Dancers in heavy stage makeup and dressed in a flowing rainbow of costumes rehearsed recently for the upcoming staging of La Bayadere. Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet & Voice students on May 18 prepared for their show, which will be performed at noon and 3 pm on Sunday, June 10, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

NCCB Artistic Director Tory Gozzi said she is "excited to stage La Bayadere (The Temple Servant) for the first time.

"To my knowledge," she continued, "it's the first time in our school's almost fifty-year history that we are presenting more than just an excerpt from this wonderful ballet. It's so different from so many of the well-known classical ballets, which are set in palaces or villages or forests."

La Bayadere, Ms Gozzi explained, is set "with a Middle Eastern feel, and very Moroccan vibe with the patterned costuming, tapestries, elaborate gold columns and jewelry, and stylistic character of the dance."

Suitable for all ages, the performance is 75 minutes long with one 15-minute intermission. The afternoon will also include raffle prizes, including gardening baskets and outdoor family activity baskets, as well as snacks and refreshments.

Anticipating the show, Ms Gozzi said, "We love sharing these ballets with as many as can attend." Her school's philosophy includes promoting "artistic excellence for cultural arts education in our town. I would love to have two packed houses after all the beautiful work these kids have put into the show."

The "fabulous" Noel Bernard is dancing again this year following his performance in the company's Les Sylphides last year. Senior Arline Almeter is portraying Gamzatti, the princess. Junior Fallyn Kirlin is portraying the temple servant, Nikiya. Other roles of note include sophomores Julia Finegan as the high priestess, Kylee Raiano as Nikiya's sister, and freshmen Taegan Smith, Annie Fowler, and Chelsea Fowler as the Act IV soloists.

Offering a "quick storyline for our adaptation," Ms Gozzi said, "The princess is set to be engaged to an unnamed suitor." The finest local Hindu temple servant is selected by the high priestess to receive the princess as a new handmaiden in celebration of the occasion.

But at the end of Act I, "we see that this servant happens to be in love with the prince who is about to be chosen to marry the princess that she is supposed to serve," Ms Gozzi said. "When the servant arrives at the temple, the princess notices that she and the prince are already familiar and confronts the servant.

"Discovering that the servant and the prince have already sworn an oath of love to each other, the princess begs her to back out of the oath, but the servant refuses and they fight," she continued. The princess becomes jealous. She vows to marry the prince anyway.

The engagement includes "many wonderful dances," but the servant interrupts festivities at the end and reveals her love for the prince "with a beautiful slow dance, pleading for him to come back to her. She gets bitten by a poisonous snake that the princess has hidden in a bouquet of flowers and dies."

Yet the plot twists.

"The priestess, seeing their love for each other, comes to the prince in his dreams and transports him to the Kingdom of the Shades," Ms Gozzi said. "Here, beautiful figures dance and lead the prince to the servant; they reunite and dance together, and the priestess seals their love and binds their union forever."

A Teacher's Pride

Proud of her students, Ms Gozzi said, "The dancers have had so much fun working on this ballet, as have I." Feeling as though "I say this every year," Ms Gozzi said, "I know this is my favorite ballet yet of the ones I've gotten to stage on these kids."

In Act I, the temple scene is illustrated with an "awesome LED fire pit that the servants dance around. With the lighting we've chosen and the style of the dancing, it has such a great mystique."

A duet between the servant and the prince "is one of the most unique in its presentation of balances, lifts, and turns as the two dancers move through space together."

In the palace scenes, "the dancers have gotten to work with great props - our littlest have tambourines, our 6-year-olds have beautiful birds and really cute partnering with the boys in their dance, our 7 to 9-year-olds have to balance vases on their heads for their whole dance," Ms Gozzi said.

The 10 to 12-year-olds "dance with beautiful scarves," she said.

Act IV brings to the stage the Kingdom of the Shades. Ms Gozzi described this as "one of the most beautiful pieces of choreography ever imagined - there is an adagio with everyone moving together in unison through beautiful postures, slowly and smoothly followed by a trio of dancers with very tricky solo variations to perform - they are working hard to master the steps - and ending with a tableaux of dancers around the servant and prince."

Admission is free for the performances. Reservations are not needed, but additional information is available at 203-241-5362 and nccballetandvoice.com.

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