'Nutcracker Ballet' to feature Classical Dance Pros
A traditional holiday show, The Nutcracker, will spotlight classical dance and music in downtown Hollywood.
- What:The Nutcracker performed by the South Florida Ballet Theater.
- When: 6 p.m. Dec. 14.
- Where: Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center, 1770 Monroe St., Hollywood.
- Tickets: $20-$50; $50 tickets include 5 p.m. reception.
- Information: Call 954-929-4601.
BY EILEEN SOLER | Special to The Miami Herald
An ageless ballet of holiday wishes and dreams coming true will be staged again with sugarplum and dewdrop fairies at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center.
''It's George Balanchine with a little bit of me,'' said Lynda DeChane, artistic director of the South Florida Ballet Theater, based in downtown Hollywood.
It's The Nutcracker.
As traditional as mistletoe, eggnog and toys that come alive, the ballet this year features a cast of professional, seasoned international dancers and 40 children from the theater's apprentice ballet school.
Headlining the Dec. 14 performance are principals Edgar Anido as the brave and handsome Nutcracker Prince and Diana Catalina Gomez as the beautiful, romantic Clara.
Anido, acclaimed for his great, elastic quality of leaps and jumps, won first place for choreography at the 2008 World Ballet Competition. Gomez won first place at the competition for best pas de deux. Both are members of Ballet Gamonet dance company, based in Miami and New York.
''Together they bring the technical and artistic to something visually incredible,'' DeChane said.
The fairy tale ballet, composed in 1891 and 1892 by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, is an adaptation of the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The story was reworked for the stage by French author Alexandre Dumas.
Balanchine choreographed the now-famous New York City Ballet version in 1954, and it has since been offered by many dance companies on stages worldwide every Christmas season.
In Hollywood, Anido and Gomez will be joined with other international ballet dancers, including Jessica Colina, Carolina Medina, Jorge Cardenas and Christine Hodges.
A free preview of the program will be staged a day earlier, at 4 p.m. Saturday at the ArtsPark at Young Circle at Hollywood Boulevard and U.S. 1 in downtown Hollywood.
DeChane said no one ever tires of seeing the show.
''It's joyous, traditional, it starts and tops the holidays. It's the timeless story of a courageous prince who journeys to the land of the snow, into the land of the sweets,'' she said.
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