PORT TOWNSEND — Ling Hui’s Dance Studio will celebrate its 23rd year in Port Townsend with a recital at 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. today and Saturday.
“Move the Sky” will showcase this year’s hard work and dedication of the dancers, organizers said.
Tickets are $20 for general admission; students 18 and younger will be admitted for $15. Children younger 6 will be admitted free at the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden, 200 Battery Way.
The students range in age from 4 to adult. They will perform 10 pieces of Ling Hui’s original choreography for both contemporary dance and ballet.
The recital will open with “Fanfare,” performed by the junior and intermediate ballet dancers, and set to music by Charles Grounod.
“Fanfare” is a challenging classical ballet, organizers said.
Later in the show, six advanced ballet dancers will perform the piece “Balliamo,” Italian for “shall we dance.”
“Balliamo” is set to George Handel’s Italian opera, “Alcina.” Dancers in lacy tutus will interpret the music with movements that Ling Hui describes as “spicy.”
A demanding and technical piece of choreography, “Balliamo” requires dozens of jumps and quick direction changes, as well as precise timing, she said.
“Petite Swan Lake” combines the youngest of Ling Hui’s dancers, ages 4-5, with some of her most advanced dancers.
The piece opens with four young adult dancers, dressed in white with feathered headpieces, maneuvering “en pointe.”
Set to the sounds of Tchaikovsky, the piece incorporates elements of traditional Swan Lake choreography. Midway through the piece, however, 10 preschoolers in white tutus with rainbow-colored wings will weave between the older dancers and take the stage.
“The young dancers demonstrate their skills as they skip sideways, tick tock from side to side, jump, hop, and delight the audience with their exuberance and sometimes unexpected deviations from the choreography,” organizers said.
The junior ballet dancers, ages 10 to 15, dressed in periwinkle, will celebrate the season in “Spring Waltz.”
Dancing to Beethoven, the dancers have reported feeling “like birds flying,” and “flowers blowing in the wind” as well as “leaves moving in a breeze” when performing this piece.
A native of Taiwan, Ling Hui studied in Japan and at the University of Colorado.
She has served as educational director of the Crown Studio of the Taipei Dance Forum Company.
For more than 20 years she has worked in Port Townsend with dancers of all ages.
Ling Hui teaches the Russian Vaganova method of dance and her contemporary dance is based on Jose Limon and Merce Cunningham training.
Children dance during past recitals at Ling Hui’s Dance Studio in Port Townsend.
