Footlight Dance and Sun Valley Music Festival Music Institute students will be spreading holiday cheer bringing a performance to the WRHS Performing Arts Theater at the Community Campus in Hailey, on Saturday, December 14, 7:00 pm, a free event. This annual collaborative event will have the dancers and musicians performing together! “Both programs are excited to bring the two arts disciplines together to perform for our 2nd year. For the dancers, we usually perform to pre-recorded music as live musicians are an expense we cannot afford to add onto our production costs, and for the musicians they rarely get the opportunity to play for dance. The experience brings challenges and rewards for both as they learn to pay closer attention to details from the conductor in regard to tempo, and the dancers must listen to the subtle differences of the final version from recorded to live.”
A highlight of this program will be a solo danced by Footlight Company member, Romina Zavala, who is a Senior in High School. This piece, choreographed by Mackenzie King is set to the Overture from Suite No. 3 in D Major, by J.S. Bach. A Quartet to be played by Leila Brickley and Cora Ward, Violin, Fisher Hattula, Viola, and Elena Alajbegovic, Cello. Ellen Sanders, Cello Instructor and String Department Head for the Sun Valley Music Festival Music Institute, conducts the Sinfonia Pops Orchestra comprised of local middle and high school students. She is excited to bring this opportunity to their Sinfonia Orchestra. The evening will conclude with a joy of the season, a Nutcracker Medley to bring delight into focus for all. The twelve Footlight dancers performing are from our Intermediate 3/4, Junior Company level. These dancers attend WRMS, WRHS and SV Community School. The piece they will perform has been choreographed by Hilarie Neely, School Director and Mackenzie King, faculty. “Dance is an art form that warms the heart when children are dancing,” says director Hilarie Neely.