When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th St.
Tickets: $19 to $45. Discount of $5 if you use the promo code “Swing” online or on the phone. Available at the Ticket Omaha box office in the Holland Performing Arts Center at 13th and Douglas Streets; by calling 345-0606; or at ticketomaha.com or balletnebraska.org.
A tough economy and a shortage of funding made it impossible for Omaha Theater Ballet to swing it. But Ballet Nebraska was able to rise from the ashes and emerge swinging.
“Swing, Swing, Swing!” opens the new company’s season Saturday with a ballet that should have broad appeal.
“This is a 1940s-era show, with GIs, calendar girls, ’40s hairdos and costumes and live band music,” said Erika Overturff, executive director, artistic director and a dancer in Saturday’s production.
“So many people can enjoy this, even people who don’t know much about ballet. There’s great energy in it.”
The production, created by Harrison McEldowney, has been fun for the dancers to learn, Overturff said.
“There’s new terminology, an almost acrobatic feeling about partnering — and it keeps us energized.”
The Saturday-only show will be one of four ballets on the new company’s schedule for 2010-11, which includes:
“Nutcracker” — Spirit Lake, Iowa: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17 and 1:30 p.m. Dec. 18 at the Sami Bedell Center for the Performing Arts.
“Momentum” — 8 p.m. Feb. 11 at Iowa Western Art Center and 8 p.m. Feb. 12 Witherspoon Concert Hall at Joslyn Art Museum.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream” — 7:30 p.m., May 20 and 21 and 2 p.m., May 22 at the Rose.
At the Orpheum Theater, “The Nutcracker” will be presented Dec. 3, 4 and 5 by the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet. The touring company will provide the principal dancers. Nebraska Ballet will audition children Oct. 8.
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