Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 64

frontrowcenter A holiday ballet tradition continues Act Dancing is magical for 'Nutcracker' fairies As they lace up their toe shoes Friday for their final "Nutcracker" with the Children's Ballet Theatre of Greater Lansing, seniors Lauren Derrig of Williamston and Rachel Shields of De Witt have a lot Hfa a v3 fete Jgp k-J HM Mi. they're thankful for. This year will be the third straight year in which they've danced in the coveted roles of the Sugar Plum fairies. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, CBT will BRIDGETTE be performing its 27th annual "Nutcracker" REDMAN at MSU's Wharton Center. Children ages 8 to 18 will perform in elaborate costumes Performing arts bredmaalsj gmail.com Children's Balltt Tlwatr Holiday tradition: Children's Ballet Theatre ol Greater Lansing performs the classic 'Nutcracker" ballet Friday throughSundayatthe Wharton Center.

and with large mobile set pieces all created by parent volunteers. Derrig's mom, Sandy Derrig, remembers Lauren's first "Nutcracker" from five years ago. She said her daughter came off stage and said, "If I could dance every day, I would be happy." Lauren Derrig now plans to pursue a professional career as a dancer. Both she and Shields have racked up impressive credentials with both CBT and the American Ballet Theatre Conservatory and oth- er summer nro- T5 all in the same boat," Lauren Derrig said. "We all understand each other.

Everyone here becomes friends." Sandy Derrig admits that the hours are long for her and her daughter, but she says she's never once heard her daughter complain about it. "I love the ballet and so does she." Shields echoes that love saying ballet is a wonderful way to express yourself, "I like it because you can get away from the real world for a while." At the end of a long weekend of rehearsing, both took the stage to then and still is." This all-adult cast creates a high-energy show designed to entertain children as a launch to the holiday season. The grumpy and mean Rumpel-stiltskin hatches a kidnapping scheme with a desperate miller's daughter as his target. Meanwhile, a little further north in Old Town, Riverwalk will be launching its Black Box Theatre season with a return to the Creole Gallery. Riverwalk president Tom Ferris is directing "Maybe, Baby, It's You," a comic look at romantic relationships.

The play's four vignettes explore romantic situations from first love to searching for a partner to reconciling after a divorce. To bring these stories to life, Ferris cast four married theater couples: Bill and Lee Helder, Tanya and Kevin Burnham, Rick and LeAnn Dethlefsen and Joe Quick and Veronica Wing-Quick. "We're using the production to pay tribute to all the countless couples who are so generous in lending time, talent and hard work to the entire Lansing theater community. It's a two-for-one, everyone-benefits situation," Ferris said in the Riverwalk newsletter. The tribute to theater couples doesn't end there.

They'll also be showing a slide show of pictures of other theater couples who have worked at Riverwalk and the old Okemos Barn Theatre throughout the years. "Rumpelstiltskin" details: 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. and 430 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, repeating Nov.

30-Dec 2 and Dec 7-9, Riverwalk Theatre, 228 Museum Drive. Tickets: $7 adults, $5 children. Info: 482-5700 or wwwjiverwalktheatre.com. "Maybe, Baby, It's You" details: Riverwalk Black Box production, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m.

Sunday, repeating Nov. 30-Dec 2, Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St in Old Town. Tickets are $12. Info: 482-5700 or wwwjiverwalktheatre.com. Encore! The Ruhala Performing Arts Center will be hosting a singing health seminar taught by Rachel Gates, director of Midwest Young Artist's Opera and Music Theater Workshop in Chicago and vocal health instructor at Michigan State University.

Admission is $40 or $20 with an MSU ID. Call 337-0464 to register. Bridgette Redman's column appears Thursdays in What's On. Have a performing-arts event to promote? Contact her at bredman.kjgmaU.com. grams.

They've dance their pas de deux with artistic di danced with companies around the country and the world. But it is CBT that they credit for nurturing their dancing passion. rector Gregory George. In true fairy-like manner. "(Children's Ballet Theatre) has made me want to dance." Lauren Derrig senior CBT company member goodbye with every time she has left the house for rehearsal, "Point your toes and smile." Show details: The Nutcracker" performed by Children's Ballet Theatre of Greater Lansing, 7:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Wharton Center's Great HalL Tickets are $10 to $22 at 432-2000 or wwwAvhartoncenter.com. Act II: Riverwalk opens two shows this weekend Riverwalk Theatre is planning to charm its audiences over the holiday weekend and beyond with the reprise of a favorite children's play and a black-box production featuring well-known Lansing theater couples. Opening Friday and running through Dec 9, Stan Gill's "Rirmpelstiltskin" was first directed 17 years ago by then-neophyte director Jane Zussman. This year, she directs again and brings back two of the original cast Tim Lewis recreates the title character and Bob Murrell is once again the prince.

She's also bringing back Doug Austin, who began his theater career with this show 17 years ago. "My legacy will be that I arm-twisted Doug Austin into theater," Zussman said. "He's a wonderful musician and a great asset he was back 1 they flitted across the stage making the complicated jumps and twirls look ef-' fortless and mag-; icaL Sandy Derrig, who admits she teared up when Lauren began the first fall rehearsal "CBT gives you good experience because we are a company. We're very serious and very professional," Shields said. "CBT has made me want to dance." Both girls say it was far easier to give up all of their Saturdays and Sundays for rehearsals when they were younger.

As high school seniors, it can sometimes be a little tougher to give up those nights at the movies, but that their friendships in the ballet company have helped. "It's nice because we're for "The Nutcracker," said it has been a privilege to watch her dance for all these years. She described the enormous pride she feels as her daughter does what her husband has bid her.