TEXARKANA, Texas - Young dancers typically light up the Perot Theatre stage with "Nutcracker" magic this time of year, but with that ballet canceled a different sort of "Nutcracker" will happen: a movie.
The Texarkana Community Ballet will host a showing of George Balanchine's "The Nutcracker" at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Perot to bring that ballet beauty and festive feeling to everyone missing the traditional ballet, typically a fixture on the holiday calendar here.
Tammie Duncan, TCB's past president and current secretary, said "The Nutcracker," being a Texarkana tradition, fits with their objective to foster dance within the community.
The movie also provides TCB member studio dancers a way to take part in this tradition, even without performing themselves this year.
"The movie is New York City Ballet. It is the Balanchine choreography. It is one of their performances that we were able to show as a movie, as with the Perot doing the movie series," Duncan said. "We felt like since we could not have a program due to the COVID restrictions for use of the theater, we wanted to allow the students to have the opportunity to see a production and at least have a little bit of some type of social-distanced normalcy for the year."
Duncan said it should be a wonderful performance to see. Some of last year's principal dancers will be on hand before and after the show for photographs with children who attend.
"Just to help create a little bit of the magic of 'Nutcracker' with a film instead of a live performance," Duncan said.
She encourages the audience to don their "Nutcracker" dress and come out to enjoy this movie performance. The holiday market will happen the same day at the Regional Arts Center, too.
The movie's Balanchine choreography is beloved and traditional. "We do use some of Balanchine's style and their choreography with our performances, so we just felt like this was a good, audience-appealing 'Nutcracker.' And the New York City Ballet of course always has a fabulous performance."
Since they can't be in New York City to see the ballet and can't see local performances, this is a way to bring "Nutcracker" to the local community, she said.
"And possibly make the COVID year just a little bit special," Duncan said, noting safety is of the utmost importance for this movie screening. In addition to a mask requirement, the audience is spaced in such a way as to ensure social distancing.
"We just couldn't have a 200-plus (dancer) performance this year and the COVID, because what if one child gets COVID and the whole show is shut down," Duncan said.
Hopefully, the Texarkana Community Ballet will be back full-force next year, but in the interim a "Nutcracker" movie provides a feel for the tradition, she said.
(Admission: $6. To buy tickets, call the Perot Theatre Box Office at 903-792-4992.)