'Fox Valley Nutcracker' returns to Batavia Fine Arts Centre
The "Fox Valley Nutcracker" plans to kick off the holiday season over Thanksgiving weekend with a wide net of dancers from the Tri-Cities area and beyond.
"I opened it up to the Fox Valley community a year ago when we started calling it the 'Fox Valley Nutcracker,'" said Ashlie Andersen, artistic director of the ballet and owner of State Street Dance Studio in Geneva.
"In the past, the State Street 'Nutcracker' had a few other dancers from here and there, but I wanted to bring together the community of dancers and artists to create a really nice holiday performance to everyone in the Tri-Cities area," Andersen said.
Performances take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27, at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre. Tickets are $24-$47.
Although the majority of the 75 dancers, who range in age from 6 to 15, are from area dance studios, the "Fox Valley Nutcracker" will welcome professional guests including Journy and Anna Wilkes-Davis from Columbia, South Carolina, and Maina Sena, of Salvador, Brazil. Clara is played by Jillian Lobrillo of St. Charles.
Kaleigh Schock, whose hometown is Elgin, left Larkin High School's Dance Academy at 16 to study in New York. She will dance the Snow Queen in the production. It won't be her first association with the ballet, however.
"When I was training in New York, I was hired by a small school in Pennsylvania. I was 16. The Cincinnati Ballet hired me at 17. Then I did Balletwest in Salt Lake City and I've also done Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas."
Schock, who is a member of Elements Contemporary Ballet in Chicago, thinks the "Fox Valley Nutcracker" is on a par with professional ballets. "The choreography and the sets are very professional and the costuming, it feels much more like a production than a recital."
According to Andersen, the sets, which include revolving stages and trains full of tin soldiers, add to the magic. Her husband, John Andersen, a light and set designer, brings the magic.
"We go all out. We have a big technical side," she said.
Fourteen-year-old Maecy Ashmore of Batavia has a different take on what makes the ballet special.
"Your average 'Nutcracker' is a Christmas show, but we work so hard with the dancing as well as how we communicate our emotion that we convey and because the cast is so close with each other, the audience will be able to feel that," she said.
Ashmore has been cast in the organization for 10 years, but this year's production might be the busiest.
"I'm playing five roles," she said. "The Columbine Doll, Snow corps, Spanish corps, Marzipan, and the Lead Flower."
Once the ballet is done, the dancers and costumes will come out one more time when members of the company will visit sick children.
"We went to Central DuPage Hospital pediatric unit last year; they handed out gifts to the children in the hospital," said Andersen, who lives in Montgomery.
"We also went to Ronald McDonald House and did a little performance and cooked a meal for the families there and we're going to do that again this year in a couple weeks."
"We feel very privileged to be able to do it," she added.
If you go
What: "Fox Valley Nutcracker"
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27
Where: Batavia Fine Arts Centre, 1201 Main St., Batavia
Tickets: $29-$42; $24-$36 for children, age 10 or younger. VIP seats, including photos with the characters after the show, $45-$47.
Details: Showcases students from Geneva's State Street Dance Studio, as well as other local studios and professional dancers. Featuring lavish sets, festive costumes, and Tchaikovsky's score.
Info: (630) 937-8930 or <a href="http://www.foxvalleynutcracker.com">www.foxvalleynutcracker.com</a>.