The Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet, under the artistic direction of Jennifer Beasley, will celebrate its 25th anniversary season with a look back at favorite scenes from their original story ballets. “Fairytale Favorites” will be presented at 2 pm on March 24-25 at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center, and will showcase excerpts from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen Heart, and The Princess and the Pea. “The Princess Parade” will follow the March 24 performance with a chance to walk onstage to meet the dancers and get autographs. The March 25 performance will include two additional dance works that will highlight the versatility of the company: Jennifer Beasley’s “Classical Symphony”, an homage to the training of a ballet dancer, and “Reminiscence”, a contemporary work by award winning choreographer Leaia Alsup.
The Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet is a non-profit, pre-professional ballet company that was founded in Madison in 1992. Jennifer Beasley has been the company’s artistic director since 1997, and under her direction the company has grown from 25 dancers to 85 dancers, ages 8-18, who are all students at the company’s official school, the Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy. Dancers are selected for the company via audition, and as members of the company perform in MMB’s annual presentation of The Nutcracker and also in the spring performance, which varies from year to year. Past spring productions have included Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen Heart, The Princess and the Pea, Swan Lake Act 3, Don Quixote, and The Firebird
“It seemed fitting to do a retrospective, ‘greatest-hits’ type of performance for our 25th anniversary,” says Crystal Skelton, MMB Executive Director. “We have created several original ballets over the years, and it was hard to choose just one to represent and celebrate our 25th anniversary milestone. In presenting excerpts from four of our favorite fairytale ballets, we get to re-visit some of our favorite choreography, sets, and costumes, and audience members get to enjoy not just one ‘Once Upon a Time’, but four!”
Both The Little Mermaid and Frozen Heart were choreographed for MMB by guest choreographer Kristy Nilsson. MMB commissioned Nilsson to create The Little Mermaid in 2014 and Frozen Heart in 2016. “Both of these ballets turned out so beautifully when we premiered them,” comments Beasley. “The choreography, sets, and costumes for both are so innovative and visually striking, and we knew that our audience members would be thrilled to again see the ballet-dancing versions of Ariel, Anna, and Elsa onstage!”
Beasley and then Assistant Artistic Director Erik Kegler first choreographed Beauty and the Beast for MMB in 2005. The original presentation was at an outdoor performance at Reunion Lake that year, and MMB re-staged the ballet in 2009 at Thalia Mara Hall and at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center in 2015. “Beauty and the Beast is one of our favorites, and each year that we have presented it, we have added to the choreography and enhanced the sets and costumes, so each presentation has been a fresh experience. The ‘tale as old as time’ is beloved by so many, and we knew we had to include it in our retrospective walk down fairytale lane.”
The fourth and final fairytale that will be included in “Fairytale Favorites” is The Princess and the Pea, first choreographed by Beasley, Kegler, and Skelton in 2007. “Creating Princess and the Pea with Jennifer Beasley and Erik Kegler is one of my favorite memories,” recalls Skelton. “We had so much fun collaborating, and the result is a really funny, whimsical, entertaining ballet that we are very proud of.” The scene showcased in “Fairytale Favorites” will be the difficult night’s sleep that the Princess endures with the pea under her mattress, and the ensuing celebration when it is discovered that she is truly a Princess. “The joyful, celebratory ending of this ballet is a great way to end our 25th anniversary performance,” remarks Beasley.
The March 24 performance of “Fairytale Favorites” will be followed by The Princess Parade, a special opportunity for young audience members to walk across the stage to meet the dancers, see sets and costumes up close, take photos, and get autographs from their favorite Princesses and Princes. Tickets for the Princess Parade will be sold separately, and include an autograph booklet, light refreshments generously provided by The Feathered Cow, Rooster’s, and The Strawberry Café, and the chance to win a hand-wired Swarovski crystal ballet tiara.
The March 25 performance will include “Fairytale Favorites” as well as “Classical Symphony” which explores the evolution of a ballet dancer’s training, from novice to professional. The ballet was choreographed by Artistic Director Beasley in 2013, and will showcase the youngest dancers of MMB through the most advanced. The March 25 performance will also present a new contemporary work by Regional Dance America award-winning choreographer Leaia Alsup titled “Reminiscence.” “Leaia created a beautiful piece that abstractly explores themes of remembrance and connection, and it aptly shows how adept our advanced dancers are in the contemporary dance style. It is a perfect piece to include in our 25th anniversary celebration,” says Skelton.
Joining MMB as guest artist for the performances will be Oscar Fernandez, a professional dancer with Ballet Memphis who is originally from Spain and came to the US to train at the San Francisco Ballet School. Fernandez has appeared with MMB previously in Cinderella and The Nutcracker. Dexter Bishop, an MMB alumnus from Clinton who holds an MFA from Oklahoma City University and has danced professionally with the Missouri Ballet Theatre, will also be appearing as guest artist in “Fairytale Favorites.” Dexter currently resides in Chicago, IL and is a dancer with Winifred Haun and Dancers contemporary dance company. “It is really special to have Dexter joining us for our 25th anniversary performance because he has a long history with MMB. He started dancing with us as a young student and has since gone on to a professional career. We are very proud of him and are excited to have him with us as we celebrate our Silver Anniversary,” says Beasley.
Tickets for the March 24 and 25 performances are $20-$22. Tickets for The Princess Parade are sold separately and are $12 per child; accompanying adults do not need to purchase tickets for The Princess Parade. Each Princess Parade ticket holder will automatically be entered into the raffle for the hand-wired Swarovksi crystal miniature ballet tiara and the winner will be announced at the Princess Parade on March 24.
MMB is also holding The Royal Fairytale Raffle in conjunction with “Fairytale Favorites”. A Royal Fairytale Raffle ticket purchase enters the ticketholder to win one of six generously donated prizes: a Kelly Wynne Money Maker Mini Wallet; tuition for the 2018 Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy Princess Dance Camp; a Kelly Wynne Mingle Mingle Mini Handbag; a Mattie Fru Fru Ballerina Princess Party; Mississippi Braves tickets and memorabilia package; and a Janet Shearer original oil painting commission. Raffle tickets can be purchased for $5 or 3 for $10. Winners will be drawn at the March 25 performance.
Tickets for the performances, the Princess Parade, and the Royal Fairytale Raffle can all be made online at www.msmetroballet.com or by calling 601-853-4508. Tickets will also be available at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center, 4908 Ridgewood Road, on March 24 and 25 beginning at 1 pm.
Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet is generously sponsored in the 2017-2018 season by The Mississippi Arts Commission, Ergon, The Gertrude C. Ford Foundation, BankPlus, Harper, Rains, Knight & Co, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi, Merrill Lynch, Eventful, Kendra Scott, Hilton Garden Inn Madison, and Table 100. For more information on MMB, please visit www.msmetroballet.com.
