(Dance with Us ballet students with the professionals as Little Snowflakes, Party Children and Small Mice | Courtesy of Moscow Ballet)
Each year, more than 6,000 children nationwide take to the stage alongside the Moscow Ballet professionals and participate in the Great Russian Nutcracker, creating lifelong memories and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for students ages six to 18 with at least one year of ballet training.
In Bend, the Dance with Us cast will perform their ancillary roles of Party Children, Snowflakes, Mice, Snow Maidens and Variation Dancers on Sunday, November 3 at 1pm and 5pm at the Tower Theatre.
Among the thousands of children who have had the opportunity to share the stage with Moscow Ballet dancers, Sasha Obama, daughter of former President Barak Obama and his wife, Michelle, appeared as a mouse at the 2012 performance and 2013 as a Snow Maiden in Bethesda.
The ballet students, who study at ballet schools in the area, auditioned for Moscow Ballet Audition Director Anna Trofimova this past summer and fall and rehearsed their roles at the Moscow Ballet Host Dance Studio Gotta Dance Studio & Company.
The children’s roles are as Party Children, Small Mice, Little Snowflakes, Snow Sprites, Snow Maidens, and Act II’s Variations of the world’s five great heritages in the Land of Peace and Harmony. The experience of auditioning for a professional, rehearsing with the company, being fitted in Moscow Ballet costumes and performing for a live audience of a thousand or more is often a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these children. See the Dance with Us student dancers perform in the Great Russian Nutcracker at Tower Theatre.
Act I Dance with Us student dancers:
Small Mice — Piper Smith, Kallie Smith, Liza Myagkov, Lily McReynolds, Sadie Turco, Mia Ballinger
Act II Dance with Us student dancers:
Snow Maidens — Jillian Edmonds, Emma Hamilton, Haper McNairy, Riley Mulder, Lily Anderson, Macy Barham, Oakley Rain Panthen, Julia Muller, Makayla Mestrich
Russian Variation — Jillian Edmonds, Emma Hamilton, Riley Mulder, Lily Anderson, Stella Lyders, Makayla Mestrich, Isabella Turco
Gotta Dance Studio & Company offers quality dance instruction by a trained faculty. They pride themselves in teaching classes that are inspiring and challenging, while supporting each student in a fun and positive environment. Their experienced and professionally trained staff teaches beginning to advanced/competition-level classes to students ages three and older. Whether dancing at a local venue, conventions, competitions, workshops, recitals or Disneyland, they have a passion to learn, grow and perform.
Dance with Us youth performance program has brought more than 75,000 American and Canadian dance students on stage to perform side-by side with the 40 professionals in cities on the tour since 1993. The aspiring ballerinas and danseurs, ages seven to 17, perform in ancillary roles developed for their age and skill level by dancer, choreographer and Julliard graduate Mary Giannone Talmi, also co-producer of Moscow Ballet’s North American tours. Underwritten by Moscow Ballet, the program delivers a ballerina from the company, who also has experience teaching and working with youth, to each city to audition and rehearse the local dancers for several days, leaving the local host ballet studio to rehearse the children for six to eight weeks prior to the performance. Click here for more.