Hans Christian Anderson 2006

The City Youth Ballet of Johnson City will bring to life the classic tales of Hans Christian Andersen at 2 p.m. April 29 at the Memorial Theatre on the campus of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mountain Home.
Presented in two acts, the production is a study in musical contrasts. One act is set to the Danny Kaye soundtrack from the 1952 movie “Hans Christian Andersen” and features dances and characters from “The Ugly Duckling” and “Thumbelina.”

Other pieces feature such tales as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Red Shoes” and “The Little Match Girl” and are scored with classical music.

Choreography for the production was created by the City Youth Ballet’s artistic director, Susan Pace, and assistant artistic director Traci Honeycutt. Both women serve as directors of the Johnson City Ballet Company, which trains the dancers.

Lena Safanova, formerly of the Ukrainian National Ballet and a guest instructor for the City Youth Ballet, also choreographed for the production, including one of its highlights, “The Dancing Princesses,” featuring the ballet’s senior dancers.

Some 30 dancers in the City Youth Ballet’s junior and senior companies portray the characters. The production is set around a giant-sized storybook and a storyteller portraying Hans Christian Andersen. As he tells the story, the pages of the storybook are turned and the performers depict the tales in dance.

The set was created by local artists Peggy Root and Deanna Vanders. The costumes were made by the company’s costume mistresses Gretchen Herron and Sharon Ritchie.

The Hans Christian Andersen ballet originally was created for the Southern Ballet of Atlanta and choreography was done by its founder Pittman Corey. It was performed during the 1980s and featured such ballet greats as Karen Conrad of the American Ballet Theatre. Some of the senior dancers in the local production have studied at the American Ballet Theatre and several other prestigious ballet schools such as The Rock School in Philadelphia.

The senior dancers are Merri Chang, Erin Coker, Jennifer Darden, Katie Darden, Anna Daught, Edith Dunbar, Hannah Dunbar, Devin Herron, Anita Ostrovsky, Kathryn Palmer, Gwynn Root and Sarah Sims.

The City Youth Ballet of Johnson City is a chartered, not-for-profit performance organization.