Yuletide moves
‘Christmas Joy’ features 70 dancers performing jazz, ballet pieces
It’s crunch time for Wendy Milner.
“This is what you live for,” she says. “We’ve been working this for months, and it’s almost ready to be performed.” Milner is the artistic director for Performers Ballet and Jazz Company.
For 34 years, the company has presented its piece “Christmas Joy.”
This year, the performances will once again be staged at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
The performance will feature over 70 classically trained dancers performing both jazz and ballet pieces choreographed to traditional and modern Christmas music.
Milner says the production has become an Albuquerque holiday tradition.
In 1999, members of the Albuquerque Arts Alliance conferred the Bravos Award for Dance Excellence on the Performers Ballet and Jazz Company. In 2012, Christmas Joy was voted the Applause Award from the Albuquerque Community Live Art and Performance Services for favorite performance of 2012.
“We have 34 years of repertoire that we can pull from,” she says. “The choreography that we have created over the year, it’s our chance to showcase it. We want to keep it fresh, and for this performance, we are bringing pack pieces that haven’t been performed for many years.”
Milner enjoys bringing back older pieces because there is new life to them.
“With new dancers, the pieces become something totally different,” she says.
Milner has been involved with the company for nearly 30 years.
For the last few years, she has been at the helm of “Christmas Joy.”
As one might expect, there are challenges to overcome.
“Costuming is tricky,” she says with a laugh. “We’ve got probably close to 500 costumes. We have to stow them away until they are needed. Another challenge is re-adapting choreography to fit the dancers. It’s a journey finding out where all of the dancers can fit in together.”