HYLTON DEBUT FOR GAINESVILLE BALLET WITH INTERNATIONAL DANCE STARS
GAINESVILLE, Va. – Gainesville Ballet is pleased to announce the performance of a traditional Nutcracker story on Saturday, November 30, 2013 at 6:30 PM. The full-length ballet will be entitled Clara and The Nutcracker Prince and features international guest dancers, faculty and students of the award-winning arts organization.
As decorative lights begin to sparkle across homes in Prince William County on Thanksgiving weekend, the elegant opera house of the 1,123-seat Merchant Hall at the Hylton Performing Arts Center will usher in the holiday season with the fanfare of soldiers and mice. Ballet patrons will be welcomed by an elaborate two-story grand foyer leading to a large auditorium defined by circular balcony seats that glimmer three stories high, an expansive orchestra section, state-of-the art acoustics and an intimate ambiance.
With a spacious 100-foot stage reaching gracefully into a stately theater, the dancers of Gainesville Ballet will perform in the window-like backdrop created by a proscenium arch. The architecture brings the scenes close to the audience in a symbiotic style fueled by the stage-to-seat energy of classical artistry. Inspiration flows from each movement of the dance and is returned to the performer through the rapture and applause of theater-goers.
The building structure stands majestically on the Prince William campus of George Mason University as a cultural center for the arts in Northern Virginia. The location for the upcoming performance is 10960 George Mason Circle in Manassas, Virginia. The facility is rapidly becoming a destination venue for international arts organizations of every theatrical genre. Tickets for the eighth annual holiday performance of Gainesville Ballet are $35 for orchestra seats, with discounts for seniors, military, and children under age 12. Balcony seats range from $15 to $25. Guests have the option to purchase from the box office at the Hylton Performing Arts Center, online under Gainesville Ballet at www.tickets.com or by calling (888) 945-2468.
The music for the production is the original score by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky composed The Nutcracker in December of 1891. A year later, the première was held at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The commission was to compose a ballet based on Dumas the Elder’s version of a Christmas fairy tale by E.T.A Hoffmann. The production has gained in popularity through the last century, especially in the United States.
