Local children to perform in Russian Nutcracker with professional ballet company Dec. 8

Press release:

(Berkshires, Mass.) Nov 18, 2015 – This holiday season, young local dancers in Asheville will be given a special opportunity: they will audition, rehearse and perform with a professional ballet company of 40 in Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker.

Moscow Ballet’s “Dance with Us” program has given over 50,000 children in the US and Canada, from coast to coast, the opportunity to experience the challenges and rewards of preparing for and participating in a professional performance for 23 years. For many dance students, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: “Our local Dance with Us kids… had an experience you couldn’t put into words. It was amazing,” says Jordan Petersen-Fitts, co-owner Cuyahoga Falls Dance Studio, MB Host Dance Studio.

Moscow Ballet auditions local children ages 7 to 16 years for roles that are created to suit different age and skill levels. Four Moscow Ballet soloists – Olga Aru, Zhanna Golubenko, Olena Nalyvaiko and Mariia Skoruk -work as audition and rehearsal directors from August to October traveling to almost all of the 80+ cities on the North American tour.

They then perform on the tour and run dress rehearsals with local students and the company the day of the performance. “With the Great Russian Nutcracker, you get the best of both worlds…talented local children that seem to grow up right before your eyes…and an impressive, professional troupe who put on a traditional, beautiful show,” DC Metro Theatre and Arts, Washington DC. Asheville youth ages 7 to 16 years perform side-by-side the Moscow Ballet company of 40 in the Great Russian Nutcracker at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00pm. For tickets go to www.nutcracker.com/buy-tickets

Act I Dance with Us student dancers perform as:

Party Children: Ellie Baker, Maggie Baker, Joseph Miler-Bailey, Noelle Benjamin, Claire Brown, Alena Mayberry, Sadie Oreck, Adrina Suardiasa

Mice: Ada Bonham, Peyton Douglas, Glennin Hansen, Hunter Hitchens, Chloe Ledbetter, Allie Messer, Payton Messer

Snowflakes: Neriya Dean, Pressley Dowell, Amber Guzy, Alexis Henline, Teya McAllister, Aspyn Motarjeme, Ruby Melrose, Ella Murphy, Kali Schmitt, RJ Sherwood, Anaiya Stewart, Adriana Tartaglia, Adalyn Torres, Isabela Yoakley

Act II Dance with Us student dancers perform as:

Snow Sprites: Emma Kate Jaynes, Rowan Minor, Lydia Kampe, Alexandra Schill

Snow Maidens: Lauryn Alford, Jacey Bergman, Rachel Blakenship, Emily Eldridge, Gisele Luther, Angelina Mamo, Natalie Savage, Ava Smith, Geena Yursha, Noelle Yursha

Spanish Variation: Katherine Grace Brown, Meredith Brown, McKenzie Thies, Riede Thies

Chinese Variation: Caroline Brasfield, Savannah Coffey, Abigail King, Ava Thomas

Russian Variation: Charly Davis, Grace Kanipe, Katherine Grace Brown, Meredith Brown

French Variation: Amelia Berry and Olivia Lee-Simmons

Center Stage Dance Studio has been ‘dancing” since 1979 and offers classes in a variety of styles for children ages 3 to 18. It is Western North Carolina’s top rated dance facility and is unique among dance studios in the area; all faculty hold degrees in dance or early childhood education, have danced with a professional company or maintain membership in Dance Masters of America. Founder Michele Lee remains committed to offering the highest quality dance education to students. The success of Center Stage lies in maintaining positive relationships with students and forming a life-long love of dance. Many former students now bring their children to Center Stage!

Dance with Us program includes partnerships with host ballet studios in each tour city; children’s choreography developed by Mary Giannone Talmi, co-producer of Moscow Ballet’s North American tours; and 4 traveling Audition Directors who audition, cast and rehearse the local children. Host Ballet Studios offer their studio space for auditions and rehearsals so that local ballet students gain personal exposure to internationally touring Russian dancers and to the professional performance experience.

In addition to Dance with Us, Moscow Ballet develops other educational programming providing a continuum of educational experiences with a ballet and Russian influence. Moscow Ballet’s cross discipline program, “Musical Wunderkind,” is a salute to talented young Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition winners across the country and is an unprecedented opportunity for young musicians to accompany a principal ballerina in a live performance.

Since 2011 Moscow Ballet has presented New Horizons: A Children’s Program for Life for all children, not just dancers, which addresses diet, exercise, and cultural immersion experiences for youngsters through interactive experiences with Moscow Ballet dancers. Other programming includes 1984 “Cynthia Gregory Celebration Tour” with Just Say No campaign as its official message, and chaired by First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Moscow Ballet’s Russian-Cultural Ballet program was produced in nine museums and art institutions across the US and Cinderella Around the World dance and literacy program accompanied Moscow Ballet’s North American tour of Cinderella. The “First International Glasnost Festival Tour” included symposiums, screenings, poetry readings, and more for students and the public at Dartmouth, Yale, and other colleges.

Moscow Ballet – In addition to the Great Russian Nutcracker, Moscow Ballet repertory includes classic ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and more. The company features award-winning and rising star dancers from Olga Kifyak in 2012 to Lilia Sabitova in 1994. For over twenty years the company has performed 100 engagements annually in North America including in a majority of the top twenty demographic markets.

Moscow Ballet receives critical acclaim and was invited to present at National Press Club Newsmaker events. In addition to public performances, the company’s mission and national platform enables it to share the Russian Vaganova ballet training with over 5000 American dance students annually in Dance with Us. “New Horizons – A Children’s Program for Life” is an intensive cultural immersion project that benefits thousands of school children and programs Musical Wunderkind and Summer Intensives also touch the lives of many children and young adults.

For over 20 years Moscow Ballet’s partnership with corporations and not-for-profit organizations such as the President’s Challenge Program and Children’s Hospitals has raised revenue for significant missions and causes. www.moscowballet.com.