ATLANTA, GA /UCWE/ - Ballethnic Dance Company will perform its colorful, holiday-inspired production “Urban Nutcracker” Nov. 17-20, 2005 at the Ferst Center for the Arts. “Urban Nutcracker” is a creative and exciting twist on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet with the classic tale instead centering on Atlanta’s 1940s Auburn Avenue.
This year’s production not only features a professional cast but also includes more than 80 children from a number of metro Atlanta schools and seniors from East Point’s H.J.C. Bowden Senior Center and other senior citizen groups.
“Dance appeals to all ages and backgrounds and has a way of bringing together diverse audiences,” says Waverly Lucas, Co-Founder of Ballethnic Dance Company. “Urban Nutcracker blends original choreography with the traditional telling of the Nutcracker while also incorporating students of dance and community elders in a celebration of family and the holiday spirit.”
“Urban Nutcracker” performances are scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 18, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 19, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 20, 2 p.m. Tickets are $22 for senior citizens, students, children and groups of 10 or more and $29 general admission. VIP tickets are $52 and include reserved seating at the performance on Friday, Nov. 18 and admittance to the post-performance reception that same evening. To purchase tickets call the Ferst Center Box Office at (404) 894-9600 or visit www.tickets.com. The Ferst Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Georgia Tech at 349 Ferst Drive, Atlanta.
Now in its 16th season of production, “Urban Nutcracker” will mark debut performances by five new Ballethnic Dance Company members: Abby Rudesill, Adrian Keddell, Ira Cambrie, Brandy Carmile and Savery Morgan. Carmile is a former member of the Gainesville Ballet and has trained at Gwinnett Ballet Theater. Morgan has trained at the Jacksonville Center of the Performing Arts and was a member of the Dancing through Barriers Ensemble for the Dance Theater of Harlem. Rudesill trained with Maryland Regional Ballet and furthered her studies at Miami City Ballet School, Ballet Hispanico and Manhattan College. Keddell began training at the age of eight with the Rafael Grigorian School of Russian Classical Ballet and went on to study dance at Mercyhurst College. Cambrie began dancing at the age of 13 at the School of Creative and Performing Arts at Pittsburgh and has toured with a number of professional dance productions.
For more information about “Urban Nutcracker” call 404-762-1416 or visit
www.ballethnic.org.
About Ballethnic Dance Company
Ballethnic Dance Company (www.ballethnic.org) is a classically trained, culturally diverse ballet company that blends traditional ballet with the artistic influences of other ethnic cultures – especially African American. Ballethnic, Atlanta’s first and only professional black ballet company, produces unique and exciting dance performances locally and nationally. Ballethnic was founded in 1990 by Nena Gilreath and Waverly Lucas, a husband and wife team, and both former dancers with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Atlanta Ballet. The company's goal is to inform, educate and entertain through dance.
