Published: December 11, 2008 10:35 am      

THEATER: Feder breathes life into “Nutcracker” on NFHS stage

“These are the giant forks and spoons that the gingerbreads carry. Aren’t they cute?”

Beverley Ann Feder holds up a giant-sized Styrofoam eating utensils covered in silver sparkles. She is guiding a visitor through a storage room that holds many of the props from her ballet, “The Nutcracker” which she has produced for the last 31 years for the Greater Niagara Ballet Company.

The room is among several filled with colorful costumes and props for the production, all carefully stored at Feder’s School of Classical Ballet at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center. Many of those props will literally come to life during performances Friday and Saturday at the Performing Arts Center at Niagara Falls High School.

Like the magician in the story that brings the nutcracker to life, it is Feder’s energy that animates the monumental production each year. As artistic director for the ballet company, she oversees fundraising of the nearly $40,000 required to stage the event, holds auditions for the local dancers and searches the country for professional dancers to play the lead roles.

Feder’s attitude towards teaching her ballet students and her annual presentation of “The Nutcracker,” are precisely paired. “Basically, you are an artist,” she explains of her efforts. “But it’s visual artwork, moving artwork.”

In the Niagara Falls area the Greater Niagara Ballet Company which presents “The Nutcracker,” remains as one of the last professional performance companies with the long ago demise of the Niagara Falls Philharmonic and no city opera company to share the stage.

Feder believes that after 31 years, the ballet company exists as “a moving monument to civic pride,” and she works long hours each year to showcase the company with its “Nutcracker” performance.

“It’s always challenging,” she said. “Each year it’s like re-inventing the wheel.”

“The Nutcracker,” an internationally beloved Christmas fable, begins at a Christmas Eve party, where a magician, played by Paul Thomas of Lewiston, entertains the guests including a little girl named Clara. His magic brings inanimate holiday objects to life including a nutcracker that turns into a handsome prince who takes Clara on an adventure through the Land of Snow and does battle with the Mouse King.

The cast practices the multi-layered story relentlessly and Feder has extremely high expectations of her performers. “They have to understand when they come here that I am expecting perfection.”

Many of her own young students from her ballet school have won parts in the production, including former student Mary Schnepf who is a featured performer. Other major roles are danced by Jessica Marguerite Stibick of the National Ballet Company of Annapolis and Irek Muchalski, a professional dancer who has performed throughout the world.

Feder, who channels the efforts of more than a 100 volunteers to shape a cast of similar size into a holiday ballet, finds her payoff every time the curtain rises.

“I love it. I love to see the children up there,” she said. “It’s like my breath. It’s my life.”



IF YOU GO

WHAT: The Nutcracker by The Greater Niagara Ballet Company

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: Performing Arts Center, Niagara Falls High School, 4455 Porter Road, Niagara Falls

INFO: Tickets are $10-$15. Contact www.niagaraballet.org or call 1-877-236-8055.