[ot-caption title=”The seniors and three directors of the ballet strike a pose for the camera. (via Molly Rose Malaney, senior)”]

To mark the start of the holiday season, the Pine Crest dance department performed their version of the classic tale A Christmas Carol. After months of practicing at school, on weekdays, and weekends, the huge cast of lower, middle, and upper school students finally got to show off their hard work. The two casts of the ballet performed three times from November 20th to the 22nd.

A Christmas Carol is the classic story of a town’s old, stingy grouch, Scrooge, who is visited by three ghosts of Christmas: past, present, and future. The show depicts Scrooge’s transformation from a grouch to a kinder old man by seeing what he has done in his life and how he has not been the nicest person. The show’s principal female roles are the three Christmas Spirits and Isabel Fezziwig, Scrooge’s ex fiance, who once loved Scrooge but left him because she felt he only cared about money.

Every year the ballet has two casts to let different people play the leading roles. This year Cast A, which usually features more seniors, had Spirit Christmas Past played by Hailey Karten ‘17, Spirit Christmas Present played by Tatiana Kovalsky ‘16, Spirit Christmas Future played by Lauren Valad ‘16, and Isabel Fezziwig played by Megan O’ Brien ‘16. Cast B had Spirit Christmas Past played by Alexis Greiner ‘17, Spirit Christmas Present played by Emma O’Byrne ‘17, Spirit Christmas Future played by Lindsey Robertson ‘17, and Isabel Fezziwig played by JoAnn Wood ‘17. The parts of Scrooge and Young Scrooge were played by Pine Crest graduates Tim Ingham ‘83 and Aaron Moses Robin ‘10. Robin also performed as the prince in last year’s ballet, Coppelia. While Pine Crest often has to hire dancers for male roles because of the lack of boys in the ballet program, PC’s own Sammy Koolik ‘18 played the role of Bob Cratchit. He said, “Although it is a time-consuming activity, the ballet is the most rewarding when everything comes together and the final product is out on stage.”

The cast of the ballet has been rehearsing every Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm since almost the beginning of the school year. While this may seem like a lot of work, sophomore Hannah Burnstein comments on the leisure and bonding during practices; she shares, “Eventually, Saturday rehearsals become less of a rehearsal and more of a hangout with your friends even though we still are rehearsing!” Senior Molly Rose also expressed how close everyone in the ballet becomes; she exclaims, “Every Saturday is worth the close friendships and bonds you make and performing in front of your friends. You become part of the Palmer Dance Studio family, a truly remarkable group of people at Pine Crest.” The amount of effort that went into the show is clear from watching it. All of the dancer’s faces were gleaming with happiness to finally perform the show. Junior Hailey Karten touches on the dance teachers’ joy in creating a fantastic production by adding, “The entire cast worked so hard to bring the story of A Christmas Carol to life. Mrs. Gooden, Mrs. C and Mrs. Boyd and everyone involved with the show have so much enthusiasm to make the show as incredible as it is.”

Now that the ballet is finished, the dance department is starting to work on their next performance, Dance Etc. This eclectic show features many student choreographed pieces that range from classical to modern styles of dance and will be performed after school on Friday, December 11th.  Also, you can see many familiar faces from the ballet performing in this year’s upper school musical, Cinderella, this February on the 26th and 27th. Hope to see you there supporting Pine Arts!