The Ada Arts Council is pleased to recognize the hard work of four young dancers from Ardmore currently preparing for their appearance in The Nutcracker with the Oklahoma City Ballet. The ballet is bringing the holiday classic to Ada Dec. 5, 2009 under the auspices of the Ada Arts Council.
The Nutcracker will be presented at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center on the campus of East Central University in Ada. All seats are reserved and the cost is $25. Tickets go on sale to the public Nov. 16, 2009 at Gem Jewelers, 101 W. Main St., Ada.
The young Ardmore dancers chosen to participate in this professional ballet include Kaytlyn Page Zieske, Ashton Heffington, Gretta Russell and Deryn Hobbs.
Zieske is the daughter of Christian and Charles Zieske, Ardmore. The Clarksville, Tenn. native is a sophomore at Plainview High School, where she is on the academic team and volunteers at the library.
Zieske has been dancing for 11 years. In solo competitions she has won gold at Dance Showcase, silver at OKLA, and gold at Encore. She will dance the role of a soldier.
Heffington was born in Norman and is the daughter of Cyndi Stoker of Ardmore and Dwayne Heffington of Alex. She is a second grader at Dickson Schools. Heffington has been a student of the Shannon Crites School of Dance for four years She joined Shannon Crites competitive dance group “Company” in 2008. She has also enjoyed being a student at the Ardmore Karate Club for the past four years. Besides enjoying dance and karate, she loves books, camping, and swimming.
She was chosen to be a party girl/angel understudy.
Russell is a fourth grade student at Oak Hall Episcopal School, Ardmore. She is the daughter of Wendy and Steve Russell of Ardmore, where she was born and raised.
She has been dancing for four years and also enjoys gymnastics. Russell will be a party girl/Bon Bon.
Hobbs was born in Ardmore and still lives there with her parents, Ryan and Jill Hobbs. She attends the third grade at Plainview Elementary School.
Hobbs has been dancing for six years. She also enjoys gymnastics, playing tennis, reading, cooking and watching movies. She will be little mouse/Bon Bon in this production of The Nutcracker.
Hobbs has been dancing with Shannon Crites School of Dance in Ardmore since the age of 4. She joined Shannon Crites competitive dance group “Company” in 2007. She has won numerous dance awards for group numbers and two solos. She says her favorite type of dance is lyrical and her future dancing aspirations include being on the TV show “So you think you can dance?”.
