Bowling Green area youth were selected to perform alongside 40 Moscow Ballet professionals in the 20th Anniversary Great Russian Nutcracker at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center in November. Several local dance schools hosted Moscow Ballet’s Student Program in Bowling Green, and a Moscow Ballet soloist serves as Audition and Rehearsal Director.

Pictured here: Student dancers in a past performance of the Great Russian Nutcracker.

Selected student dancers are: Party Guests: Sarah Kate Alsobrook, Kaylyn Baker, Chloe Cassady, Anne Jefferson, Katherine Rice, Madeline Stephenson, Tayler Stinnett, Maya Sugie. Snowflakes: Bella Alcott, Emily Fan, Elizabeth Jefferson, Olivia Jefferson, Caroline Key, Annie Moore, Reagan Travelsed, Kate Woodring. Angels: Sarah Kate Alsobrook, Kaylyn Baker, Chloe Cassady, Alexis Etienne, Jessica Gentile, Anne Jefferson, Katherine Kinser, Amelia Mann, Katherine Rice, Jessica Sutton. Child in sleigh: Havanna Hack. Dancers in Act II's variations are: Spanish: Bella Norman, Aria Turner. Russian: Grace Bryant, Sara Davis. Chinese: Tayler Stinnett, Maya Sugie, Isabella Bryant, Gracee Spears.

Every year since 1993, Moscow Ballet has engaged local ballet students and host studios in cities on the North American tour, offering them the most unusual opportunity of auditioning, rehearsing, and performing in a professional setting. Children ages 7 to 16, under 5”2” and with some ballet training are eligible to audition.

Pictured: Students in cities across the country auditioned for a part in the Great Russian Nutcracker.

Moscow Ballet’s 20th anniversary Great Russian Nutcracker celebrates the 50,000+ student dancers (an average of 50 students in 50 cities over 20 years time) who have performed along-side the Russian cast of 40 on annual North American tours.  The commitment to deliver children’s programming, in tandem with acclaimed ballet performances, began 20 years earlier when Moscow Ballet producers, then working with Connecticut Dance Theatre, invited Dance Theater of Harlem directors to work with their Hartford students. Among those dedicated students was Charmaine Hunter who went on to become star of Arthur Mitchell’s Fire Bird.  Other children’s programming includes 1984 “Cynthia Gregory Celebration Tour” with the “Just Say No” campaign as it’s official message and chaired by First Lady Nancy Reagan; Russian-Cultural Ballet program produced in museums and art institutions; “Cinderella Around the World” dance and literacy program; and “First International Glasnost Festival Tours” included symposiums, screenings, poetry readings, and more for students and public at Dartmouth, Yale, and other colleges.  Today Moscow Ballet offers all children New Horizons: A Children’s Program for Life, addressing diet, exercise and creative expression through interactive experiences with Moscow Ballet dancers. www.nutcracker.com/education.