The orchestral sound of the song “Mother Ginger and Her Polichinelles” travels through the auditorium as Mother Ginger and her bakers skip onto the stage to perform their dance for a packed house at the Perot Theatre in the second act of Tchaikovsky’s Christmas ballet “The Nutcracker.”
In August, members of the Texarkana Community Ballet auditioned for roles in the annual performance of “The Nutcracker.” Several Texas High School students received parts for the upcoming performances on Dec. 6 through 8.
“This year, I was privileged to receive the role of Mother Ginger,” senior Laila Toubia said. “I really enjoy dancing with all the little kids who do all the flips and tricks, and I get to do the ballet part of it, which is really fun.”
Toubia practices at least six hours a week; however, during the week of performance, she and many others practice three hours a day.
“During practices, I get to be with my friends, and even though we don’t get to talk while someone is teaching, we get to hang out, and it’s really fun to be performing all together,” Toubia said. “ It’s even more fun to bring the story to life and when you see all the kids’ faces light up as you bring the fantasy world to them.”
Freshman Lola Currie portrays the Ballerina Doll in the upcoming show.
“I perform my dance in the party scene,” Currie said. “I love the scene because of all the cute little girls that play the role of a party girl.”
Currie enjoys practices and performing despite the schedule conflicts they pose.
“The most challenging part of putting on the performance this year has been how many practices we have,” Currie said. “I practice twice a week, but now that it’s performance week, we practice every day; however, I enjoy learning the choreography.”
One of the directors of the Community Ballet of Texarkana, Kathy Fomby, believes that this year’s nutcracker ran very smoothly during dress rehearsals.
“The Community Ballet of Texarkana has an audition process and these girls are selected for the parts that they play,” Fomby said. “I just really got lucky this year with the snow scene because I have some very talented dancers in the snow scene and they all work so hard as well as the apotheosis.”
