October flew on by; welcome November! This will be a busy month for The Children’s Ballet as we begin our Nutcracker study and finish up our dances that will be performed with the Hendricks Symphony Orchestra next month. We are grateful for the opportunity to bring Nutcracker excerpts to Hendricks County with our friends at the HSO. We are excited to celebrate the magic of the season with the magic of live music and dance!

Special thanks to our friends at the HSO for the opportunity, Miss Heidi and Miss Mandy for choreography, and our dancers for their hard work. Very special thanks to the Hendricks County Community Foundation for approving a grant for Nutcracker costumes! Because of the HCCF and generous donors, we were able to purchase costumes for Nutcracker to help us bring the story to life for 2016 and beyond.

Winter Notes

• In order to keep students (and teachers) healthy throughout the winter months, please keep students at home from dance if they have stayed home from school that same day. Contact Miss Emily if a makeup lesson is required.
• The Children’s Ballet follows the Danville School System for closings due to weather. We will also keep you informed via Facebook for closings. Learn more about our holiday breaks.

The Nutcracker

The Children’s Ballet Presents Dances From The Nutcracker :: 7:30 p.m. Friday, December 9 | 3:00 p.m. Sunday, December 11
The Children’s Ballet will present scenes from The Nutcracker as part of the the Hendricks Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas program at Avon Middle School North, 1251 Dan Jones Road. Dances performed by students of The Children’s Ballet will include Lighting of the Christmas Tree, The Marche, Children’s Gallop, Grandfather’s Dance, Spanish Dance, Arabian Dance, Chinese Dance, Dance of the Reed Flutes, Trépak, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Waltz of the Flowers. Come out and support our students with a classic holiday celebration. Contact us for more information on purchasing tickets.

The Nutcracker: Presented By The Indianapolis School Of Ballet :: 3:00 p.m., Sunday, December 18
Throughout November and December, Miss Emily’s classes will learn dances, study music, and read stories about The Nutcracker. Let this study come to life for your dancer by joining us for a live performance of The Nutcracker! The Indianapolis School of Ballet is celebrating 10 years of performing The Nutcracker, and will be joined for the first time by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Limited group rate tickets (adults $25; students $20) are available through The Children’s Ballet by ordering here or paying a teacher during class. The Murat Theatre is at 502 North New Jersey Street in Indianapolis, and parking instructions are available at oldnationalcentre.com/faq.

Celebrate The Season!

In addition the performing with the HSO, our advanced dancers will be performing excerpts from the Nutcracker at the Art Sanctuary in Martinsville on Saturday, Dec. 17. Come out and support our dancers!

Hendricks Civic Theatre presents “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” starting December 2nd. Current student Emily Sharton will play a role; stayed tuned at hendrickscivic.com for details!

Studio Spotlight: Heidi Eads-Jones, Lead Senior Instructor

Miss Heidi has brought incredible experiences, extensive training, wonderful talent, and a wealth of knowledge to The Children’s Ballet since 2003. She studied dance at Wuerttenberg State Theater Dance Academy, Butler University, Indiana University, and most recently, at Gaellic College in Nova Scotia! She has trained in ballet technique, pointe, classical and contemporary ballet repertoire, pas de deux, character and national dance, Spanish, Slavic, and Ceilidh dance, modern dance, jazz technique, dance theory, dance history, choreology, and choreography.

Her international professional experience comes from solo, demi-solo, and corps de ballet positions with well-known companies such as Bolshoi Ballet (formerly USSR), Stuttgart Ballet (Germany), Hamburg State Ballet (Germany), Indianapolis Ballet Theater (Indiana), Hartford Ballet (Connecticut), Frankfurt and Neurnberg Municipal Ballet Theaters (Germany). She has also made guest appearances in France, Italy, Poland, Austria, Luxembourg, Spain, and USA. Her teaching and choreographic positions have included Ballet Arts Academy, Indiana University Department of Dance, La Salle de Danse, Jordan College of Butler University, The Children’s Ballet, Clara Noyes Academy of Ballet Internationale, Russian Ballet Academy of Indiana, Central Indiana Dance Ensemble at Performer’s Edge Dance Studio, Indianapolis School of Ballet, Windfall Dancers, G. Scotten Talent Center, and J2 Dance Studio. She has choreographed over five all-school productions as well as works commissioned by the Indiana Repertory Theater, and CIDE Summer Intensives. Miss Heidi is also a certified yoga teacher, completing her 500 hour teacher certification according to the Indiana Yoga Alliance standards and criteria. She is also certified in Yogic Stress Management Therapy.

Did you know Miss Heidi is also an Art History educator? She holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Ohio State University and was an graduate teaching assistant at OSU. She also has been an adjunct professor of Art History at Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI from 2010-2015. She is a member of the National Society of Arts and Letters, Phi Beta Kappa, and Golden Key Honor Society. She received the Indiana University Friends of the Arts scholarship and a Fellowship at Ohio State University. Miss Heidi is also a published author, having written dance reviews from the Bloomington Herald Telegraph and authored To Have Art is to Have Life, The Eads of Mason County, West Virginia; A Genealogical and Historical Perspective, Dancing Shamans and Grinning Cocoons, Taking in a Bear, and The Forgotten Regiment. The 13th West Virgina Volunteer Infantry Regiment… the Games Set of Felows.

We are extremely blessed to have Miss Heidi on staff; she is not only the amazing credentials above, but she is an effective, knowledgeable, and inspirational instructor, role model, and mentor to us all at The Children’s Ballet!

In Class

In Miss Emily’s class last month, we had fun with Halloween-themed dances, which included a parachute, leaping over a “mud puddle” with fun hats, and dancing as witches, skeletons, and ghosts (ask your students which was their favorite!). The featured music for our traditional Halloween dance is the famous piece for violin and orchestra “Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saens. Did you know the violin is purposefully tuned off key to make this piece sound more eerie?

Terms

Battement tendu: the working foot slides from the first or fifth position to the second or fourth position without lifting the toe from the ground. Both knees must be kept straight. When the foot reaches the position pointe tendu, it then returns to the original position.

Did You Know?

Tuition Due

First week of November (cash or check to teacher, or online here).

Thanksgiving Break

November 24-26

Nutcracker with HSO

December 9 & 11

Christmas performance at Art Sanctuary

December 10

School Trip to The Nutcracker presented by ISB at the Murat

December 18