Holiday dance performances in Clark County cover spectrum

Unrestrained joy and meticulous technical discipline were on equal display in the twin studios of Dance Fusion Northwest and Northwest Classical Ballet on a recent Saturday.

In one studio, dancers flowed gracefully through a new staging of “The Nutcracker,” which was choreographed by Andrea Thompson, the new creative director at Northwest Classical. While there isn’t a lot of wiggle room for fresh ideas in “The Nutcracker,” surely the most popular and performed ballet on Earth, Thompson’s approach aims to maximize all opportunities for humor and fun in the famous fairy tale, she said.

“I’ve tried to think outside the box, but I only have one brain,” said Thompson; therefore, she appreciated the many suggestions and even “happy accidents” that came from her dance students. “They brought lots of idea and input and really helped me,” she said.

In the other studio, a different group of dancers — all in rags and patches — were writhing and struggling, in distinctly contemporary style, through hunger and homelessness and a solemn soundtrack called “The Hounds of Winter.”

That’s a show called “Christmas Stories,” written and choreographed by Carla Kendall-Bray and presented by Dance Fusion Northwest. While “Christmas Stories” features a real social conscience, Kendall-Bray said, it’s not all societal pain and suffering. It starts with a needy mom and daughter opening a storybook, relocates to the North Pole where Santa is worried about labor unrest, and winds up with a vintage, jazzy USO show buoyed by a troupe of tap-dancing reindeer.

All of which was inspired by Kendall-Bray’s childhood visits to New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and its annual Christmas Spectacular, she said. Part of the magic was watching her own dancing mother, a high-kicking Rockette, but a lot of it was being swept along on an amazing song-and-dance journey, she said.

“It was brilliant, it was beautiful, it was colorful, it was bright,” Kendall-Bray said. “I want this to feel the same.”

Getting better

This year, Kendall-Bray became the owner of both studios. Her friend Maricar Drillon, a longtime fixture on the local ballet scene, was the owner of the ballet studio until she took a new job and moved to Salt Lake City. But Drillon “didn’t want to leave her kiddos with nowhere to go,” Kendall-Bray said, and she urged her friend to take over. It was a tough decision, but Kendall-Bray went for it; while continuing as creative director at her own Dance Fusion Northwest, which focuses on jazz, tap, hip-hop and theatrical dance, she hired Thompson, a former Oregon Ballet Theater dancer, as creative director for Northwest Classical Ballet.

Students of both studios come from as far away as Longview to study and practice as often as six days a week, Kendall-Bray said, and build strong foundations in every type of dance. “They really care about what they’re doing,” she said.

Ask different dance students why they love it and you’ll hear about the confluence of hard work and happiness. Locke Landis, who is in both shows, said he enjoys pouring himself into a discipline that’s technically demanding — and ultimately rewarding. “What I really like is, you can see how the hard work you put in pays off. I put all my energy into it and I can see myself getting better,” he said.

(Landis is that rare boy who’s dedicated to dancing, and finds himself surrounded by girls. He’s a senior at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and expects to pursue a career in dance, he said. “Any guy with a brain in his head gets into dance,” Kendall-Bray said with a laugh.)

“You have to make sure you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to,” said Emma Bruno, 15, “but you still do it in your own way.”

Or, as 11-year-old Emmy Eoff put it: “It brings me joy.”