Update for 2020: The Friends University Ballet will not perform the Nutcracker ballet this year, but it has scheduled a live-stream Winter Dance Celebration on November 14 in place of it.
Friends University Nutcracker Ballet 2019
The Friends University Ballet Department will present a new full-length production of “The Nutcracker.” Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 14-15, and at 2 p.m. Dec. 9 and Dec. 15.
Newly-hired ballet dance program director Andrea Vazquez-Aguirre will choreograph this year’s production of The Nutcracker, which will be unlike the previous years’ shows.
The music will be from the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s 1960 recording of Billy Strayhorn’s Nutcracker Suite, supplemented with selections from David Berger’s Harlem Nutcracker. Vasquez-Aguirre says This jazzy version of the holiday ballet “will add diversity to the options for audiences and participants for the holiday season.”
Friends students and community members will share the stage with four guest performers. The first weekend of performances will feature Jeremy Edmonson and Nanako Horikawa, freelance dancers in New Mexico and New York. The second weekend’s performances will feature Dandara Amorim Veiga and Lyvan Verdecia from Ballet Hispanico in New York City.
“The guest artists performing with us this year will not only share their exquisite and unique talent, but they will also teach free community classes and share studio and rehearsal time with our dance majors, Vazquez-Aquirre said.
The ballet will be held this December in Sebits Auditorium on the Friends campus, with both evening and matinee performances. See schedule below.
Tickets will sell out so be sure to purchase yours in advance. Ticket prices are only $16 for adults and $13 for students and seniors (60+).
The Nutcracker ballet schedule:
- December 7 at 7:30 p.m.
- December 8 at 7:30 p.m.
- December 9 at 2 p.m.
- December 14 at 7:30 p.m.
- December 15 at 2 p.m.
- December 15 at 7:30 p.m.
For more information and to purchase tickets, please call the Fine Arts Box Office at (316) 295-5677 or email finearts@friends.edu
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