When the curtain rises this month on Pacific Festival Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” there will be a renewed spring in everyone’s step! The resident ballet company at the Civic Arts Plaza celebrates their 30th anniversary season performing this holiday classic on the Kavli stage for 3 decades!
“PFB’s 30th anniversary is a landmark event for us and the community,” says Artistic Director Kim Maselli. “I remember taking the hard hat tour back when the property was under construction, imagining the shows we would someday produce. It continues to be a gift and an honor to hold our residency in this beautiful theatre. The Kavli stage has become our playground to create original ballets and preserve the classics such as ‘The Nutcracker,’ ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Cinderella.’”
With a desire to bring something memorable to the audience and this year’s cast, Maselli decided to re-create several scenes throughout the ballet to commemorate this special season.
“Our audiences come back year after year loving the holiday tradition of ‘The Nutcracker,’ so we did not want to disrupt that joy, but Kim has put a fun and different spin on several scenes with new choreography, beautiful costumes and refurbished sets,” says PFB Associate Director Deborah Collodel. “We call it our ‘special edition’ Nutcracker and look forward to sharing it with our faithful audiences!”
Rehearsals are underway with the mega cast of 100+ dancers, snowfall on the audience and, of course, the brilliant performances of New York City Ballet principal dancers, Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia as Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier. Just recently the dance couple announced their engagement, so their magic together has stepped off the stage and into real life!
With a rich history in bringing performance art to the Greater Conejo Valley, Pacific Festival Ballet strives to cultivate tomorrow’s stars of the dance world while bringing the brightest talent from across the globe to our community.
This holiday season will continue to enchant us all. Join Pacific Festival Ballet for these celebratory Nutcracker performances on Saturday, December 21 and Sunday, December 22 at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster or at the Civic Arts Plaza Box Office.
Visit Pacfestballet.org for more information.
The Kavli stage has become our playground to create original ballets and preserve the classics such as ‘The Nutcracker,’ ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Cinderella.’”
“Our audiences come back year after year loving the holiday tradition of ‘The Nutcracker,’ so we did not want to disrupt that joy, but Kim has put a fun and different spin on several scenes with new choreography, beautiful costumes and refurbished sets.”