More than 1,500 grade school students from Kings County this week will see the Valley Performing Arts Council's full-length ballet production of "The Little Match Girl" to be performed by the Valley Civic Ballet.

The two performances will take place Thursday at the Hanford Civic Auditorium. The Hanford Chamber of Commerce is providing free use of the venue. The Hillblom Foundation is sponsoring performances of the council for Valley children.

Valley Performing Arts Council works to cultivate classical performing arts by bringing professional ballet to the Central Valley in order to expose local dancers and school children to a high level of ballet and classical music, thus creating a greater understanding of the classical performing arts. The organization's educational ballet performances are a welcome supplement for school districts that have reduced/removed their arts curriculum or who wish to enhance what is available.

For every VPAC school outreach performance, the basic elements of the production are included in a pre-performance study guide, created by Janet Kelly, Educational Outreach director, for each classroom teacher. The study guide meets state standards to prepare children before they come to the theater.

Based upon the famous children's story by Hans Christian Andersen, "The Little Match Girl" is an original one-act, seven-scene ballet created by Yukari Thiesen, VPAC artistic director, in 1996 for school outreach and public performances.

"The Little Match Girl" will be presented at the William Saroyan Theatre in Fresno this summer. On June 8, the VCB will perform during the Valley Civic Ballet Recital along with an excerpt from "Paquita," a famous ballet first presented in 1881 at Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.

VCB dancers are chosen through auditions from Kingsburg, Reedley, Fresno and Clovis. They started rehearsal immediately after their grand performance of "The Nutcracker" with the 37-member professional ballet company, The Sacramento Ballet, at the William Saroyan Theatre.

The troupe includes the following professional dancers: Temuuzhin Bold, former Moscow Ballet dancer now a full time ballet instructor with Kingsburg Ballet and Arts Studio and Northwest Studio for Ballet in Fresno; Flamenco dancer and instructor Gloria Verdugo; and Linnea Hess, a full-time ballet instructor with Northwest Studio for Ballet.

(Feb. 19, 2008)