Kingsport Ballet returns to the stage for "The Nutcracker."
Kingsport Ballet returns to the stage for “The Nutcracker” scheduled for Dec. 17, 18 and 19 at Wellmont Performing Arts Center.
The classical production based on the traditional Russian version has been staged in the region by Kingsport Ballet under the direction of Valeria Sinyavskaya for the past 20 years. Sinyavskaya first staged the production with Kingsport Ballet just months after her arrival in Kingsport in 2002. That year, through Sinyavskaya’s connections with her former colleagues in Russia, the company commissioned several sets of professional tutus, which are still in use today following several restorations and reconstructions.
“We were very proud and happy to have livestreamed ‘The Nutcracker’ to over 4,800 school children last year, free of charge. But we are also really excited to have full audiences back in the theater this December,” said Sinyavskaya. The company plans to livestream the production to schools in the region, in addition to hosting live audiences for its public performances.
Kingsport Ballet staged “The Nutcracker” at NPAC in December 2020 mid-pandemic, to limited capacity and distanced audiences, after having grown its shows from three to five at Wellmont Performing Arts Center in 2019 and years prior.
Since 2019 Sinyavskaya has worked closely with assistant artistic director Leonid Flegmatov, who has also performed lead roles in productions, in addition to rehearsing and teaching company dancers. Flegmatov is a former principal dancer with New Jersey Ballet and a graduate of the Bolshoi Academy of Ballet in Russia.
This year’s production features some familiar faces as the company collaborates with Artistic Motion in Greensboro, North Carolina, under the direction of Natalya Davison. Some of the production’s solos are performed by dancers with Artistic Motion, who will be returning after previous performances of “The Nutcracker” and “The Sleeping Beauty” with Kingsport Ballet. In addition, Kingsport Ballet is providing several dancers from its own company to join Artistic Motion’s production of “The Nutcracker” in Greensboro.
Tickets are sold online through Kingsport Ballet’s Facebook page and at kingsportballet.org or by calling 423-378-3967.
