’Twas the Night before Christmas
Main Street Dance Theatre's resident performance company, Big Sky Dance Ensemble, invites all dancers around the Gallatin Valley to participate the spectacular original holiday production “T'was the Night before Christmas” performed annually each December at the Willson Auditorium. This entertaining variety show production is bursting at the seams with holiday cheer and was conceptualized and written by local artists and uses the talents of over 70 of Main Street Dance Theatre students ranging from ages 4 and up in ballet, lyrical, hip hop, modern, tap, and jazz. This is a great opportunity for first time dancers to make their stage debut. Also performing in this winter event are alumni from Montana Ballet School and Main Street Dance Theatre and retired professional staff bringing the productions quality to exceptional heights. Auditions are held in September for casting placement and rehearsals are held on Saturday morning’s beginning in October.
The story begins with a young child's wish to receive Christmas gifts for her family from around the world, and is an international extravaganza of dance featuring traditional, classic and contemporary styles that showcase the celebrations of the season. Locally loved vocal groups, The Chord Rustlers and Bridger Mountain Harmony also known as Sweet Adeline's choirs will lend their Barbershop stylings to the production with beloved Holiday tunes sung throughout the show. Santa Claus will also take time out of his busy schedule to listen to audience members' post show Christmas wishes.
So how did T’was the Night before Christmas, or TTNBC for short, come to be? It was truly a conglomeration of ideas from all the staff members at Main Street Dance Theatre. We’re very proud to say this is a local production, locally produced, locally performed, local talent, and locally written. Dana Sorg, owner of MSDT, along with several staff members had a desire to create a Christmas show similar to that of the Radio City Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular, in other words, a really fun, really exciting variety show, with music, singing, and dancing of all genres. TTNBC started with Dana’s idea of a young child’s letter that is discovered on Christmas Eve. Other staff members chipped in on ideas of styles of dance and characters they wanted to create, and with a look at old costumes we had leftover from recital’s past, we came up with the idea to travel the world. As more ideas were generated along with a memory of a song called T’was the Night Before Christmas, I had the privilege of putting the idea to paper, or computer, and created a poem similar to the original story line of the same name that incorporated Taylor’s wish and the all the countries we could visit. Thus we built our plot, our climax, and even our conflict to finish our story. But I don’t want to give it all away; you’ll just have to see it for yourself!
Would you like to be a part of the TTNBC cast? Audition dates are posted late summer and placement auditions are held late September. Rehearsals are held every Saturday with the exception of a few Sundays nearer to the performance date.
General Admission tickets for “T'was the Night Before Christmas” can be purchased at Main Street Dance Theatre located at 2304 N. 7th Ave Suite C3, and at Raymond James located inside Big Sky Western Bank. Prices are geared towards families and are $15 for adults and $7 for children 4-12. Children 3 and under are free. Tickets will be $2 more at the door. Please call Main Street Dance Theatre at 587-7192 for more information.