Auditions for GBT’s 2010 production of The Nutcracker will be held at GBT’s studios on Friday, September 10, from 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. All participants must be registered students at the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre school. If you are a registered student and wish to be in Nutcracker but cannot attend the audition, please call the studio before September 10 and speak with the office. The number is 770-978-0188. GBT’s studios are located at 2204 Fountain Square in Snellville, GA. This year’s production of The Nutcracker will include 11 public and 5 outreach performances from December 3rd through the 19th in the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center, Gwinnett Center in Duluth. Class registration is still ongoing, so if you have not registered and wish to audition, you may sign up for classes now, but don’t delay!

GBT welcomes new students as well as our current family of dancers and their parents, siblings and friends for our annual Open House. This year the event will be on Saturday, August 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come tour our studios and learn all about GBT! Enjoy demonstrations by our dancers and get to know our wonderful teachers and staff. For more information and directions, call our studios at 770-978-0188.

Students can refine their technique and perfect their skills this summer with a variety of classes for more advanced students and camps for the younger ones. Summer intensives for Senior and Junior Company, Apprentice A and B and Intermediate II are held Monday through Friday the weeks of June 14, 21, July 5 and 12. Partnering classes for Senior company are available during these weeks. Intermediate Pre-Pointe summer intensives are the weeks of June 14 and July 5.

For the younger students, GBT offers Creative Dance Camp for ages 3-4; and separate camps for ages 5-6 in Ballet, Ballet and Tap, and Ballet and Jazz. These camps are offered June 14-18 and July 12-16.

For more information and to register, contact the studio at 770-978-0188.

Nutcracker tickets are onsale now! Call Ticketmaster at 404-249-6400 or visit a Ticketmaster location.

Read our beautiful newsletter with exciting info about GBT! Click here to download the newsletter.

Nutcracker tickets are now on sale! Call Ticketmaster at 404-249-6400 or visit any Ticketmaster location, including the Gwinnett Center Box Office to get your best seats available! Prices remain the same as last year. Our public shows begin Saturday, December 5th at 2:30. At the 7:30 show that night, GBT is pleased to present “FISH RADIO 104.7 NIGHT AT THE NUTCRACKER!” Listen to 104.7 to win free tickets to that show, plus radio personalities will be on hand. Along with the Sunday, December 6th 2:30 show, this first weekend is performed to recorded music. Tickets are $20 adults, $15 students and seniors, and $10 for groups of ten or more.

Friday, December 11th begins the live music shows, accompanied by the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre Orchestra, a 30 piece, live, professional orchestra conducted by Predrag Gosta. December 11th is also United Way Night at the Nutcracker! Bring a toy for a girl or boy for United Way to distribute. Live music performances dates and times are: Friday, December 11th at 7:30; December 12th at 2:30 and 7:30; December 13th at 2:30; December 18th at 7:30; December 19th at 2:30 and 7:30; December 20th at 2:30. Tickets for these performances are $27 for adults, $22 for students and seniors, and $18 for groups of ten or more.

GBT also has four school performances and a Scout Night on Friday, December 4th. For information about these outreach shows, please call the studio at 770-978-0188.

The 2009-2010 Season begins August 10th, and GBT is signing up new and returning students now. Be sure to reserve your place in class by calling the studio at 770-978-0188 and registering! Classes are available beginning at age 3. GBT excels in producing beautiful young dancers proficient in classical ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and hip-hop.  A special Open House will be held on Saturday, August 8th from 10 till 2 where you can meet the teachers, tour the studios, and sign up for classes! Nutcracker auditions are open to all existing registered students and will be held in September, the date to be announced.

SUMMER INTENSIVES 2009! Summer is a wonderful time for a dancer to focus on technique. Gwinnett Ballet Theatre offers four full weeks of Summer Intensive classes that will enable dancers to work on technique in classical ballet and a variety of other dance forms. The dates for Summer Intensive are: June 15-19; June 22-26; July 6-10: and July 13-17. For information about cost and other details, please call the GBT studios at 770-978-0188. Dancers not currently enrolled at GBT are welcomed to attend!

ALICE IN WONDERLAND is headed your way March 7^th at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center! Join our Gwinnett Ballet Theatre dancers as they explore the world of “Wonderland” with Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, and all the wonderful characters that make this story a well-loved classic.

A cast of over 80 dancers will interpret this family-friendly ballet, complete with sumptuous sets, costumes, and wonderful, melodic music by Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and Adam. Audiences will laugh out loud at the antics of many adorable creatures and characters!

The performance also includes five contemporary ballets which will constitute the first act. Award-winning choreographer and GBT alumnus Robert Dekkers has created “Push the Bar” to music by Meredith Monk. Atlanta Ballet soloist and GBT instructor David Blumenfeld has created “Floe,” an edgy, sophisticated piece with music by Phillip Glass. Three GBT pre-professional company dancers have choreographed two pieces. Lauren Clark has choreographed a piece based on exploring the spirit of good versus evil and the seven deadly sins, to music by Bond. Allison Bridgers and Mallory Retter collaborated on a challenging piece full of unusual movement to music by Peter Gabriel. Also included is Ashlie Solomon Wells’ “Mind FX,” a piece to music by War Machine which was a crowd favorite at GBT’s Tanzsommer tour in Austria this past summer!

Tickets for this fun filled program are $17 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, and $12 each for groups of ten or more. Tickets can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 404-249-6400, by visiting any Ticketmaster location, or by calling or visiting the Gwinnett Center Box Office, 770-813-7600. For more information about Alice In Wonderland, call GBT at 770-978-0188.

GWINNETT BALLET IS IN THE NEWS! GBT dancers can be found in national and local publications! Our alumna Jessica Collado has been included in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch in 2009.” This story in the January issue features young dancers, choreographers, and other dance professionals who have caught the eye of this magazine’s very discerning editors! Jessica has been dancing with Houston Ballet since she graduated from GBT in 2003 and then from Houston’s Ben Stevenson Academy in 2004. See Jess’ bio in this web site’s “Alumni” tab under Our Company.

Gracing the cover of February’s “Dance Studio Life Magazine” is GBT’s pre-professional company member Pablina Lopez. Pablina and the GBT company ballerinas all enjoyed a photo session with photographer Richard Calmes this past August in Hiawassee, Georgia. Set in the beauty of the mountains, rivers, and other scenic areas of North Georgia, this photo session produced many fabulous photos of our dancers. To view them all, visit http://www.pbase.com/rcalmes/mountain_dancers

“Atlanta ShowGuide” magazine’s February Dance issue features photographer Richard Calmes. His photo of the Atlanta skyline is the cover shot, and on the index page GBT company dancer Nicole Ranieri is featured. GBT alumna Garet Erwin, now with Milwaukee Ballet, is also depicted in one of Richard’s photos in the story about his journey from Viet Nam combat photographer to architect to ballet photographer.

Many GBT dancers can also be seen in Richard’s gallery exhibition at the Hudgens Center for the Arts. This photography exhibition includes 5 other area photographers and will be on view through mid March.

November is a time when most young ladies are thinking about what fun they’ll have during the upcoming Holiday Season. But Sydney and Ariel Finks, the daughters of Shana and Adrian Finks, know exactly where they will be this Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since the first of September, their schedules have been filled with dance classes and rehearsals for Gwinnett Ballet Theatre’s exciting production of The Nutcracker. Their Holidays will be spent dancing!

Gwinnett Ballet Theatre (GBT) has produced this popular event since 1986. GBT’s The Nutcracker has been performed at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center in Gwinnett Center since the theatre opened in 1992. And for the third year in a row, there will be a live, professional orchestra to accompany the dancers for most performances. This massive production includes 85 young students, 20 company members, three professional male dancers, a professional magician, and approximately 15 adult performers, mostly parents, in “character” roles. Over 120 costumes, plus lavish sets, are a part of this magical event.

This year is especially exciting for Ariel Finks. Her dream of performing as one of the “Party Girls” in the first act has come true. Ariel, 10, will be one of four young ladies in her cast who play the parts of friends of the young heroine, Clara. Ariel will enjoy a very substantial role of dancing and acting, plus she wears a beautiful costume! But that’s just in Act One. In Act Two, Ariel will perform as a “Chinese Ribbon Girl.” Ariel says, “I love being in the Nutcracker because I get to learn different roles and the costumes are really fun!” Ariel should know all about roles and costumes. She has been in The Nutcracker since she was four years old, starting as a Baby Mouse and Arabian Princess, then a Polichinelle and Soldier. Ariel is very motivated. She is currently the youngest apprentice in GBT’s pre-professional company.

Sister Sydney, age seven, will return this year as a Polichinelle. This very entertaining dance in Act Two has “Mother Ginger” in a huge costume coming onstage with a dozen young gymnast/dancers under her enormous skirt. It is a very fun role to perform. Sydney loves being in The  Nutcracker every year because, in her own words, “It’s fun! I love when we’re on stage and the audience claps for us!” She also likes to “become” her character. This is Sydney’s 5^th year in Nutcracker. She also started out as a Baby Mouse and Arabian Princess at the tender age of three. In subsequent years she was a Page and an Angel.

Don’t count out Mom and Dad! Shana will appear this year as a Party Mother. Adrian was a Party Father in 2006. And watch out for ballerina number three, little sister Alexis who is now just two and a half years old. She should be making her first appearance in 2010! After all, The Nutcracker is a Finks Family Tradition. “Each year brings new challenges to balance schoolwork and dance, but it’s worth it,” says Shana.

Gwinnett Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker will be performed December 6^th through the 21^st for eleven public performances. Eight of these shows are accompanied by the live, professional Gwinnett Ballet Theatre Orchestra conducted by Predrag Gosta. Outreach and school shows are also available as well as great group rates. For more information about The Nutcracker, visit www.gwinnettballet.org or call 770-978-0188.

#   #   #

Gwinnett Ballet Theatre’s annual fundraiser, “Backstage Pass,” will be rockin’ Lawrenceville on Saturday, February 2^nd as the Historic Courthouse is filled with revelers in support of the Ballet’s 2007-2008 Season.

For the past three years, this party has been celebrated as a way for patrons and the community to raise money and awareness for Gwinnett Ballet Theatre, Gwinnett’s oldest performing non-profit organization founded in 1977.

This year, the party will ring out from 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. with a variety of special raffle prizes and other fun items. “Backstage Pass” Chairman Katy Bockhop (Mrs. Bryan Bockhop,) has been planning the event for months. She says, “We are thrilled to hold our third annual ‘Backstage Pass’ this year in the Historic Lawrenceville Courthouse. Each couple attending will receive a bottle of custom-labeled wine made especially for GBT. It promises to be an exciting night!” The wine bottles in question are festooned with a colorful label depicting two of GBT’s principal dancers in full “swing.”

Ms. Bockhop has led the way in putting together a number of exciting prize packages. As the event is being held in Lawrenceville, there is the “Lawrenceville Prize Package” which consists of Aurora Theatre tickets, area dining options, and a signed print from artist Bobby Sikes.

Another very unique prize is the “Your Very Own Instant Wine Cellar.” This prize is composed of numerous bottles of wine all donated by GBT supporters who have given a bottle of their favorite “sippage” to build this impressive collection.

A Golf Weekend at the High Hampton Resort in North Carolina will be a popular focal point for raffle ticket-buyers. This treat consists of a weekend of first-class golf at the historic mountain resort, including accommodations, and  fabulous meals.

Another super get-away is a Weekend in Hiawassee, Georgia. The winner of this package will enjoy a luxury condominium for two nights, dinner and other amenities from the area.

“A Night of Drama, Dining and More” promises to be one of the highlights of the Raffle. This package offers the winner flex pass tickets to the New American Shakespeare Tavern plus an overnight stay and brunch at the Georgian Terrace Hotel in downtown Atlanta.

Family Fun at Gwinnett Center consists of Gladiator Tickets, dinner at the Loafing Leprechaun, and overnight accommodations at the Holiday Inn.

A Gwinnett Ballet Theatre package will be of particular interest to GBT parents: it offers a year’s free tuition, performance dvd’s and merchandise from the adorable in-studio shop, GBTique.

Catering for the event is by Masterpiece Events. Music will be supplied by Georgia State University’s Gordon Vernick Trio.

To purchase tickets, call 404-831-1048. It’s not too late! For more information about Gwinnett Ballet Theatre, visit the Web Site at www.gwinnettballet.org.

#   #   #