In The News.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
By David Steinberg
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer
Amanda Geilenfeldt and Jack Stewart have been learning the art of ballet for most of their lives. For them getting better at what they do is not just for self-satisfaction. It's about translating their knowledge and skills into being cast for bigger and more challenging roles.
Which is what Geilenfeldt and Stewart have this year in the New Mexico Ballet Company production of "The Nutcracker" ballet. It will be staged over the next two weekends at Popejoy Hall.
As the Snow Queen and the Snow King, respectively, Geilenfeldt and Stewart perform a major pas de deux.
"They are coveted roles," said Patricia Dickinson Wells, who is directing her 11th "Nutcracker" ballet for the company.
In the ballet, the Snow Queen and Snow King accompany Clara and the Nutcracker, who is a pivotal character, on their journey to the Land of the Sweets.
"If you grow as a dancer, as you get a new part, that's what makes it more exciting," the 19-year-old Geilenfeldt said.
"When I was Clara for three years, I hoped I could get better."
She has.
So has Stewart.
Their maturity as dancers is one reason they've been moving up— taking on more responsibility— in the magical on-stage world of the famous holiday presentation.
This is the 12th year that Geilenfeldt has been doing "The Nutcracker" with the New Mexico Ballet Company. When she was 7, Geilenfeldt said, she started out as a Mouse and a Party Girl. For the next five years, she performed as a Party Girl, an Angel and a Pollichenelle. Then Geilenfeldt stepped into the popular female role of Clara over the next three years. For the following two years, she repeated three parts, two of which were solos.
In the 2006 production of Nutcracker, Geilenfeldt did her first Snow Queen.
For Stewart, a 16-year-old junior at Southwest Secondary Learning Center, each of the eight years that he's been doing the ballet has been a new challenge.
He started out as Party Boy and as a Pollichenelle. He moved up to Lead Rat and other roles for three years. Last year he stepped in to dance the role of the Nutcracker. This is his first Snow King.
"It's always more exciting to be out there doing something new," Stewart said. "As Nutcracker you have to do lifts, which gave me some preparation for Snow King."
Stewart's mom, Jennifer Boren, also is in the production, dancing the Arabian Variation. Mother and son have been tied to "The Nutcracker" before Stewart could dance ... or walk.
"I was pregnant with him when I danced Sugar Plum," said Boren, who is also a ballet teacher and choreographer in Albuquerque.
"He was five months old when I carried him on stage in the party scene for the Albuquerque Ballet Company production of 'Nutcracker.' ''
Boren has found it interesting to see her son grow into principal roles.
"Jack has such a wonderful maturity about him and at such a young age. He doesn't get nervous. He always comes through on stage," she said.
Dickinson Wells, who is also the company's artistic director, said the younger dancers see the advanced dancers, such as Geilenfeldt and Stewart, as role models.
"The kids look up to them to learn a standard of excellence, a standard of behavior that is required to be part of the company for this production," Dickinson Wells said.
"With our company the tradition of 'Nutcracker' lends itself to children starting as mice with very little training at the age of 8 and working their way through the various parts as they become more accomplished in their technical skills."
Boren isn't the only the dancing parent with a child in this "Nutcracker." Among the others are Susie Supple, Karroll Candelaria-Bauer, Chris Carrasco, Brenda Gonzales, Carmel Rippberger, Lioudmila Alexeenko and Dr. Sandra Whisler are all dancing in the Act 1 parents' party scene.
After the performances, Stewart is moving into the role of Cavalier in the Ballet Repertory Theatre's production of "Nutcracker."
Geilenfeldt— and three other dancers— are pulling double dancing duty on the first weekend of the New Mexico Ballet Company's "Nutcracker." They'll be in the same jazz dance number at two evening performances at a University of New Mexico student choreography showcase, she said.
Geilenfeldt, who is majoring in dance and psychology at UNM, is thinking about pursuing a career as a dance therapist, which she said is about using movement to heal children.
"I still want to keep dancing," she said.
WHAT: "The Nutcracker" ballet with the New Mexico Ballet Company and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra
WHEN: 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, Sunday, Dec. 2, Saturday, Dec. 8, Sunday, Dec. 9, and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8.
WHERE: Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts, UNM campus
HOW MUCH: $11-$37 in advance at the NMSO box office 4407 Menaul NE or by calling 881-8999 or 925-5858 or online at http://www.nmso.org or at UNM ticket offices in The Pit or at the Bookstore.
Posted November 27, 2007