'Yuletide' 1st big step for youth ballet group

Performance will blend 'Nutcracker' scenes with series of original dances
Huntsville Times - Sunday, December 10, 2006
By RYAN HICKMAN
Times Arts Writer, ryan.hickman@htimes.com

Only weeks after Alabama Youth Ballet's six-month anniversary, the city's newest ballet company will present its first full-stage production next weekend at the Von Braun Center Playhouse.

AYB, which launched in July but had been a viable concept for a month preceding, will showcase its roster of dancers with two performances of "A Yuletide Ballet."

The title - a play on the company's AYB acronym - was conceived by Sarah Frederick, a dancer in the show.

With the company still in its developing stages, the dance collective has been looking toward the holiday show since its inception.

"Once the studio opened and registration started, this is what we've been focusing on," said Wendy Gibb Graham the company's co-director.

In true holiday ballet spirit, "A Yuletide Ballet" will feature excerpts from "The Nutcracker" including the snow scene incorporating the longtime choreography from Keren Gibb, the former school director at Community Ballet Association.

"It's beautiful to watch and beautiful to dance," Graham said about her mother's rendition of "The Nutcracker's" third scene.

The party scene and Russian and Spanish dances from the Christmas classic will also be on the bill, as well as the dance of the sugar plum fairies by Footprints, the children's dance company directed by Mary Halverstadt.

"What we're doing this year is a move towards our full-blown 'Nutcracker' next year," Graham said.

David Herriott, who is juggling his time as director of AYB and Columbus' ballet company in Georgia, has been traveling back to Huntsville to coordinate the show's final scene, The Skaters.

Based on a ballet that he performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Herriott is especially excited about the scene being performed in the round at the VBC Playhouse.

"So many of the patterns are circular because it's supposed to be on a lake," he said. "The circular platform adds another dimension."