THE OKLAHOMA CITY BALLET: THE NUTCRACKER

The Oklahoma City Ballet stages one of the most popular holiday performance events danced all over the world, “The Nutcracker”. The company will have eight performances for six days this December at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. The dream performance promises to fill the hearts of the whole family. The Oklahoma City Ballet’s professional dancers along with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and nearly 100 student dancers from the Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School are featured in this year’s performance. The Christmas story showcases many young dancers and presents opportunities for them to dance with the career dancers.

One of the talented young dancers from the school is 12-year-old Julien DeJear. He is dancing the role of Fritz, Clara’s little brother. Ballet Master and Director for The Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School, Penny Askew, said that he also performed as the Junior Male Card in the production of Alice in Wonderland. “This role performs a solo with very difficult steps that are usually in men’s variations, and Julien was fantastic in it,” she said. “He is doing an excellent job as Fritz with both the dancing and the acting necessary for the role.”

The Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School is Oklahoma’s only American Ballet Theatre Certified School. Myra Yvonne Chouteau and her husband, Miguel Terekhov, organized the school. Ms. Chouteau was one of Oklahoma’s prima ballerinas. She was also the youngest dancer ever accepted to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Ballet Master Penny Askew said she did not know Ms. Chouteau personally but feels she was very passionate about her work. “Because she and her husband not only founded what is now Oklahoma City Ballet and its school, and the dance program at the University of Oklahoma,” Askew said, “I think it’s very clear that she was passionate about bringing high quality ballet to Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City community.”

The Oklahoma City Ballet features artists representing seven countries including Brazil, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Venezuela, and 15 states within the United States. Three company dancers will perform the role of Clara in this year’s production: Principal Da Young Jung, Soloist Amada Herd-Popejoy, and Corps de Ballet dancer Mayu Odaka.

The history of the Classic Christmas Story dates back to December 1892. It was a fairy tale ballet about a family’s celebration on Christmas Eve. Since the ballet’s 1940’s premiere in the western countries, it has become the most performed ballet during the Christmas season. In 1944, the San Francisco Ballet was the first to perform the Christmas ballet in the United States followed by the New York City Ballet of the Nutcracker in 1954. The Tchaikovsky version is the performance audiences will see at the Oklahoma City Civic Music Hall.

The continued financial support of Devon Energy has afforded new wardrobes and spectacular sets for the Oklahoma Ballet performances. The company has toured the production to Colorado Springs, and Ada, Oklahoma.