PATRIOT LEDGER.com – Sixty-five students from South Shore Ballet Theatre will present “Peter and the Wolf,” the classic symphonic fairy tale for children with music by Ukrainian composer Sergei Prokofiev, as part of the school’s annual Gala 2022.
The production is at 2 p.m. May 14 at the Thayer Academy Center for Performing Arts, 745 Washington St., Braintree.
The event will also include a benefit performance to raise money for Ukraine at 4:30 p.m., featuring the premiere of an original ballet choreographed by Marthavan McKeon, artistic director of the South Shore Ballet Theatre. Money raised will be donated to Doctors Without Borders and World Central Kitchen.
The ballet features pre-professional students from South Shore Ballet Theatre dancing alongside students from Ocean State Ballet, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Lake Placid School of Ballet and South Shore Ballet Theatre graduate Olivia Boutin.
To also aid in the war relief effort, McKeon said she is offering “tuition-free classes for Ukrainian refugee families living in the United States that have children who want to dance.” She is also outfitting her dancers in costumes by Elevé Dancewear, a company that is donating proceeds from the sale of their Ukraine product line to support dancers in the war-torn region.
McKeon is a former professional dancer with the Atlanta Ballet and the Pennsylvania Ballet. She founded the Hingham-based South Shore Ballet Theatre in 2008.
“Peter and the Wolf” features dancers from ages 6 through 18 from across the South Shore. Prokofiev was commissioned in 1936 to write a playful piece of music to introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra. He also wrote the libretto, about a boy who ventures into a forbidden meadow with his animal friends and captures a wolf. Prokofiev’s tale, with each character represented by an instrument, became a classic.
Tickets to “Peter and the Wolf” are $20 in-person, $25 for digital download for streaming at home, available at 29965.danceticketing.com. For more information call 781-312-7224 or go to southshoreballettheatre.com.
