It’s that time of year to spread the holiday cheer and Ballet Kauai will be doing just that with an hour-long performance of a winter classic: The Nutcracker. The performance is scheduled 7 to 8 tonight at Island School. Ballet
It’s that time of year to spread the holiday cheer and Ballet Kauai will be doing just that with an hour-long performance of a winter classic: The Nutcracker.
The performance is scheduled 7 to 8 tonight at Island School.
Ballet Kauai Director Daniel Nelson said the production is based on Act 2 of the ballet composed by famous Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa more than a century ago.
This part of the ballet, he said, takes place in the dream of a young girl named Clara when she falls asleep.
“Our production begins with her asleep, and waking to the dream world and being given a Nutcracker doll,” Nelson wrote in an email. “There are dances from different places: the Spanish dance, Russian dance, Chinese dance, the Marzipan dance and Waltz of the Flowers. At the end Clara falls asleep again and wakes to find the fairytale world gone, but her Nutcracker doll is still there.”
The performance, a new one for Ballet Kauai this year, marks the first time that Nelson and his students are performing on-stage at Island School.
Last Christmas, Nelson said Ballet Kauai collaborated with a music teacher and had a night of strings music and dance at Kauai Community College.
The Kapaa-based company, however, decided to do it’s own ballet show this year because the music teacher was unable to participate.
“Nutcracker is a Christmas classic that is done around the world in ballet companies and schools, but I am not aware of it being done here on Kauai,” Nelson wrote. “I danced it many times in my career as a professional dancer and I always loved it.”
Nelson said his students have been rehearsing for this performance since the beginning of October.
“I would love the audience that comes to take with them a sense of joy, being uplifted by the beauty of children dancing to gorgeous music,” Nelson said.
Tickets are $7 at the door.
For more information, visit the Ballet Kauai at www.balletkauai.com or send an email to Nelson, borneoboy@hotmail.com.
