I know five admirable young women who work exceptionally hard — much harder than you or I — six days a week, at their chosen vocation. At 4:30 p.m. each day, after their studio closes, they carpool home and force themselves to turn in for sleep time at about 6 p.m. Why? Their “day” job is — as one colleague put it — “dealing with the crazies who need their caffeine during the morning shift” and my friends have to get up real early for that particular type of punishment.

They are counter staff at a well-known (and, in my opinion, impressively overpriced) coffee chain.

To be paid their minimum wage earnings, the ladies must rise by 3 a.m. in order to arrive at work on time. Once the early morning café shift is over and ordinary humans are tapping on keyboards in office cubicles, my friends try to fit in a super-quick shower, and then head back to the studio for a 10 a.m. start to that previously mentioned vocation. One apprentice in the group routinely works at a fast-food joint until 4 a.m. — after daily putting in 6 1/2 hours of the most strenuous and taxing activity. She grabs a few hours sleep when she can, before the next punishing round of physical training begins. Why would anyone do that? What kind of devotion must you have, what kind of drive, to push yourself so hard, to believe so completely in what you do?

My friends are dancers with Ballet Tucson.

Last year’s art auction at Ballet Tucson’s Urban Picnic

Sadly, we live in a country where arts funding is one of the lowest priorities, probably slightly behind our nearly nonexistent space program. Artists, dancers, performance groups struggle to survive, and without the arts, why would any of us want to survive anyway? What is the point of working hard and putting away a few dollars if you cannot enjoy a great novel, a brilliant movie, a rousing live concert, or an alluring dance performance? These are the things that make life worth living — at least for the people I know.

Our celebrated local dance company, Ballet Tucson, just finished its short run of “Dance & Dessert” performances. It was the best BT program I’ve seen in the past three years (and I’ve seen all of them) — a period in which I happen to have fallen in love with one of the company dancers, become engaged to her, and also become a corporate sponsor of the dance company. One of the great things about Ballet Tucson is they don’t just hold out a cap and say: “Please give.” They organize enthralling events that delight attendees, yes with dance, but also with great food and wine, art auctions, invitations to open rehearsals, outreach projects to underprivileged school children, and other actions that demonstrate caring and dedication to their art and to their community.

“Do Cats And Dogs Go To Hell For Fighting?” an intriguing creation by William Skiles

Each spring, a small army of generous artists — some local, some nationally recognized — contribute a fairly dizzying array of original works of art for Ballet Tucson’s Urban Picnic. Funds raised go directly to help keep the determined dance company gliding through another year of performances. Donations include paintings, ceramics, Navajo rugs, unusual jewelry, pencil sketches, and charismatic custom lunch boxes designed specifically for the event (very much in keeping with the outdoor picnic theme).

I wrote about last year’s Urban Picnic, and I had a blast. It’s a chance to meet artists, dancers, and the generally interesting culturally-minded Tucson set — as charming and eclectic a group as I can imagine. The $45 ticket will admit you the event, win you a very tasty al fresco picnic lunch complete with mimosas, give you the opportunity to bid — in a relaxed manner — on a gallery-sized lot of underpriced art, enjoy live music and a live performance by Ballet Tucson dancers themselves, all of it in Tucson’s most delightful shopping venue, complete with fountains, La Encantada.

“Bird Song” by Jennifer Suhm, one of the specially-created lunchboxes on offer at the Urban Picnic art auction

The 16th Annual Urban Picnic & Art Auction will take place on Friday, April 12, 2013 at La Encantada Shopping Center from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admission is $45 and tickets can be purchased at the door, by calling Cynthia Hansen at (520) 400-5426, or safely and easily online here. La Encantada is located northwest of Skyline and Campbell, in Tucson.

“Tucson Blue” by Brenda Semanick, oil on canvas will be auctioned tomorrow at Urban Picnic

With the spring Open Studio Tour starting this Saturday, a brunch auction and dance performance on Friday is, without a shadow of a doubt, the smartest way to kick-start your Tucson art weekend. View the lunchbox creations here and the rest of the original art here.

“Summer Street” by award-winning Indiana artist Chris Griffin-Woods

Arts funding is down, attendance at many arts events seems to me to be down. People are worried about the economy, as usual. I moved to Tucson nearly a decade ago, largely because of its astonishing arts scene. Our thriving and quirky creative community is way out of proportion (in a good way) to our modest little city. I want to keep it that way, so I donated a $400 custom piece of meteorite jewelry to Urban Picnic. It’s not in my nature to ask people to support something unless I’ve done so myself.

And I quite like the idea of taking lunch to the office from now on, in a one-of-a-kind specially-created, hand made food transportation vessel, the purchase of which may just have helped win a modest company dancer’s salary for a talented young woman (thereby allowing her to give up the soul-destroying 4 a.m. coffee crazies thing and concentrate on her art). Now, that’s a worthy cause.

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Text and auction photograph © by Geoffrey Notkin.
Artwork photographs are © by respective artists and are used with permission.
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

One of my happiest holiday childhood memories revolves around chestnuts. As a little boy, growing up in London in the late 1960s, I would look forward, with great anticipation, to the arrival of roast chestnuts. These decidedly December-flavored treats never seemed to be available during the rest of the year and I, therefore, have always associated the tasty nut with Christmas.

My favorite childhood haunt was the British Museum, sitting in all its Greco-Roman splendor on Great Russell Street. Londoners call it “The B.M.,” and its paved forecourt always seemed dizzyingly awash with visiting students and scholars, meeting, laughing, hugging, comparing notes, and poring over guides and floor plans to the museum’s astonishing collection of artistic and archaeological treasures. Around the middle of December, each year, the throngs of budding intellectuals were quietly joined by a solitary, hardworking and — in my mind at least — somewhat melancholy old man hunched, slightly, over an incandescent steel barrel. He was the Chestnut Man. I took him to be a World War II veteran dressed, as he was, in a faded military jacket, with a grey, flat cap, and palm-sized woolen gloves that exposed his fingertips. I found the Chestnut Man fascinating and — aged perhaps six, and clutching my mother’s hand — I would trade him two shillings for a small, white paper bag filled with chestnuts, hot to the touch and freshly plucked from his roasting barrel.

Not to be confused with the horse chestnut — an unpalatable nut common in the United Kingdom and used by school boys in the strange game called “conkers” — the edible or “sweet” chestnut is actually produced by a beech tree of the family Fagaceae. When properly roasted, and once the hard, reddish brown shell has been removed, the sweet chestnut is a heavenly snack: pale yellow in color, with a meaty consistency and a taste similar to macadamia nuts.

And so, each December when Ballet Tucson’s award-winning production of the ever-popular Nutcracker opens with an alluring and solitary dancer, The Chestnut Lady, elegantly serving her wares, it cannot fail to strike a chord of memory and delight in my heart.

Nutcracker was first performed in St. Petersbug, Russia in 1892, based on a story by the German author E.T.A. Hoffman, and choreographed by Lev Ivanov and Franco-Russian ballet dancer Marius Petipa. It was first performed outside Russia in 1919 (Budapest), and in the Twentieth Century went on to enjoy tremendous worldwide popularity, especially in the United States.

Kendra Clyde as Clara in Ballet Tucson’s “Nutcracker.” Photo by Ed Flores

The decidedly cosmopolitan origins of Nutcracker are well reflected by the international flavor of Ballet Tucson’s company: long-time principal male dancer Daniel Precup is of Romanian origin; Kyle Peterson was born in the United Kingdom; Akari Manabe joins the company from Kobe, Japan; while Canadian dancer Kate Kaupas’ home town is Calgary. And Kate’s success story with Ballet Tucson is particularly noteworthy. She joined the company three years ago as an apprentice; in her second year she won the Kim Terry Memorial Scholarship for excellence in dance; and is, this year, a featured soloist as the Dew Drop Fairy. Perhaps one out of every class of young dance students will be fortunate enough to land a job as a professional company dancer, and perhaps one in twenty of those will experience the thrill of performing onstage as a featured soloist, so the Friday premiere of Nutcracker will be a big night for Ms. Kaupas.

“Performing with Ballet Tucson is one of the most inspiring experiences of my professional dance career,” Kaupas said. “I feel very privileged to be cast in such an important role and I look forward to bringing Dew Drop Fairy to life this weekend at Centennial Hall.”

Kate Kaupas performs as the Dew Drop Fairy this weekend in Ballet Tucson’s “Nutcracker.” Photo by Geoff Notkin

And it’s not just the dreams of professional dancers that will manifest themselves this weekend. Ballet Tucson is committed to sharing the uplifting experience of Nutcracker throughout our community. “We give 1,000 free Nutcracker tickets to underserved children and their families, and to social service agencies in our community,” said Operations Manager Cynthia Hansen. “The Board of Directors goes out and raises money to support this program. We travel to Tucson’s most needy schools to teach dance with our ‘Put Your Best Foot Forward with Ballet Tucson’ educational outreach. In addition Assistant Artisitic Director Chieko Imada and her team of Ballet Tucson dancers teach five classes per week to elementary students in some of Tucson’s most impoverished areas.”

As I have said in this column before, it is one thing to talk about supporting the arts and another to actually do it. Ballet Tucson brings excellent classical and contemporary ballet to Tucson, while reaching out to underprivileged communities to foster an appreciation of the arts at a grassroots level. That is more than supporting the arts; it is building an artistic community from the ground up. And, perhaps most important of all, Founder and Artistic Director Mary Beth Cabana’s Ballet Arts School is training the next generation of professional dancers. Her students have gone on to win scholarships and/or perform professionally with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB), The Kirov Academy and many other world-class companies. That is quite a remarkable accomplishment for a school in our small city. You have to start somewhere, and many of Ms. Cabana’s youngest students will be appearing in this weekend’s Nutcracker, some of them in their first-ever public performance.

Operations Manager, Cynthia Hansen, says it perfectly: “We believe the arts have the power to transform lives and we do our part by introducing children to the discipline and wonderful world of dance.”

Jenna Johnson as Sugar Plum Fairy and Stuart Lauer as Her Cavalier. Photo by Ed Flores

So, if the Chestnut Lady, the feisty Mouse King, the Fairies, the Snow Queen, and the Snowflakes are still not quite enough excitement for you, bear in mind that this production of Nutcracker may just introduce some of the great dancers of tomorrow. One of the mice children making his or her debut this weekend could be soloing at American Ballet Theater ten years from now. That is the stuff of Christmas dreams.

A few days ago, and to my considerable amazement, I discovered a small stash of fresh, sweet chestnuts at the supermarket.”What are these?” the lady at checkout asked, wrinking her nose and holding them up close, then peering, quizzically, at their dark and streamlined shapes. Unroasted, and still cased in tough, sanguine shells, the pretty chestnuts looked nearly identical to the ones a little boy used to wolf down during cold winter evenings on Great Russell Street.

I’ll be roasting them tomorrow afternoon, so if you see happen to see a TucsonCitizen.com blogger and dance enthusiast outside Centennial Hall this weekend, with a smile on a face and a little white bag of chestnuts in his hands, that’ll be me.

Ballet Tucson performs Nutcracker this weekend at Centennial Hall. Show times are Friday, December 21 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, December 22 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm; Sunday, December 23 at 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Ticket prices range from $17 to $56 and are available through the Centennial Hall Ticket Office.

Text © by Geoffrey Notkin. Photographs © Ed Flores and Geoffrey Notkin, as noted above.
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

Excitement about the 2011–2012 season finale performance of Cinderella, this weekend at Centennial Hall, has been building for some time.

At Ballet Tucson’s annual fundraising event, Urban Picnic on April 15—a delightful mix of al fresco dining at La Encantada, live dance performance, live music, and an art auction of works by highly-respected artists—principal female dancer Jenna Johnson gave an entertaining talk about the mechanics of ballet shoes. Many will be surprised to learn that professional quality hand-made ballet footwear, as worn by a dancer of Jenna’s caliber, can run to $100 a pair. While, under normal use, they might last for a week of rehearsals, Jenna went on to admit that during a particularly energetic period of practice she might demolish a pair of said shoes in a single day. Multiply that by the number of dancers in a company, and the number of rehearsals required to prepare for a single program, and you will get a very small glimpse into how expensive and challenging it is to keep a cutting-edge professional ballet troupe working and performing in the modern world.

Daniel Salvador of Ballet Tucson displaying "Lunchbox" by Tom Spitz, at Urban Picnic, April 15, 2012

Following her talk, Jenna auctioned off a pair of her own shoes, used during rehearsals for Cinderella, to the fascinated crowd. With all proceeds going directly towards funding Ballet Tucson’s operating costs, the winning bid of $1,150 received an enthusiastic round of applause. That is how you support the arts.

Jenna Johnson, one of Ballet Tucson's principal dancers discusses the intricacies of ballet shoes at Urban Picnic

Ballet Tucson’s Artistic Director, Mary Beth Cabana, has, during her impressive career, appeared as a principal dancer with Cleveland Ballet, Ballet Oklahoma, Arizona Dance Theater, and San Diego Ballet. She is to be admired and commended for fighting to keep her dream of a regularly-performing ballet company in Tucson, alive and well. In addition to the surprisingly high cost of just the shoes, there are always ongoing expenses associated with original costumery, complicated stage sets, salaries for dancers and the administrative staff, dance studio fees, and so on. In the current political climate, with arts funding being cut, left and right, Ballet Tucson, and other leading arts groups in Tucson cannot rely on grants and Federal funding; they need direct support from arts patrons and aficionados.

Ballet Tucson’s repertoire is much more sophisticated that one might expect from a regional company. During the 2011–2012 “Season of Transformation” they have boldly performed rarely-seen work by influential choreographer Anthony Tudor, original pieces by local choreographers associated with the company, as well as established favorites such as The Nutcracker. Original choreography for this weekend’s Cinderella—a ballet in three acts, and one of the world’s most popular dance pieces—is by Assistant Artistic Director Chieko Imada and Mark Schneider, who has worked as a Principal Artist with Ballet Met in Columbus, Ohio, and numerous other companies. Additional staging is by Artistic Associates and internationally renowned dancers Amanda McKerrow and John Gardiner, and by Mary Beth Cabana herself. That list represents a remarkable amount of talent and expertise devoted to the staging of a single piece, and “this magnificent and critically-acclaimed ballet,” set to Prokofiev’s alluring and—at times, almost magical—score, should delight art lovers of all ages.

Jenna Johnson stars in "Cinderella" this weekend at Centennial Hall. Photograph © Ed Flores

There will be only two performances of Cinderella: Saturday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 6 at 2 p.m., both at U of A’s Centennial Hall—one of the finest venues in town. Ticket prices range from $26 to $41, with group discounts available, and may be ordered through the Centennial Hall Ticket Office at (520) 621-3341, or online at www.uapresents.org.

When I decided to move my operation to Tucson, from New York City, years ago, my choice of a new home was largely based on the exceptional arts community that our small city enjoys. The preponderance of visual artists, performing artists, musicians, and independent cinema and filmmakers, is joyously out of proportion to the size of our town. Such an environment can exist only with vigorous and continued support from our citizens. Last year, my company, Aerolite Meteorites LLC, became an official corporate sponsor of Ballet Tucson, because it is one thing to say “support the arts” in my column, and another thing to actually do it.

Ballet Tucson is actively seeking new corporate and private sponsorships. Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted and will go directly towards keeping engaging live performance thriving in Tucson. Corporate sponsors receive complimentary tickets to performances, invitations to VIP events and rehearsals, and—most importantly—they have the amazing opportunity to bring a young dancer’s dreams to life.

If you play your cards right, you might even end up with a pair of Cinderella’s slippers.

Text © Geoffrey Notkin
“Cinderella” photograph © Ed Flores
Additional photography © Geoffrey Notkin
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission