Dancers

Send DATEBOOK items to Burbank Leader, 221 N. Brand Blvd., Suite 200, Glendale, CA 91203 or fax to (818) 241-1975. Submissions must be received two weeks before publication. TODAY The city of Burbank Creative Arts Center Gallery is featuring the exhibit "Roadtrips" by artist Trice Tolle at the gallery, 1100 W. Clark Ave., Burbank. The exhibit continues until June 21. Call (818) 238-5397. FRIDAY Country rock singer/songwriter Gina Villalobos will perform beginning at 11 p.m. at the Scene Bar, 806 E. Colorado St., Glendale.

Media City Youth Ballet has a spooky treat planned for children this Halloween season. Director Natasha Middleton has taken the short story, “The Cat and the Witch” by Elizabeth C. Stephens and combined it with the music of 20th century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. There will be a different cast of young dancers, ages 9 to 17, at each performance — 3, 4:15 and 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24, in the Theatre Arts Courtyard just outside of the Media Dance Centre.

A new guardian angel and reorchestrated prologue signal the dawn of a new era for “The Snow Queen Ballet Redefined,” which has been produced for the past 11 years by the California Contemporary Ballet, company officials said. The ballet returns this weekend to the theater on the Glendale Community College campus. Based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the story is about Gerda, who comes to the rescue of her friend Kay, who is held captive by the Snow Queen.

Joyce Rudolph, Weekend GLENDALE -- Choreographer Cheryl Flaharty sees her work as half visual, half dance. So when creating the piece "The Mythology of Angels," she tried to instill beauty and positive imagery in movements of the dancers and the costumes and sets. She is artistic director of the Hawaii-based Iona Pear Dance Theater, which blends elements of Western modern dance with Japanese Butoh (Butoh takes an accent on the second syllable). The company performs tonight at The Alex Theatre in Glendale.

Dress rehearsal had just started to roll when John Burroughs High School’s Dance Department Director Marilyn Suleiman started hopping. “OK, where is she?” Suleiman said, darting through the backstage area looking for the dance team’s vice president. The all-girl cast of the dance department’s winter show was warming up to go through the final rehearsal before Thursday night’s performance. This year’s show, a dance interpretation of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” features more than 40 students in various scenes from the Lewis Carroll classic about a girl who goes into a mythical world of white rabbits in waistcoats.

Joyce Rudolph Looking at a photograph of a ballerina with one pointe shoe on and the other off, Natasha Middleton-Kettebekov thought back to when she was a dancer and the foot pain she endured after a vigorous rehearsal. The photograph showed the result of a ballet class, she thought. That's when the inspiration came for the artistic director's next performance -- "The Making of a Dancer." "Let's take the audience to the beginning," she said to herself.

Several children got a chance to show off their new dance moves to family and friends Friday thanks to Holly Childers' winter dance camp. Childers, on vacation from Northwestern University in Illinois, said she has held dance camps like this during the summer, but this is the first time she's held one during the winter break. She was pleased with the turnout. The three-day camp held at Shakespeare in Play in Downtown Burbank gave students an opportunity for one last chance to burn off a little energy and have some fun during the last week of winter break.

balletBallerina's first starring role will be as Clara in Media City Ballet's `The Nutcracker.' With a radiant smile and chocolate eyes, Amara Baptist captures all the wonderment of Clara in the ballet "The Nutcracker." Dressed in a lilac leotard, black tights and pointe shoes, she gracefully spins around her beloved godfather Herr Drosselmeyer, played by John Mackey, while pretending to hold her treasure. It's the final weeks of rehearsal as the Media City Ballet readies its annual production of Tchaikovsky's musical fairy tale, in its fourth year at The Alex Theatre in Glendale.

Sandra Kraisirideja, Weekend GLENDALE -- Choreographer Donna Sternberg knows modern dance is hard to understand. "Most people know nothing about modern dance, how it evolves from inspiration to a finished piece," she said. "I want to demystify the choreography process." By explaining how modern dance is created, Sternberg, who lives in Santa Monica, said she hopes people will want to see more. She will perform with her company of dancers in the 2002 Dance Series at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17, at the Brand Library Galleries.