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Let's get cracking: 'The Nutcracker' showcases ballet, arts center strengths
Pictured are Emma Pennell, Daniel Brobston and Richard Trimmer. Daniel will be a soldier doll in the first half, and the Dewdrop Cavalier in the second, in the Dec. 22 and 23 performances of the Allen Civic Ballet's 'The Nutcracker.' / Photo courtesy of Mary Muller
By Monique Oaks, moaks@starlocalnews.com
It's Christmas Eve. There's a party, gifts, a broken toy. A child falls asleep and dreams of a fight, snow, dancing.
Lots of dancing.
When the Allen Civic Ballet dancers step onto the stage Saturday and Sunday, it will be only the second year they've brought "The Nutcracker" story to the new Allen ISD Performing Arts Center.
The center, which was completed one year before the Allen Eagle Stadium's debut, boasts 1,500 seats.
"But there's not a bad seat in that house," Best said.
Daniel Brobston, a junior at Allen High School and an Eagle Scout, aspires to dance professionally. He said the six-week Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C., he and another Allen Civic Ballet dancer attended in June and July lived up to the term used to describe that type of residency program: "summer intensive."
"We had three-hour ballet classes and we were not allowed to drink water during them. Because they're Russian!" he joked about his instructors. "After class, everyone just went gasping for water fountains."
By "everyone," he meant 17 other guys.
"They [were] all pretty much competing and trying to be better than each other," Daniel said. "I learned a lot of things from the competition that I couldn't necessarily be taught verbally."
"You'll never find an athlete stronger than a male ballet dancer," said Nancy Brobston, Daniel's mother. "But ... to see these men lift a woman above their head, with one hand, and they're doing it gracefully, with a smile - that's some pretty powerful stuff," she said.
Nancy said the ballet has performed on other stages - especially at the Lowery Freshman Center and Lovejoy High School - and that Best has purposely kept the venues local.
"I love going out; but if I'm tired, and it's the end of the day, I think, 'Oh my God, I have to go to downtown Dallas or Fort Worth,'" Best said.
With places like the Allen Event Center and the Performing Arts Center, she said, "the choices have really opened up.
"I remember when Bethany and 75 was a stop sign," Best said. "If you wanted to dine out, you had to leave the city. If you wanted to see a movie, you had to leave the city. And if you wanted to go to a mall, you had to leave the city.
"And this city is too nice to not have those things," Best said.
Now, it does.
"I can envision people coming up for a day of shopping and fun and maybe eating out and going to a show," Nancy said, "and after the show maybe having a couple of hot chocolates at one of the coffee shops, and you're within 15 minutes of your child's bed."
And now the child can awaken to the memory of dancing. Lots of dancing.
The Allen Civic Ballet will perform with the Allen Philharmonic Symphony in "The Nutcracker" at 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 22, and at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 23, at the Allen ISD Performing Arts Center, 300 Rivercrest Drive. For ticket information visit allencivicballet.org or call 972-727-5959.
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