Professional dance comes to Gonzales with Nutcracker ballet production

The world of professional dance will come to Gonzales, Texas, next month when Come and Take It Dance and the Crystal Theatre present the quintessential holiday ballet The Nutcracker.

Two performances will be held at noon and 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, at the theatre, 543 Saint Lawrence St., Gonzales. Tickets are on sale at comeandtakeitdance.com/nutcracker for $25 each and are going fast with limited seating available.

Principal roles in the ballet will be danced by professionals with ties to ballet companies in California, New Jersey and New York. Guy Martin Lahav, who owns and operates the studio with his partner Gary Franco, said many of these performers have danced with Franco in other productions and are coming to Gonzales because of their past association with him. Franco has coached and choreographed many world champions in theatre arts.

Franco himself has danced with the Boston Ballet, the American Folk Ballet and Los Angeles Classical Ballet and performed as a guest artist with multiple companies. An award-winning dancer in his own right, he has also appeared in several TV and film productions.

“When we first opened the studio, that was one of main goals was to elevate the arts and the dance in town,” Lahav said. “We figured, being a small town, there's not a lot of people that they can look to who know what a professional ballet dancer looks like. That was kind of the incentive, to bring these people in to be an inspiration for the kids, but also to drive, the town to see what the potential is for the arts in Gonzales.

“We wanted to bring a high-value performance and, since we just opened, we wanted to bring the local folks something extra special for this first production.”

Crystal Theatre Board President Jessica Wilkerson McKinney said this may be one of the most professional artistic performances to be produced in Gonzales.

“I don’t know that we’ve ever had anything like this and certainly don’t know that we’ve ever had dancers from New York and L.A. come here to perform in a production,” McKinney said. “We did have a playwright in town once for a show that was like an Andrews Sisters show, but that may have been at least 30 years ago.

“It is the first time we’ve ever used backdrops like this at the theater. We typically have primarily used sets that are very static, but these beautiful backdrops they have designed are going to be moved on and off set.”

There may also be the possibility of “snow” in the theatre and several other surprises for people of all ages who attend the show, Lahav said.

Professionals are not the only ones, however, who will be dancing on stage as the studio has eight students between the ages of six and 11 who will be performing as well as young and older adults taking part who have been taking lessons at the studio.

Two members of the Crystal Theatre’s Young Texian troupe will also be dancing the roles of the Mouse King and the Nutcracker Prince which “will give them an additional opportunity to add this element to their resumes,” McKinney said.

“I think it’s interesting because young students getting involved in this in their first year, you’ve seen in established troupes where they start out as a mouse and then as they grow up with the show, they start to dance in the bigger roles and it becomes a tradition every year where they can build on their repertoire,” McKinney added.

Lahav said his studio has also reached out to other studios and churches in the community to get their support and participation in the production.

“In a small community, you can’t do it on your own,” Lahav said. “You have to have the supporting system behind you.”

“It’s a collaboration,” McKinney added. “We look forward to the involvement of many different organizations in the community.”