Can any Christmas season be truly complete without experiencing the wonderful Christmas Classic, The Nutcracker?

For those of us that attended the TexARTS production at the Waldorf School on Dec. 19-20 the experience was once again a memorable event as evidenced by the standing ovations the conclusion of each performance.
TexARTS Ballet Director Lisl Vallient-McDonald spent many hours working with the exceptionally talented students under her direction and choreographed an excellent interpretation of the famed classic. The students in the production were inspired and displayed a gleeful enthusiasm that truly made this particular performance so enthralling. Their faces were straining to focus on the task while taking momentary glimpses into the crowd to make sure their family was watching them intently.
The role of “Clara” was performed by Emily Larrea. Emily’s future in the performing arts is very bright as evidenced by her animated performance. The climactic moment of the Nutcracker play, is the entrance by the “Sugar Plum Fairy.” This production was privileged to have the outstanding ballet skills of Hannah McVaney. Hannah McVaney, a resident of Lakeway, is a student at TexARTS and enchanted the crowd with her grace and beauty, which were perfectly on display for this performance.
Many of the performers were greeted by bouquets of flowers from adoring siblings, parents, grandparents and family from everywhere. Sisters Abigayle and Cami McVaney were greeted by their adoring family and stated “this was so much fun; I can’t wait until next year” as did Kendall McCollum who also performed as a candy cane and said she loved the experience also, especially being able to do “cartwheels.”
The Ballet League of TexARTS put together this effort for our community to enjoy and spent countless hours volunteering their time to see this production come to fruition. The ballet League consists of Dena McVaney, Theresa McCollum, Sally Naftzinger, Ronnie Hills, Julie Fairwald, Melanie Coward and Lisl Vallient-McDonald and without their efforts our community could not have enjoyed this wonderful production. The beautiful costumes were created by Marylin Vallient.
For more information on TexARTS and all of their performing Arts classes and productions, call: 852-9079 or visit www.tex-arts.org.