News Release

SK Campus

CCCC To Host Performances of the Nutcracker Ballet

Mojave/Edwards AFB, CA – November 16, 2004

Cerro Coso Community College will be hosting two performances of the Nutcracker Ballet, Saturday, December 4 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, December 5 at 2:00 PM in the Mojave High School Gym located at 15732 "O" street in Mojave. Tickets can be purchased at the Cerro Coso Business Office in Ridgecrest, Mojave Movements Arts Center in Mojave, Gardner Realty in Mojave, and at the Mojave Gym one half hour prior to the show. Ticket price is $5.00 general admission.

The Nutcracker, a ballet in two acts, is based on Dumas' adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman's story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was first produced in 1892 by the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia and has become one of the most popular and well-known ballets. It is performed by professional companies, worldwide, especially during the Christmas holiday season. Tchaikovsky wrote the music and the team of Petipa and Ivanov created the choreography. The first scene of the ballet is a Christmas party with games and dances and presents for all the guests. Drosselmeyer, a clock-and-toy-maker, has a special gift for Clara, a Nutcracker. Clara's brother Fritz is rough, however, and breaks the doll. The guests depart and the children go to bed, but Clara cannot sleep; she is thinking of her Nutcracker. She returns to the party room for her doll. But Drosselmeyer is also in the party room; he appears to enchant the room, causing the walls to disappear and the Christmas tree to grow. Enormous mice and life-size toy soldiers battle with gumdrop cannonballs, licorice rifles, and peppermint sticks. The Nutcracker and the Rat King engage in a desperate fight. Only Clara's courage saves the Nutcracker from defeat. The Nutcracker is transformed into a young Prince who invites Clara to go with him through the Forest of Fir Trees into the Kingdom of the Sweets.

In the second act of the ballet, Clara and the Nutcracker enter the Kingdom of the Sweets. They are greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. In Clara's honor, great festival of desserts, culminating the Grand Pas de Deux, danced by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, begins. Local dancers, Lesley Stiver and Thomas Mattingly perform the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. They are joined in this production by William Lange as Drosselmeyer, Pamela Wilson as the Snow Queen, Damian Rickman as the Nutcracker Prince, Phillip Fernandez as the Rat King, and Tenina Pezzini as Clara.

The Nutcracker Ballet was first produced in 1988 in Mojave. This Kern County-based production features performers from Bakersfield, Boron, California City, Edwards, Mojave, Palmdale, Ridgecrest and Rosamond.

Production of the Nutcracker Ballet is made possible in part by a grant from the Arts Council of Kern and The Fire Mountain Foundation.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Joann Handeland, Director of Facilities Development and Services (760) 384-6230