By Staff
LENDING A HAND n Dancer Abby Long, 10, helps fellow dancer and classmate Alexis Brown before a Nutcracker dress rehearsal Friday night. Photo by Marianne Todd/The Meridian Star.
By Stacey Hancock/The Meridian Star
Dec. 9, 2000
Forty local dance students will get a star turn in the bright lights of the Temple Theatre tonight as the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet Guild presents "The Nutcracker."
Curtain time is 7 p.m.
Students from four dance schools will be featured: Pat Gray Academy of Dance and Gymnastics, Mary Alpha Donnelly School of Dance, Carol Merrill Academy of Dance and the Suzie McCraw School of Dance.
Pat Gray students will play angels in Act II. Mary Alpha Donnelly students will be rose buds, party girls and sleigh angels and Judy Crawson will play the grandmother in the opening scene of Tchaikovsky's famous ballet.
Students from Carol Merrill Academy of Dance will play soldiers, and Suzie McCraw students will be Polynesian elves in Act II.
All the students have been learning their dances confess to a little stage fright.
Bliss Cook, a 9-year-old student from Mary Alpha Donnelly School of Dance, said she is "kind of nervous." She has been dancing for eight years, and has performed annual recitals at the Temple Theatre before.
Representing each of the four dance schools in tonight's performance are:
Pat Gray Academy: Baleigh Germany, Jordin Johnson, Abby Long, Sydney Matthews, Paige Ip, Amber Wood, Holly Howard, Alexis Brown, Raven Roberts, Arrielle Dale, Shelby Gibson, Ashley Swearingen.
Alpha School of Dance: Bliss Cook, Madison Davis, Bailey Duke, Danielle Miller, Apryl Null, Lacey Robinson, Lacee Dean, Madelyn Denton, Kate Robbins, Mary Ryan, Halie Sweeney, Jessica Farrar, Courtney Lowe, Judy Crowson.
Carol Merrill Academy: Jamey Sharman, Taylor Thompson, Olivia Chisolm, Neeosha Ruffin, Catherine Bordelon, Bria Bryant, Ivey Burt, Samantha Adams, Taylor Cumberland, Layken Gibbs, Hallie Majure Phillips, Callie Rush, Mary Lela Valentine, Charlotte Williams, Lauren Jeter, Juliet Howarth, Hallie Dyess, Sarah Margaret Huff, Jennie Fisher.
Suzie McCraw School of Dance: Bailey Putnam, Christen Cooper, Sarah Fair, Mary Heflin Alexander, Brittany Boles, Lacey White, Morgan Barber, Jennifer Cody.
For ticket information, call the Temple Theatre box office at 693-5353.