GREENFIELD — Director Dana Hart let her dancers go for their two-week spring break with rehearsal CDs and all the confidence in the world. When rehearsals resume on April 2, they’ll hit the ground dancing with just a week to go before the April 7 and 8 performances of “Cinderella and More” at the H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts, 122 W. Main St.
Hart, director of the Dance East Ballet Academy — and her company of young dancers — have been in rehearsal for “Cinderella and More” since January. In addition to a full slate of scheduled dance classes during the week, the company has been meeting Friday nights and all day Saturdays to prepare for the April production.
A two-week break in rehearsals might give another director pause, but not Hart.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“The show is in great shape,” she said. “They have their rehearsal music, and I told them to text me photos of them going over their choreography wherever their spring break destinations may be.”
Hart’s largest ever cast of 22 dancers — ranging in ages from 5 to 15 — will dance to Sergei Prokofiev’s classical score. The cast features Abby Mulligan and Audrey Pechin as the Step Sisters; Mahren Lindsay as the Stepmother; Paige Spegal as the Fairy Godmother; Paige Denison as the Herald; Claire Lake as the Tailor; Kaydra Osmundson as the Winter Fairy; Audrey Pechin as the Spring Fairy; Sophie Capen and Ava Sickels as Fairy Attendants; Rylee Bewley, Delanie Gustin and Annika Roots as Pumpkins; Madeline Embrey, Gretchen Hudziak, Avery McCarley and Anson Murphy as Grasshoppers; Collins Buchanan, Grace Griffin, Zayleigh Hinds, Kimmy Klinck and Chloe Takach as Dragonflies; Rylee Bewley, Sophie Capen, Paige Denison, Delanie Guston, Claire Lake, Mahren Lindsay, Abby Mulligan, Kaydra Osmundson, Audrey Pechin, Annika Roots and Ava Sickels as the Ballroom/Mazurka Dancers.
Tricia Schneider, an eighth-grader from St. Michael’s School, is cast as the title role in “Cinderella.” Tricia has been training at Dance East for more than eight years. With classes in tap, modern, contemporary dance and ballet, she spends up to 11 hours a week in dance class or rehearsal.
Tricia is excited about the costumes she gets to wear: in the first scene, she wears Cinderella’s ragged dress; but later, she gets to wear a ball gown.
It’s so beautiful, she gushes. She admits that she won’t be wearing glass slippers, however. She’ll be wearing a different pair of ballet shoes — “painted and jazzed up,” she said.
As with the Christmas season’s “Little Things” and last spring’s “Peter in the Wolf,” “Cinderella and More” will feature a guest artist. Stirling Matheson, artistic director at Ballet Theatre of Indiana in Carmel, will dance the part of Prince Charming.
Hart believes bringing in dance professionals is an important lesson for her young dancers.
“It’s so valuable for the dancers to be able to learn and watch a professional in action,” Hart said. “And for Tricia to get to work with him on the pas de deux (a dance for two people). It’s part of her training.”
Tricia admits to being a little nervous about the duet. Matheson lifts her over his head at least once during the dance.
“I’m not the biggest fan of heights,” Tricia said.
“Cinderella” is the second part of the program; the first act will feature solos, duets and small group numbers from Hart’s competition dancers.
Tricia not only dances the part of Cinderella; she’ll also perform a contemporary musical theater solo to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the big screen musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
“It shows the versatility of what she’s able to do,” Hart said.
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Dance East Ballet Company presents “Cinderella and More”
When: April 7 at 7 p.m. and April 8 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts, 122 W. Main St.
Cost: Tickets are $10
Call 317-318-9266 to reserve tickets or purchase them at the door
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