Ballet takes centre stage for two nights
When the lights go down and the curtain goes up at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall this weekend, “The Magic Box” will open for two shows. Ann-Marie Williams has the story.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
It’s dance time for one hundred and one students of The Ballet Art School, ages four to sixteen years as “The Magic Box” opens at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Visiting choreographer of the National Ballet of Cuba is Lidia Diaz. She gives us a peep inside the box.
Lidia Diaz, Visiting Choreographer, Nat’l Ballet of Cuba
“There we found a book with the history of a garden with a the stars, birds, the sun. We have also little dancers, wind up dolls, ballerinas, the Spanish dance and all these little pieces.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So it will be a beautiful show.”
Lidia Diaz
“We hope so.”
And after six months of intense preparation their dance ability and or technique doesn’t come into question.
Lidia Diaz
“We work with the concentration, with the music, with the group working together with the steps, with the pantomime, and all these elements in this little show is not easy, it’s very hard.”
What is also hard, is to follow in the footstep of dance legend, Mary Valdez. One of Valdez’s students Mamie Martinez is doing just that by directing The Ballet Art School. She says Saturday’s show is designed for parents to see what their children have learnt.
Mamie Martinez, Dir., The Ballet Art School
“What we really like to do, is to set up our ballet school the way music schools are set up in Belize whereby students sit or have to take exams periodically and they pass from one grade to another. And thereby they improve and they become well rounded in the arts.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Where are you hoping your ballet school would go?”
Mamie Martinez
“We want to keep improving. We want the children to learn ballet, to have fun as they go along and we’d like to keep improving and improving as they years go on.”
And one way to improve as the years go on according to Diaz, is to enrol, in this case little girls at the right age of eight.
Lidia Diaz
“The girl or boy can think better, can learn better because they have to balance, the arms, the body, the hips, the knees, a lot of things, and they can work in the correct position.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
The first show takes place on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall. If you can’t make it, the last dance performance will be saved for a matinee on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Tickets can be bought at the door for ten dollars.
