FRESNO – Open auditions for student roles in Fresno Ballet Theatre’s 2015 production of “The Nutcracker,” sponsored by Valley Performing Arts Council (VPAC), will be held Saturday, June 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the dance studio of the music building at California State University, Fresno.
Roles are available for male and female dance students of all experience levels, ages 5 and up.
Auditions are divided into four categories based on height and dance experience. Specific audition times for each role or category of dancers is available at www.valleyperformingartscouncil.org, via VPAC’s Facebook page or by picking up a flyer at Northwest Studio of Ballet.
To participate in auditions, children must be 5 years old by Aug. 1, 2015. Dancers may audition for more than one part; audition results will be announced on the same day as auditions. Parent meetings will also be held on audition day.
Rehearsals will begin on Aug. 8, 2015, with Ron Cunningham, Sacramento Ballet Artistic Director, and Yukari Thiesen, Fresno Ballet Theatre Artistic Director.
Performances of VPAC’s “The Nutcracker” are scheduled for Nov. 28 and 29 at the William Saroyan Theatre. Student performers will be on stage alongside professional dancers from the Sacramento Ballet.
Students accepted to perform in the “The Nutcracker” will be eligible to perform in a March production of “Don Quixote” being presented by State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara and Fresno Ballet Theatre.
About Valley Performing Arts Council:
Established in 1997, VPAC’s mission is to expose children to the beauty, wisdom and truth that the classical arts impart and to enable them to share this cultural knowledge with future generations. VPAC works to cultivate classical performing arts by bringing professional ballet to Fresno in order to expose local dancers and school children to a high caliber of ballet and classical music, thus creating a greater understanding of the classical performing arts. To date, VPAC has exposed more than 140,000 students in 25 school districts throughout the Valley to numerous ballet, theater and musical performances.
VPAC also partners with Fresno county Office of Education, Fresno Unified School District and Central Unified School District to provide classical ballet classes and a team of professional ballet educators as artists-in-residence to elementary schools.
