{"id":2183115,"date":"2025-12-01T18:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T18:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2183115"},"modified":"2025-12-01T18:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T18:08:16","slug":"marigny-opera-ballet-opens-its-12th-season-with-winterlight-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/marigny-opera-ballet-opens-its-12th-season-with-winterlight-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Marigny Opera Ballet Opens its 12th season with WINTERLIGHT | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Following its tradition of offering original winter holiday ballets, the Marigny Opera Ballet this month presents the premiere of “Winterlight,” a dramatic and joyful full-length work celebrating the winter solstice.<\/p>\n

Opening Friday at the Marigny Opera House, the venue\u2019s resident dance company will offer six performances over two weekends through Dec. 14.<\/p>\n

The two-act contemporary ballet was created by internationally acclaimed choreographer Christian Denice for the company\u2019s eight dancers.<\/p>\n

“Winterlight” is described by Marigny Opera House Executive Director Dave Hurlbert as \u201ca journey through the longest night of the year to the rising of the sun and a celebration of a world restored.<\/p>\n

“This is certainly not another \u2018Nutcracker,\u2019” he said. “It\u2019s not a Victorian party. It\u2019s an intimate experience. People clinging to their hopes and finding love at the end, with the rising of the winter sun.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Set in the upper latitudes of northern Europe, above the Arctic Circle where the sun is mostly absent in winter, a lone man wandering in the darkness enters a village where the residents are preparing for an annual celebration of the sun\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

The ballet follows the unnamed hero, portrayed by principal dancer Blake Bellanger, and the Winter Sun, performed by principal dancer Allyssa Nelson. The solar cycle is played out by the lighting effects generated by technical director Tammy Srinivas. The other dancers, portraying the villagers, include Edward Spots, Joshua P. Bell, Kennedy Walker, Cullen Barrileaux, Chloe Roberts and Lauren Guynes.<\/p>\n

Denice, who designed an original piece titled \u201cEchoes\u201d that opened the previous season in December 2024, explained that Hurlbert approached him about a narrative ballet themed around the holidays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMost of my work tends to be in the contemporary\/abstract style, dealing mostly with emotion and feelings,\u201d Denice added. \u201cSo it was exciting to present this idea for the winter solstice and follow this character dealing with the seasons, coming into this darkness and finding the light, ultimately finding the sun and following it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musical score, performed live by New Orleans\u2019\u00a0Delachaise Ensemble<\/a>, is a special collection of Nordic folk music arranged by the Danish String Quartet. The quartet includes violinists Moises and Elizabeth Cunha, Catherine Matushek on viola and Jake Fowler on cello.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t have been something I normally would have chosen for myself,” Denice said of the score, “but it fit really well with the story and it took me to a place of being able to create in this very sort of Danish Nordic folk style.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The dancers have just been wonderful in bringing these characters to life,” the choreographer said. “I think the music is going to sound incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based in Los Angeles, Denice has choreographed and performed for dozens of dance companies throughout North America and abroad. He was working in Philadelphia at the time of this interview and, in his temporary absence, rehearsals at the Marigny Opera House were overseen by the company\u2019s artistic director, Diogo de Lima, and company manager Lauren Guynes.\u00a0The dancers\u2019 original costumes were designed by local designer Magdalene Paris.<\/p>\n

To me it\u2019s a perfect holiday ballet and we wanted to get away from ‘The Nutcracker\u2019 for a little bit,” Hurlbert said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We\u2019re known for our original work,\u201d Hurlbert continued, describing the 14-year-old company\u2019s repertoire. \u201cHow original can we be and still deliver the goods for the holiday? We didn\u2019t want to have a Santa Claus onstage. So we asked ourselves, ‘How do we signify the holidays?’ and we decided that the winter solstice is a beautiful way to do it. It lends itself to a very theatrical presentation because we\u2019re visually portraying the darkness becoming light.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Winterlight’\u00a0<\/h3>\n

WHO: Marigny Opera Ballet<\/p>\n

WHAT: WINTERLIGHT, an original full-length contemporary holiday ballet<\/p>\n

WHEN: 8 p.m. Dec. 5-7 and Dec. 12-14<\/p>\n

WHERE: Marigny Opera House, 725 St. Ferdinand Street, New Orleans<\/p>\n

TICKETS: $40-$75 at door and online at marignyoperahouse.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following its tradition of offering original winter holiday ballets, the Marigny Opera Ballet this month presents the premiere of “Winterlight,” a dramatic and joyful full-length work celebrating the winter solstice. Opening Friday at the Marigny Opera House, the venue\u2019s resident dance company will offer six performances over two weekends through Dec. 14. The two-act contemporary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2183116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2183115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Marigny-Opera-Ballet-Opens-its-12th-season-with-WINTERLIGHT.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183117,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183115\/revisions\/2183117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2183116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}