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| Newsletter: Ballet Yuma's "The Nutcracker" | |||||||||||||
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Ballet Yuma's "The Nutcracker" All performances will feature former Cristofori and Sinclair student Joseph Jefferies, now a member of Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, as the Snow King and Arabian, and Melissa Framiglio and Scott Trumbo, both from Portland’s Bouand Dance Company, as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. Also featured will be Ballet Yuma’s Company dancers, and children’s roles will be performed by students from Yuma Ballet Academy. Ballet Yuma is now in its 16th year under the direction of Jon Cristofori and Kathleen Sinclair, and is recognised nationally as one of the best preprofessional ballet companies in the country. It is Arizona’s sole representative in Regional Dance America (RDA) as an Honor Company. Graduates have gone on to dance professionally with highly regarded companies including San Francisco Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Houston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company, Boston Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Miami City Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater, Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Trey McIntyre Project, Company C, Louisville Ballet , Atlanta Ballet, and Missouri Contemporary. The Nutcracker story begins with a grand Christmas Eve party at the Stahlbaum home. Young Clara and her brother, Fritz are excited as guests arrive including the mysterious, magical figure, Herr Drosselmeyer, whom has brought gifts including a soldier nutcracker for Clara. She dearly loves the present, but her brother becomes jealous and breaks it. Herr Drosselmeyer mends the nutcracker, and Clara’s attachment to the small soldier is only increased. When the evening comes to an end, Clara falls asleep with her nutcracker by the family Christmas tree, and it is in her dreams, seemingly orchestrated by Drosselmeyer, that the magical excitement begins. There follows a great battle between a Mouse King’s minions and the now life size nutcracker’s soldiers. The gallant nutcracker is transformed into a handsome prince who accompanies Clara on a journey through the enchanting Land of Snow to the Land of Sweets. Along the way, the two are met and entertained by many enchanting characters. Ballet Yuma’s presentation of The Nutcracker is rooted in classic tradition, but also surprises from year to year with new and delightful ‘wrinkles’. This year, the most notable addition is a new ‘growing tree’ scene, professionally created for Ballet Yuma using donated funds raised throughout the community. Guest Artists Joseph Jefferies is currently a full time company member of Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and has performed a wide range of roles as a company member of Ballet Memphis, including Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, Cavalier and Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker, Jerry Lee Lewis in Lila York’s Breathless, as well as lead roles in Trey McIntyre’s Naughty Boy, Second Before the Ground and High Lonesome. While dancing with Ballet Memphis, He has choreographed several works for the company including two new full lengths ballets, The Little Mermaid and Cinderella . His ballets Suadades, Cupid Revealed and Seasons have all been included in the Ballet Memphis Momentum Series. Before joining Ballet Memphis he danced with Ballet Arizona and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Joseph received his training at Ballet Yuma from Jon Cristofori and Kathleen Sinclair. Joseph was recognized as the Commercial Appeal Artist of the Year for 2002. He also received Regional Dance America’s Emerging Choreographer Award in 1993 for Within these Walls and in 1995 for In the Rosin Box , both set on Ballet Yuma. Melissa Framiglio was raised near Pittsburgh,PA, training with Patricia McKeown and at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. Upon graduation she joined Louisville Ballet where she enjoyed dancing an array of principal roles such as Juliet, Cinderella, Aurora, and Terpsichore in “Apollo”. After 10 seasons in Louisville, Melissa has continued to dance with Bouand Dance Company, in various guest appearances and was certified in pilates and gyrotonic instruction. She now resides in Portland,OR with her husband Chad and her daughter Sophia, born in July of 2006. Scott Trumbo is from the San Francisco Bay Area where his training began with his mother Victoria Turner at the Alameda School of Dance. From there he studied with the San Francisco Ballet School for three years. After spending a summer in Seattle with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Scott was asked to remain on scholarship for the full year program, and after two years he was asked to be an apprentice with the company. It was there that his professional career started prior to moving to Portland to join Oregon Ballet Theater as a full company member. Scott spent the next eight years with OBT. As well as performing as a guest artist, Scott now dances with the Portland based Bouand Dance Company. For more information regarding the performances, contact Ballet Yuma’s business office at (928) 345-1534, or go to www.balletyuma.org.
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