Commack Students in Nutcracker with New York City Ballet Stars

COMMACK STUDENTS PERFORM WITH NEW YORK CITY BALLET STARS IN LONG ISLAND’S LARGEST PRODUCTION OF “THE NUTCRACKER”

Special Guests Include Daniel Ulbricht and Brittany Pollack of New York City Ballet

Children’s Lead Roles Performed by Commack Middle School’s Elysena DeStefano, Gita Seto, and Sara Tobia

New York Dance Theatre 38th Season Performances December 14 and 15 at Hofstra University’s John Cranford Adams Playhouse

More than a dozen Commack Schools students will perform with New York City Ballet stars Brittany Pollack and Daniel Ulbricht in New York Dance Theatre’s 38th season of “The Nutcracker” at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. The young dancers, students at the Ohman School of Ballet in Commack, perform multiple roles in the iconic holiday story ballet including children in the Party Scene, Toy Soldiers and Mice in the Battle Scene, Angels, and various confections in the Land of Sweets. Elysena DeStefano, an eighth grader at Commack Middle School, plays the central role of “Clara” in two of the four performances at Hofstra University. Commack Middle School seventh grader Gita Seto and eighth grader Sara Tobia share the pivotal role of Clara’s brother “Fritz,” who breaks Clara’s Nutcracker and sets the plot in motion, each in two of the four performances. Performances are on Saturday, December 14 and Sunday, December 15 at noon and 5 p.m. each day.

In addition to Elysena, Gita, and Sara, this year’s cast of Commack students includes: Lindsey Chung, Rebecca Cole, Eliana Correa, Isabella Correa, Angelina D’Angelo, Alessandra DeStefano, Claire DeVaney, Brynn Farino, Anna Gross, Isabel Gross, Sofia Gross, Brianna Han, Allison James, Samara Kolodny, Karen Li, Ava Napolitano, Maggie Padilla, Avery Simpson, Alyssa Tavares, and Nina Van Zandt.

NYDT’s production is the largest Nutcracker on Long Island and the only one performed in the tradition of New York City Ballet’s Lincoln Center version. This year’s production will be the first without New York Dance Theatre founder and former New York City Ballet soloist Frank Ohman, who passed in July 2019 at age 80. Through the years, Frank Ohman created original dances and scenes which have been incorporated into the ballet and set his production apart from others on Long Island. As a former student and soloist under George Balanchine he was one of a select few authorized to use the original pas de deux choreography of his mentor, which will continue to distinguish this production in the years to come. Mr. Ohman’s traditional role of the grandfather in the party scene that opens the ballet will be left vacant this season in his honor.

Special guest artists Brittany Pollack and Daniel Ulbricht of New York City Ballet return to perform as the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier. Brittany Pollack, a New York City Ballet soloist, made her Broadway debut as “Louise” in the 2018 revival of Carousel. Mr. Ulbricht, a principal dancer at New York City Ballet, has taught students at the Ohman School of Ballet, a division of New York Dance Theatre, as a master class guest teacher and in his role as artistic director of the elite New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSA) ballet program in Saratoga Springs.

With the elegant Christmas Party Scene, the drama of the magical growing Christmas Tree, the Battle of the Toy Soldiers and Giant Mice, the live Snow Storm, and the brilliant dancing in the Land of the Sweets, “The Nutcracker” appeals to all ages. In all, a cast of 80 children, pre-professional and professional dancers will bring this classic story ballet to life on the stage of the John Cranford Adams Playhouse. The children’s roles are performed by students of the Frank Ohman School of Ballet in Commack, representing a variety of towns in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Tickets for this full production ballet are $42.00 and $32.00 (seniors and children 12 and under) available at www.ohmanballet.org or 631.462.0964.

About Frank Ohman

Frank Ohman (1939-2019) was an internationally known dance professional. His critically acclaimed ballet career began with the San Francisco Ballet in 1959 and in 1962 he joined the New York City Ballet where he was a soloist for twenty-two years. During his distinguished performing career, Mr. Ohman appeared in leading and soloist roles in ballets of George Balanchine, Jerome

Robbins, Frederic Ashton, Antony Tudor, David Lichine, John Taras, and Jacques d’Amboise. He partnered many of the world’s leading ballerinas including Maria Tallchief, Marjorie Tallchief,

Melissa Hayden, Suzanne Farrell, Allegra Kent, Patricia McBride, Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Gregory, Carol Sumner, Kay Mazzo, and Suki Schorer, and appeared with the New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater, Kennedy Center, Marinsky Theater, Bolshoi Theater, the White House, and Jacob’s Pillow.

Mr. Ohman was a prolific choreographer, creating over two hundred original ballets, many of which were performed by his New York Dance Theatre. He choreographed for the Boston Ballet, Edmonton Ballet, Syracuse Ballet (where he was director), the Cassandra Ballet of Toledo, the Long Island Philharmonic, the Long Island Lyric Opera, the School of American Ballet workshop performance, American Movie Classics, the PAF Playhouse, the Adirondack’s Long Lake Performing Arts Camp, and Indiana University. He assisted in the re-staging of Balanchine’s “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” for the 1981 revival of “On Your Toes” and the 1986 New York City Ballet revival. He was invited to be a guest teacher at the Boston Ballet, the School of American Ballet and the National Dance Institute, among others.

About the Frank Ohman School of Ballet

The Frank Ohman School of Ballet was founded in 1979 by Frank Ohman, former soloist at New York City Ballet (NYCB). Located in Commack, the school serves as a training ground for promising young dancers and offers aspiring students the opportunity to learn classical ballet in the tradition of George Balanchine. The school is a non-competition, non-recital school, focusing on proper classical ballet technique. A division of the New York Dance Theatre, Inc., the Ohman School has become an integral part of the company and is one of the very few not-for-profit ballet schools in the region. It offers three studios with state-of-the art flooring to Balanchine specifications and a highly qualified teaching staff trained by founding artistic director Frank Ohman.