The Ballethnic Dance Company of Atlanta joins forces with university and community dance troupes in a program of holiday selections at the Morton Theatre in downtown Athens Dec. 6-8.
The program opens with three performances from the repertory of the UGA Ballet Ensemble: Season of Light, Keeping Watch and Raymonda: Grand Pas Excerpts.
Season of Light, performed by the UGA Ballet Ensemble to Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols," is choreographed by Joan Buttram, assistant professor of dance and director of the ensemble. It was first performed in 1993.
Keeping Watch is performed by dancers from the UGA Ballet Ensemble, the East Athens Educational Dance Center and UGA's Non-Stop Dance Company. Choreographers Peggy Thrasher and Janet Robertson have set their Advent dance to the music of carols from many different countries. It was first presented by the Athens Ballet Theater in 1994.
Raymonda, a full-length ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1898, was the basis for George Balanchine's 1946 Raymonda Variations, performed to selections from the original Glazunov score. The UGA Ballet Ensemble performs solo and duet pieces from the Balanchine choreography.
The program concludes with the second act from The Urban Nutcracker, performed by the Ballethnic Dance Company, with assistance from dancers from the UGA Ballet Ensemble, the Non-Stop Dance Company and the East Athens Educational Dance Center. Ballethnic Dance Company is a professional company of classically trained African-American dancers, founded in 1991 in Atlanta by Waverly Lucas and Nena Gilreath-Lucas, both former members of the Dance Theater of Harlem and the Atlanta Ballet. The company blends classical ballet with modern, jazz and ethnic dance, especially traditional African movement.
The Urban Nutcracker is Lucas's 1992 adaptation of Tchaikovsky's ballet, set on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta in the 1940s. In the first act, Sarah receives a nutcracker doll as a Christmas gift from her godfather and dreams that the nutcracker becomes a prince. In the second act, Sarah and the nutcracker-prince are led on a dancing journey down "Sweet Auburn" Avenue.
Brown Sugar, the queen of Sweet Auburn, and her escort, the Chocolatier, present Sarah and the nutcracker with dance treats from around the world and from Atlanta's history. One of the treats, for instance, is a six-pack of Coca-Cola--a bubbly pas de six (dance of six dancers), in which the dancers represent the small, shapely bottles of Coca-Cola found in every Atlanta drugstore.
There will be two evening performances, at 8 p.m. Dec. 6 and 7, and two matinees, at 2 p.m. on Dec. 7 and 8. Tickets ($10 evening, $5 matinee) may be purchased at the Morton Theatre and Tate Student Center box offices.
--Beth Roberts
