Performance set for June 8
Feet have been clicking and tapping at Cameo/Carrabba Dance Company on Main Street, where at least 90 dancers have been practicing weekly since January for their upcoming performance.
Katelyn Larson, 16, has been practicing several times a week and will dance the part of the Lilac Fairy in a scene from “Sleeping Beauty,” and performing in five other dances.
Larson, a high-school student at Cedar Park Christian, has been dancing at Cameo/Carrabba for four years.
“Whenever I am dancing, I feel alive,” she said.
She will perform her first dance solo in “More Fairy Tales,” the school’s spring recital at 2 p.m. June 8 at the Northshore Performing Arts Center (18125 92nd Ave. N.E., Bothell).
Working off an original concept created by Marco Carrabba, the school’s artistic director, the show mixes song, dance, comedy and miming during the performance.
“This isn’t your average day dance recital,” said Louis Fellows, founder of the dance school.
The show focuses on the magical world of fairy tales.
The audience will be transported from the Land of Oz to a variety of other settings, including the homes of Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.
“Certainly you know the stories,” Carrabba said. “But you’ve never seen it danced quite the way that I’ve presented it.”
Several nonconventional dances, such as one featuring a song from the movie “Titanic,” will also be performed.
Carrabba’s favorite scene: “The delightful story of the dolls coming to life and Pinocchio running out of the factory, during one of the Pinocchio scenes.” The rest of that act follows Pinocchio in his discovery of the world as Geppetto searches for his puppet-turned-boy.
Dancers range in age from children to adult, and many are from the Bothell-Northshore area.
Some of the dancers include Katelyn Larson, Christina Larson, Whitney Casal, Carole Bronson, Kaelyn Crawford, Amy Headstrom, Katherine Juchau, Addie Chambers, Susan Runyon, Kristine Gordon, Lara Maxwell, Rob MacCaul, Bella Tavarez–Brown, Zuzu Metzler, Lara Yusem, Marijke Jorna, Rachel Horne, Branden Griffith, Fausto Rivera and Carrabba.
Fellows describes the show as kid-friendly, but definitely something adults can relate to.
“People will recognize the music, but not the choreography,” she said. “The audience will be surprised by the caliber of our dancers.”
The dance studio has been open for 15 years now and has called Bothell home for the past five.
“It’s really been great to influence the neighborhood and watch people in the community get interested in dance,” Carrabba said.
Tickets are $15 per adult and $10 per child. For details, call (425) 483-4272 or visit HYPERLINK “http://www.cameodance.com” www.cameodance.com.
Chantal Anderson is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
