Spiritoso Ballet will perform an original one-act with a selection from ‘The Nutcracker’ at Sellersville Theater.
By: Jessica Loughery
If you desperately love The Nutcracker, but have trouble getting the little ones to sit through it, this might be your golden opportunity.
Spiritoso Ballet, based in Dublin, Pa., will perform an original and playful one-act ballet called The Night Before Christmas, and follow it up with the second act of The Nutcracker Dec. 16 and 17 at Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, Pa.
The first act has the Christmas fairy bring a teddy bear, doll and all their toy friends to life at midnight before Christmas. After intermission, you get your fill of Nutcracker splendor, from the Kingdom of Sweets to the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Spiritoso Ballet is a nonprofit organization started by Amy Unks of Springfield, Pa. After earning a bachelor of arts degree in ballet from Virginia Intermont College and performing throughout Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia, Ms. Unks founded the school in July 2003 and the ballet company in September 2003.
Classes at Spiritoso focus on developing the talents of dancers based on the Vaganova method, in which Ms. Unks is certified. The program emphasizes precise technique, correct body placement, musicality and expression, and typically leaves dancers with the coordination, flexibility, grace and discipline, among other strengths, needed to become skilled ballerinas. In fact, the program operates under the principle that every dancer with the desire has the ability to become an excellent performer.
"Vaganova is the last name of the woman who devised the technique," Ms. Unks says. "She saw flaws in her own training and developed the theory and the method to fix that. Students were seen as their own products at first this or that dancer just ‘has it.’ But (Vaganova) found that dancers who trained more and more also turned out to be fantastic dancers. It’s become a method since then, as much as you would learn any instrument or language. There are other techniques for producing very fantastic dancers, but this technique always produces fantastic dancers."
Ms. Unks says she originally became interested in Vaganova beginning in 1997 when she was working with Russian instructors in Pennsylvania. "I took courses for certification to learn the ins and outs and brought it all together this year when I went to work in Estonia with faculty from St. Petersburg," she says.
When she decided to open a ballet school, Ms. Unks knew she wanted to impress the values of the Vaganova method upon her students. "I knew in my own body as a performer that that’s what works," she says.
At Spiritoso, Ms. Unks is joined on the teaching staff by Kelli Widener, who graduated from Kutztown University and has performed throughout the region. Guest instructors and acting coaches also drop in as necessary.
The company has performed several shows at Sellersville Theater, including Earth Song, written and choreographed by Ms. Unks, in April 2006. Spiritoso has performed fundraisers for causes such as Hurricane Katrina, and the company often performs at retirement communities and other such venues, places "that would otherwise not be able to experience the performing arts of ballet," says Ms. Unks.
The upcoming Christmas show has been part of the holiday season since the school and company were founded. "The first performance was the first time we did anything public and the show sold out," Ms. Unks says. "We did a lot of advertising, distributing flyers through private schools, and people really grabbed onto it."
Each year since, an 11-week rehearsal period begins with invitation-only auditions, which are done for casting purposes. Each dancer invited to these auditions will perform in the show. This year, the rotating cast includes Ms. Unks and Ms. Widener, along with professional dancers Candice Houser and Scott Frost, and a number of student dancers from the school.
"’The Night Before Christmas’ will be very familiar to anyone who’s ever had toys," Ms. Unks says. "The Christmas fairy brings toys to life, including the teddy bear, jack-in-the-box, porcelain doll and hobby horse. A house cat chases the toys around until the fairy puts a spell on the cat with the help of the toy soldier and hobby horse. Then, the cat wakes up and plays nicely with the toys, until the fairy puts them back away. It’s almost sad at the end because with all the frolicking and dancing, the toys really become characters with personalities.
"Maggie Anderson (coaches acting) with the dancers," she continues. "She works with them on pantomime so the characterization really comes across."
Ms. Unks says the result is primarily comedic. "There are certain points every year that I know I’ll hear the audience laugh, particularly when the second bunny pops out of the box. The first one pops out and you don’t know there are two. The whole audience reacts, so they’re really experiencing the ballet instead of just wondering what those people are doing up there on their toes."
Ms. Unks choreographs the first act, accompanied by a compilation of fairly unknown Tchaikovsky music including Suite No. 1 in D minor, Op. 43 and Suite No. 2 in C, Op. 53, both written early in his career. Music from Alexander Glazunov’s Scenes de Ballet, Op. 52, is worked in with the Tchaikovsky. "The music is not written especially for the ballet," Ms. Unks says, "though it’s pretty obscure and I’ve had people ask me if I had it commissioned."
When asked why she chooses to have the ballet perform a combination of this act with the second act of The Nutcracker, and not the traditional Nutcracker performance alone, Ms. Unks says, "Originally, the company started out rather small. We didn’t have a lot of dancers. ‘The Night Before Christmas’ was a way to showcase talents without coming up short." The popularity has kept this unique holiday performance going since then.
"When we started getting bigger, we added ‘The Nutcracker,’" Ms. Unks says. Though she adjusts staging, the choreography is based on the original Marius Petipa version.
"Not a lot of people in this area have knowledge of classical ballet," says Ms. Unks. "There are many schools teaching many different styles of dance, but time is not invested (into) really learning the art form. A lot of people don’t have the concept that they could go to a ballet even if their child isn’t in the recital, so we’re really educating the community, too."
Spiritoso’s relationship to the community is something Ms. Unks says she values tremendously. She knows that in order for the company to grow professionally, she needs the community’s support. "I would love to pay all of my principal dancers what they’re worth and grow from that," she says.
Having started as a ballet school with an affiliate company, Spiritoso is already becoming known as a company with an affiliate school. "The dynamic of the direction is changing, which is great," says Ms. Unks. "We’ve done a lot and we’re only finishing up year three."
The Night Before Christmas and The Nutcracker, Act II will be performed
by Spiritoso Ballet Company at Sellersville Theater 1894, Main Street and Temple
Avenue, Sellersville, Pa., Dec. 16, 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and Dec. 17, 2:30 p.m.
Tickets cost $14; to purchase, call (215) 257-5808. On the Web: www.st94.com.
For information on Spiritoso Ballet Company, call (215) 249-0765. Spiritoso Ballet
on the Web: www.spiritosoballet.org

