Footworks Youth Ballet presents Hansel and Gretel in Fairy Tale Land, a whimsical adventure where the famous duo encounter a whole new world straight out of the pages of their favorite bedtime stories. The audience will be delighted as enchanting gnomes and pixies lead them to a land where Nursery Rhymes, Fairy Tales and Willow Trees come to life. Prepare to be dazzled by beloved storybook characters such as Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, The Cat and the Fiddle, Little Bo Peep, and many more in this charming ballet children will be sure to love. This is new and original ballet in the classical style, choreographed and directed by Kirsten Oakley of Oakley Ballet Center in Ventura.
As a complement to the classical, narrative setting of Hansel and Gretel in Fairy Tale Land, Footworks Youth Ballet also features two one-act ballets—Charles Gounod’s Iand Sergei Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony (a.k.a. Symphony No. 1 in D Major). Choreographed by Oakley’s mentor, Yvonne Mounsey (1904-2012), it showcases a more sleek and modern style that is based in classical ballet but features increased energy and speed, pared-down sets and costumes, and less reliance on a narrative setting.
The broad repertoire that Footworks Youth Ballet presents and exposes to the students of Oakley Ballet Center and to the community in Ventura County is yet another way in which the company provides education in this beautiful art form.
As always, in a Footworks Youth Ballet production, all the roles are filled by the student dancers, ages 6-18 (except, in this production, one male professional guest artist). The production is a hands-on project where director Kirsten Oakley can choreograph to students’ strengths but also extend their knowledge of the art from in a full-scale production.
Footworks Youth Ballet presents each production in an Outreach program to over 3200 elementary and middle school students. These performances are presented through greatly reduced, or free, ticket prices.
Join Footworks Youth Ballet for their Family Educational Hour one hour prior to each show to learn more about the production, costumes, ballet history and music. Footworks Youth Ballet offers family-friendly matinees on both regular performance days (June 4th and June 5th) at 2 p.m. Tickets are $14, $16 and $20 and can be purchased by calling 486-2424 or buying online at
http://www.footworksyouthballet.org.
Footworks Youth Ballet is a nonprofit ballet company whose purpose is to provide educational opportunities to young people through the art of ballet.
