By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Masha is ready to move on.
After the two productions in BG, the Black Swamp Fine Arts School’s version of the holiday favorite “The Nutcracker” will be presented this year at the Marathon Center at 200 W. Main Cross St. in Findlay Saturday, Dec. 17. There will be a matinee at 3 p.m. and evening show at 7. Also, there will be a 30-minute long show for toddlers at 1 p.m. Call 419-423-2787, ext. 100 for tickets.
“Masha & the Nutcracker” is the school’s original adaptation of the Tchaikovsky ballet that they first staged in December 2019. This version is set in the composer’s native Russia in 1816, the year E.T.A. Hoffmann published the original story. Other alterations have been made to make it appropriate for the age and largely female company of dancers. The dancers are from the school’s pre-professional company.
The move to the larger venue comes as a way to realize the vision for the show by artistic director Hayley Haverner.
She had “some grand ideas,” said Sophia Jarrell, the founder and director of the school. “We just got to the point we needed more help.”
The production needs assistance with flying scenery in and out and coordinating lights.
“Having a whole team there at the center, they are more available and excited to make that happen,” Jarrell said.
“When you go to a professional theater, it’s their job to make sure your production goes well,” Haverner said, beyond just providing the troupe a place to dance.
Now Haverner and Jarrell won’t have to worry about transporting and laying the Marley flooring that is best for dancing. The Marathon Center has it.
Also, Jarrell said, “their stage is a sprung floor, and our dancers are trained to dance on sprung floors. … When you go to a venue where that’s not the case, it does take a toll on your body.”
And the Marathon has two balconies. “The audience members who sit up there will be able to see the shapes and the patterns” the dancers make, Jarrell said. “Our snow scene, from a bird’s eye view, looks like a snowflake, but it’s never been able to be seen from that perspective, so we’re really excited by that.”
“As teachers we always say, ‘dance to the balcony,” Haverner said. “When you’re on stage you have to make your movements bigger, make your expressions bigger. You have to broaden yourself for the audience, even the highest, the furthest group of people. You have to reach them with your dancing and your emotions.”
Now that balcony is an actuality, not just figurative.
Dancing on a professional stage does come with its challenges. There will be lighting from the side. It gives the dancers more dimensions, Jarrell said. But it also means they can’t look into the wings to get their bearings, and when they exit, they will be running off stage into a line of bright lights. “It can be very disorienting.”
Haverner recalled the first time she danced with wing lights. “You feel so professional because you are lit. It gives a different look to the stage. At the same time, it forces you to up your game. Our kids are very flexible and they’re very professional so every opportunity we have we give them a new experience” that prepares them if they want to pursue dance in in the future.
This year the company is not hiring any outside dancers. Instead, they feature their own resident artists.
“These are students who have come up through our program and are dancing at a high level. We’ve turned the responsibility for their dancing over to them,” Jarrell said.
“If you’re a professional dancer, your job is to make sure you can do what your artistic director is telling you to do, what choreographer is telling you do.”
For a reduced fee, in exchange for helping in the studio, they can continue to take classes. They also teach. “It’s a nice home space where they can continue to dance,” Jarrell said.
Dancing as the Sugar Plum Fairy will be Rose Montion at the 3 p.m. performance and Allison Kurfis at 7.
Catherine McCartney will dance as the Queen of the Snow.
Two members of the pre-professional company will play the title role of Masha: Caitlyn Henderson at 3 and Rebekah Center at 7.
The toddler show will focus on the Land of the Sweets, Jarrell said.
The house lights will be a little brighter and the volume of the music turned down a little. This will allow the little ones to ask questions and comment the performance without disturbing others in the audience.
Her own toddler sons are already excited to attend the show, marching around the house to the “Nutcracker” melodies.
Moving to the Marathon Center also puts distance between “Masha & the Nutcracker” and the other “Nutcracker” performances in the area.
