Ballet brings in three guest artists with local Larimer County connections for Tchaikovosky’s Nutcracker with the Fort Collins Symphony

Nutcracker Sneak Peak performances at the Foothills Mall Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 11am
December 1, 2016- In its 35th annual run at the Lincoln Center, The Nutcracker Ballet will feature three professional ballet dancers this year – all with local connections to Larimer County. Residents and visitors can glimpse a sneak peak of the Nutcracker with performances by the Harlequin, Soldier and Ballerina Dolls from the Silberhaus’ Christmas party as well as Spanish and Marzipan from the Kingdom of Sweets this Saturday, December 3, 2016 at the Fort Collins Foothills Mall inside the main entrance at 11am.
Returning Guest Artists Katherine Lawrence and Adrian Fry, courtesy of Ballet West, will perform the roles of SugarPlum Fairy and the Cavalier. Guest Artist Radoslaw Kokoszka, formerly of Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company, will perform the role of Snow King. CCB professionals and pre-professional students will perform the adult corps de ballet and divertissement, while younger students of ballet join the cast as party children, mice, soldiers, angels, polichinelles, and attendants.
The Sugar Plum Fairy, Katherine Lawrence Orlowski, is from Fairfield, Connecticut and is a Principal Artist at Ballet West. She is married to an alumnus of Canyon Concert Ballet and has family living in Fort Collins. The Cavalier, Adrian Fry, is from Omaha, Nebraska and is a First Soloist for Ballet West and coincidentally also has family living in Fort Collins. The Snow King, Radoslaw Kokoska, is from Wodzisław Śląski, Poland and relocated to Estes Park five years ago.

Based on the book “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffman, legendary choreographer Marius Petipa commissioned Tchaikovsky to write the music for the ballet in 1891. The first showing of the Nutcracker Ballet took place at the Russian Mariinsky Theatre in 1892 and made its way to Western Europe in the 1930’s and to America in 1940 featuring the Ballet Russe. Performed by the Canyon Concert Ballet Company and featuring the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Wes Kenney and singers from Centennial Children’s Chorus, this is a rare chance to see a classical ballet accompanied by a live, full orchestra in Fort Collins. This iconic holiday story is sure to please audiences of all ages with mystery, battles, and beautiful ballerinas in sparkling tutus. “The Nutcracker” follows a young girl, Clara, through her adventures on Christmas Eve during a party visited by her mysterious Godfather Drosselmeyer. Life size dolls and toy soldiers create an evening that grows even more fantastical as she falls asleep and witnesses toy soldiers battling mice and rats. A journey through the Land of Snow leads her to a world led by the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Cavalier filled with dancing candies and sweets performing for her and her Nutcracker prince.

Adrian Fry joined Salt Lake City’s Ballet West in 2010, was promoted to Soloist in 2012, and First Soloist in 2014. From Omaha, NE, he trained at Omaha Theater Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. He has danced in classical, neoclassical and contemporary repertoire in his career at Ballet West and previously at Oregon Ballet Theatre. His repertoire includes Adam Sklute’s adaptations of Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake; George Balanchine’s Apollo, The Four Temperaments, and Square Dance; Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun and Fancy Free; and William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, among others. His television credits include the Macy*sThanksgiving Day Parade and the CW Network’s Breaking Pointe. In 2012, Adrian won Salt Lake City Weekly’s Arty Award for Best Dancer. He danced in the inaugural Youth America Grand Prix Night of Shining Stars Gala in Salt Lake City in 2016, dancing the world premiere of Josie Walsh’s Intertwined. In June 2016, he danced in Gala de Danza in Los Cabos, Mexico as a part of Project Protégé, where professional dancers are paired with protégés from around the world to
appear on one stage in new works by world-class choreographers. Mr. Fry recently appeared with the contemporary dance company NOW ID in the Copenhagen Opera Festival and in the 25th International Ballet Festival in Havana, Cuba, where Ballet West was one of the first American companies to be invited to perform since relations changed between the nations.
Radoslaw Kokoszka began his classical training at age 11 as a ballet boarding school student at the professional Ludomir Rozycki Ballet School in Bytom. Immigrating to Michigan with his parents and siblings in 1996, he received numerous talent scholarships to train with some of this country’s most prestigious ballet schools including the Harid Conservatory (Boca Raton, Florida), the Kirov Academy (Washington, DC) and the School of American Ballet (NYC). After graduating from SAB, he danced professionally for Carolina Ballet (NC), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Company (NYC) and the
Suzanne Farrell Ballet (Washington, DC). Seeking to continue to give through art, Mr. Kokoszka moved back to Michigan where he began working as an instructor, choreographer and Co-Director of Ballet Renaissance, a nonprofit outreach program dedicated to educating and inspiring youth and the community through the art of classical ballet. Since his relocation in 2011, he has had the opportunity to begin dancing professionally in Colorado most recently as Peter Pan in Canyon Concert Ballet’s production of Peter Pan.
Katherine Lawrence studied ballet at the Connecticut Dance School and furthered her training at The Harid Conservatory where she graduated as Valedictorian in 1998. She joined Ballet Internationale, Indianapolis in 1999, and quickly rose to the rank of Soloist. In 2004, she joined Ballet West where she is currently a Principal Artist. She is also a founding member of NOW-ID and Dance Grand Moultrie and has performed with the Universal Ballet of Korea, The Hartford Ballet, Canyon Concert Ballet, Dance Wisconsin, Peoria Ballet and Metropolitan Ballet of Topeka, as well as in The Gala of International Dance Stars and Harid’s 15th Anniversary Gala. In 2007 she appeared at Perry-Mansfield’s New Works
Festival where she performed in new choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie. Ms. Lawrence’s career has taken her around the globe to some of the world’s most renowned theaters including The Kennedy Center in our nation’s capital; New York City’s Lincoln Center, City Center, Joyce Theater, and Summer Stage; the Dorothy Chandler Music Pavilion in Los Angeles and internationally to stages across China, Taiwan, Scotland, and South Korea.

Ms. Lawrence’s repertoire includes the duel role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the title role in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Kitri in Anna-Marie Holmes’ Don Quixote, Liberty Bell in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes, Svetlana in Stevson’s Dracula, the fourth duet in Jiri Kylian’s Petit Mort, the title role in William Christensen’s The Firebird, Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in Christensen’s The Nutcracker, Sanguinic in Balanchine’s The Four Temperments, Tessie Hutchinson in Val Caniporoli’s The Lottery, Wendy in John McFall’s Peter Pan, the title role in The Fairy Doll, Christensen’s Coppelia Act III Pas de Deux, Myrtha in Giselle, the Nurse in Flemming Flindt’s Phaedra, Indian Girl in Christopher Bruce’s Ghost Dances, the Enchanted Bird in Eldar Aliev’s A
Thousand and One Nights, and principal roles in Balanchine’s Who Cares? and Jewels, Paquita, Mark Morris’s Gong, Antony Tudor’s Echoing of Trumpets, John Butler’s Carmina Burana, and Nicolo Fonte’s Bolero. Original works created on Ms. Lawrence include Charlotte Boye-Christensen’s The Wedding, Nowhere and Row, Fonte’s Rite of Spring and Presto, Moultrie’s Everlasting Heights, and Christopher Ruud’s Trapped.

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