31^st ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF THE NUTCRACKER COMES TO ASHEVILLE

Contact: Ann Dunn (828) 258-1028

ann.dunn@mindspring.com

For the 31^st consecutive year, The Asheville Ballet presents The Nutcracker December 7-11 at Diana Wortham Theatre. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday - Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Regular tickets are $25-40, students $20-35, and all children $15. For information call Ann Dunn, Director at (828) 258-1028. For tickets call the box office at (828) 257-4530.

The beloved holiday ballet tells the timeless tale of a young girl’s magical visit to a dreamy Land of Sweets, where she encounters fabulous characters from all over the world, rescues The Nutcracker Prince from the evil Rat Queen, and is blessed by the beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy.

The Nutcracker, composed by Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa, contains some of the most elegant classical music and ballet ever created, from the sensuous Arabian dance to the familiar favorite, Waltz of the Flowers. This year, as always, “real” snow will fall in The Land of Snow scene, the Chinese Teapot will dance, and little Bon Bons will roll out from under Mother Ginger’s skirts. This ballet is the perfect gift for boys and girls of any age, with its spell-casting loveliness, its humor, and its athletic wonderment.

Male and female professionals from The Asheville Ballet dance principal parts in the production, while advanced students from studios all over Western North Carolina participate in the corps de ballet. A cast of over 80 dancers performs almost 200 roles in this extravaganza. Elaborate costumes, hand-made in The Ukraine especially for Asheville Ballet, add a special touch to an already lavish production.

Sugar Plum Fairy will be danced by Asheville’s Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Amy Kohler. Her Cavalier will be performed by Premier Danseur, Lyle Laney. Snow Queen, Arabian and Angel will be performed by professionals Sarah McGinnis, Allison Hertzberg and Amy Strickland. The important roles of Clara, Fritz, Dew Drop Fairy, The Nutcracker, Chinese, Spanish, Butterfly, Marzipan, Lead Maid and Lead Ginger will be danced by Emily and Caroline Unks, Tyler Sandborn, Miles Sollars-White, Daniel Taylor, Daniel McGinnis, Alex Schell, Hannah Jenkins, Megan Weaver, Solari Garren, Azure Richmond, and Cassie Woods.

The Asheville Ballet’s Nutcracker is truly a community-wide production. Corps ballet and modern Dancers are trained principally at Fletcher School of Dance. Butterflies dance with Asheville Center for the Performing Arts and New Studio of Dance/Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater. Tapping Soldiers will be performed by advanced students from Asheville Dance Theater. And the ever-popular acrobatic Russians will feature dancers from Center Stage.

For more information on Asheville Ballet’s programs please visit www.ashevilleballet.com

The Asheville Ballet Guild, Inc.’s mission is to support the artistic, educational and outreach activities of the Asheville Ballet and AnnDunnDANCErs (ADDANCE), and to create a Center for Dance Arts Education for the Western North Carolina region.

The Asheville Ballet Guild, Inc. (ABG) is one of Western North Carolina’s oldest non-profit arts organizations. ABG was incorporated in 1963 and has created and presented work in Asheville every year since. In an average season, Asheville Ballet Guild’s formal and educational outreach programming affects a culturally diverse audience of approximately 23,000 people. The ABG board is assisted by an active advisory panel and a strong and well-organized volunteer base that represents the community and encompasses expertise in many disciplines.

ABG has produced residencies by historical choreographers (Anna Sokolow, Douglas Dunn, Lori Bellilove); has hosted master classes and workshops by international dance stars (Sean Curran, Mark Dendy, Chuck Davis, David Dorfman); has produced the three-week “Fall Into Dance” festival, bringing national and local professional choreographers together to share and present edgy new work; and has commissioned classical and contemporary choreography (Bob Eisen, Rick McCullough).

ABG productions reflect diverse interests. Work has been produced for fund-raisers (The Health Adventure, The Arts Council), for civic events (Martin Luther King Day, First Night, Asheville Merchant’s Association’s Christmas parade, Bele Chere Festival), and for commercial events (The Miss Asheville pageant, opening for the Pointer Sisters, half time at the Big South Basketball Tournament, the Biltmore Estate Flower Festival).

Since its inception, ABG has produced both cutting edge interdisciplinary work (“The Book of Psalms,” “Broken Pearls”), and full-length major work (“the Nutcracker,” “Giselle, “Don Quixote, “Romeo and Juliet,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Swan Lake,” “Carmen,” “Aida”). We have collaborated with other local art agencies (the Asheville Symphony, UNC-A, Asheville Bravo Concerts, Asheville Community Theater, Asheville Lyric Opera), and have worked with the areas major musical, poetic and visual artists (Chuck Lichtenberg, David Hopes, Chad Awalt, Stephanie’s ID).

On the local scene, ABG has performed in every imaginable venue, from Tressa’s and The Orange Peel to the cafeterias and gyms of every school in Buncombe County, to nursing homes, to streets and parks, to the formal stages of Thomas Wolfe, Kittredge, ACT, Lipinsky, and Diana Wortham.

On the national and international scene, ABG has presented work live and on television, has produced tours for communities, art museums and colleges, and has danced at Yale University, Jacob’s Pillow New Dance Festival, in New York City and in Italy.

Artistic Director and choreographer Ann Dunn has received significant support from federal (NEA and NEH), state (NCAC and IAC) and local agencies (community Arts Councils across the country), and from foundations such as The Rockefeller Foundation, The Janirve Foundation, and The Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation.

In addition to promoting new work and a professional ballet company for the Western North Carolina region, ABG has built a video and book library, offers an annual lecture series on dance appreciation in co-ordination with other local dance presenters, and generates educational articles on dance history and appreciation for national publications, and for such diverse local publications as The Asheville Citizen-Times, The Mountain XPress, The Asheville Tribune, The Indie and The Critical Review.

ABG is committed to supporting its professional adult members by providing challenging and stimulating performance, choreography and teaching opportunities. And ABG nurtures the careers of its advanced teen members. Dancers who have worked with ABG have performed with Alvin Ailey, Kirov Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Forth Worth Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Colorado Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Boston Ballet, Geneva Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba, Broadway Musicals, Hollywood films, the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, and have won titles all the way up to Miss America. They have also been accepted at the schools of the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Juilliard, Boston Ballet, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham (company apprenticeship), Robert Joffrey (company apprenticeship), and The Dance Conservatory at Purchase.

ABG has created and found funding for scholarships for advanced dancers to pursue professional work in New York and Europe, and for underprivileged children to study dance seriously right here in Asheville. We have worked with Project Steam, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Helpmate, Elida Home, Presbyterian Home for Children, and local churches to locate and encourage new dancers and dance-appreciators. Our Tix for Tots program makes hundreds of tickets available, to introduce children to the wonders of dance.

At Asheville Ballet Guild, our motto is, “No dance task in our community is too small or too big for us.”