Updated 4:45 p.m. May 28
Centre County community members will have an opportunity this weekend to experience live performing arts — a scarcity over the past year — and support dedicated and talented students.
The Performing Arts School of Central Pennsylvania will present “Ballet in Bloom,” with three acts of ballet and live music 5 p.m. on Sunday and 7 p.m. on Monday at Tussey Mountain. [Editor’s note: The performance originally scheduled for Saturday has been moved to Monday because of forecasted rain]
A “Garden Party” companion event will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, and will include light refreshments, a craft and gift, a ballet class on the Tussey stage and a preview of the performance.
Tickets for the performances and the Garden Party are available online. Check www.pascp.org for any further schedule changes due to inclement weather.
“Even though we are not offering a full-length ballet this spring, our audience can expect a well-thought-out evening of dance, including Broadway-caliber choreography,” said Connor Weigand, executive artistic director of PASCP and its Nittany Ballet. “This is concert dance at its best by pre-professional dancers. We pride ourselves on offering more than a recital.”
When Weigand says “Broadway-caliber choreography,” he means it quite literally. One act will feature Nittany Ballet’s older dancers — 13- to 17-years-old — performing Chase Brock’s “The Four Seasons,” and choreographed for them especially by Brock himself.
Brock has choreographed “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark,” “Be More Chill,” and “Picnic” on Broadway and his “The Four Seasons” was hailed by the New York Times for finding a new take on Vivaldi’s familiar score.
“I danced with Chase’s company for over five years and was part of the original cast of ‘Four Seasons,’” Weigand said. “Since leaving [New York City], we’ve kept in close contact, and he felt the caliber of our students would be able to handle the rigorous choreography. Due to restrictions because of the pandemic, Chase needed to make some changes to choreography, and he even created an original solo and taught it over Zoom.”
The first act of the performance will be a ballet, “The Graceful Garden,” for dancers ages 5 to 16.
For the second act, Nittany Ballet’s oldest students choreographed their own piece, “Prism,” to original music by State College Area High School senior Ananya Tadigadapa, which will be performed by student musicians. Choreographers are Lydia Barber, Micah Deyo, Emily Maciejczyk, Jade Novak, Clara Pollock, Gabrielle Showalter, Amithi Tadigadapa, Alexis Treese, Anneliese Welsh and Molly Yoder. Amithi Tadigadapa also plays cello in the string trio for the piece.
Serving 150 students from Centre County and surrounding areas, PASCP has been safely providing in-person classes throughout much of the past year, while also offering much needed ways for the community to enjoy the arts.
“We started a year ago with a streamed performance presented via YouTube and FaceBook allowing our artists the chance to perform as they were making the shift from life as they knew it at the ballet barre to their living rooms, bedrooms and basements,” Weigand said.
Last June, PASCP shifted back to in-person classes and in October offered a live performance at Tussey Mountain, “Fall for the Arts,” which Weigand said will become an annual staple going forward.
As the holidays neared, Weigand said he was worried PASCP would have to cancel one of its main sources of revenue, the annual performance of “The Nutcracker.” But with the help of partners at Omni Bedford Springs Resort, they came up with an alternative: a movie production that was made available for purchase on DVD and streaming.
“Due to relationships made in the past with management at Bedford Springs, we were able to secure the space for free, so we had minimal costs producing the movie,” Weigand said. “We were able to make a bit of revenue off of the streaming rental and DVD sales and give our dancers a unique movie-making experience and lifelong memories.”
Allowing students to continue to have performing experiences over the past year was a paramount priority for Weigand and PASCP.
“It was important for us to give our dancers and their families a sense of normalcy in an anxiety-filled time,” Weigand said. “Our students are young people who have overcome a very difficult and isolating year, and it feels wonderful to be able to give them an outlet for their artistic expression. They work so hard, and getting to perform and get feedback from an audience is part of what drives many of them.”
Now with Nittany Ballet’s second live performance in the past year, the community has a chance to see the results of their dedication and begin to enjoy the arts in person on a regular basis once again.
“There are so many things that we all missed out on in this past year, simple things like sitting outside and enjoying a live show,” Weigand said. “With this performance, there’s a renewed sense of gratitude for being able to have our students share the fruits of their hard work with their families and the community.”
