learn more than sports skills. They learn life lessons.
“I coach by the Y’s core values: respect, responsibility, caring and honesty,” Reynolds says. “I start getting kids in second grade all the way through seventh, which is an important time in their life. They play hard and they win, but they earn it because they work hard. I bring out the best in a person. That’s my job.”
Roll Over Beethoven
You’ll probably never meet anyone more passionate about music than Benjamin J. McClara.
The founder and artistic director of Sacramento Preparatory Music Academy, a community-based education program, gets choked up when he talks about music.
He shares that passion with hundreds of students and community musicians in academy lessons and performances.
“Our mission is to provide lifelong access to music education and a place where students can come and study music with professionals,” McClara says. “You don’t really get that in school.”
The academy offers private and group lessons at Midtown’s E. Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts in piano, guitar, ukulele, woodwinds and voice under McClara, Michael Dale and Anthony Tavianini.
Instant Mom
At age 25, Lauren Hamilton became stepmom to three young boys. Recognizing she needed help, she searched for a book to assist with her tricky new role.
Nothing spoke to her experience, so Hamilton wrote the book herself.
“I kept finding all these love stories and I was definitely not living this happily-ever-after. I was navigating the trenches,” the Arden Oaks resident recalls. “I had days where I remember questioning, is this even worth it? How am I going to make it till they’re 18?
