MIDLAND After having to perform last year’s The Nutcracker on video due to pandemic restrictions, the Midland Festival Ballet will make its return to the stage with this year’s performance.
The Midland Festival Ballet recently announced its schedule for the 2021-2022 season.
This year’s performance of The Nutcracker will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 19 at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center.
“I’m really excited that we’ll be back performing our season live at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center,” Midland Festival Ballet Executive Director Rachel Ritter said. “We’ve dubbed our Nutcracker as the return to stage with our live orchestra.”
Last year, the Midland Festival Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker was only on the big screen and Basin PBS as COVID restrictions didn’t allow for live performances.
Midland Festival Ballet Communications Director Pearl Wamsley said it was very emotional. “I knew it would be very meaningful. You realize how much you miss that immediate feedback of audiences applauding. You miss that energy. You love getting that instant feedback. While the movie was fun, it wasn’t the same and you have to wait a while to see the end result. Unless they decide to contact you, you don’t hear what people are thinking. It’s just different. Performing to live music is something we’ve missed. Even if we hear the nutcracker every year…being able to hear it live with the orchestra is so much better than on tape. We’re excited to have that back again. Being at the Wagner is special.”
The Midland Festival Ballet’s spring production will be the world premier of Aladdin and the Magic Carpet.
That production will take place at 7:30 p.m. April 16.
West Texans will be the first to see the characters and story they know and love told in a whole new way with a mesmerizing explosion of movement, light and color paired with the live orchestral accompaniment.
“With Aladdin, I’m really thrilled because it’ll be a world premiere,” Ritter said. “We’ve never done that before. We’ve always had choreographers come in and set ballets on us but never a brand new work so that’s really exciting. We’re really excited for that.”
The production of Aladdin will be something entirely new for the Midland Festival Ballet that’s never been done before Wamsley said.
“There’s the new dance moves, choreography,” Wamsley said. “You have to teach them all new steps but someone also has to arrange the score for the music to dance to and imagining costumes and lighting and sets and making plans for all that. Really, whenever it’s only in your head and you’ve never done it before, the reality is always a lot more challenging than trying to recreate something that hasn’t been done before. Finding out what’s possible and not possible has been a challenge but it’s also fun.”
This season is supported in part by Arts Council of Midland, Odessa Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts and the Bryant Family Foundation.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Midland Festival Ballet is a non-profit, local ballet school with a pre-professional ballet company committed to bringing the beauty of ballet to the Basin through education, performance and outreach.
More information can be found at https://www.midlandfestivalballet.org/20212022season or by calling 432-682-2653.
“I think it’s really emotional for all the dancers to be back performing on stage,” Ritter said. “They were such troopers last year but there’s really something special about the cast and crew and volunteers and all the artists coming together to make a production live in person. I think everyone is excited to have that again this year.”
>> If you go:
>> What: The Nutcracker
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 19
>> Where: Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center
>> If you go:
>> What: Aladdin and the Magic Carpet
>> When: 7:30 p.m. April 16
>> Where: Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center
