Local dancers share “Nutcracker” stage with Columbia City Ballet
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
For many ballet fans, or fans of Christmas in general, the holiday season isn’t complete without seeing a performance of The Nutcracker. On December 15, the Columbia City Ballet staged the classic ballet at the Hartsville Center Theater, and dozens of local kids got the chance to join in this special 50th Anniversary production.
Dance instructor Brenda Cranford (proprietor of the Brenda Cranford Dance Studio) says this unique opportunity to enjoy a top-notch staging of the ballet was paired with the chance for area dance students to actually take part in the show.
“We started really promoting it in the summer because we wanted to get more area dancers into it,” says Cranford. “We had forty-two area dancers perform in The Nutcracker.”
Of those 42 dancers, two were from Florence, one was from Lexington, two were home-schoolers, and the remaining 37 were students from Cranford’s dance studio.
“They had an audition with William Starrett himself (Columbia City Ballet’s executive and artistic director) and two weeks later they got letters telling them their parts that they got cast in,” says Cranford. “Mr. Starrett was really wonderful. If a child does not have that much dance experience, he makes sure that they have something to do so that they are a part of it.”
Columbia City Ballet provided all the costumes, and rehearsals began in November, with dancers getting together to practice on Sunday afternoons. While nearly all the kids were cast in small parts – such as gingerbread girls, mice, angels, and cherubs – the experience of getting to share the stage with skilled professional dancers was a thrilling experience for all the young performers.
“It was for very brief parts, but just to say that they were onstage with the Columbia City Ballet is a big honor for them and their parents,” says Cranford.
Each year, the Columbia City Ballet company takes The Nutcracker on the road, staging full performances in eight cities around South Carolina. The company also did two mornings of educational outreach shows, staging three one-hour ballet performances for over 2,000 Darlington County School District students.
“They did two shows on Thursday (Dec. 14) and one on Friday, and it’s a smaller adapted version of a ballet. This year, they did ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, based off the poem,” Cranford says. “All the teachers that attended received a curriculum to use in the classroom on the history of ballet, on theater etiquette, on the storyline – which, this year it was on family values and behavior issues.”
Cranford says that she really hopes to keep The Nutcracker returning to Hartsville each year for the holidays, but the event is costly to stage and relies heavily on the support of sponsors. To learn more about becoming a sponsor, contact Brenda Cranford Dance Studio at 843-383-5344.
