Aspiring ballerina, 5-year old Rosyln Stogner, sat quietly while Svetlana Todinova taped a public service announcement for North State public television station KIXE. Svetlana, a choreographer and dancer for the Moscow Ballet, made a stop in Redding to promote the Ballet’s November 27 production of the Nutcracker at the Redding Convention Center. The Ballet contacted KIXE to help them promote the production and asked KIXE staff to help facilitate Svetlana’s North State visit that also included a master dance class for students at Anderson High School followed by questions and answers.
In addition to her public relations duties on her 16-city tour, Svetlana will audition and select 60 children for each US production of the Nutcracker. On Friday at 6 p.m., she will audition young North State dancers at Studio 8 Dance Company in Anderson. She will conduct the first rehearsal with the selected group on Saturday, complete her 16-city tour and then reunite with them for the November 27 performance.
After taping, Svetlana answered questions from the audience about her training: She left her small Russian village and her family at 9 years old to live and train in Moscow; her conditioning: 8 hours of dance each day; the tour: The company travels with their own floor, and gave advice to young dancers about discipline and passion for dance. Svetlana’s words of wisdom for dancers-in-training: “When I get up in the morning, I know I am alive if something hurts.”
See the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker, November 27, 7:30 p.m. at the Redding Convention Center. Visit reddingconventioncenter.com for tickets and information.
Adam Mankoski is a recent North State transplant who feels completely at home here. He enjoys experiencing and writing about the people, places and things that embody the free spirit of the State of Jefferson. He and his partner own HawkMan Studios and are the creators of Redding’s 2nd Saturday ArtHop.
