To the delight of audiences young and old, the Ulster Ballet Company will offer its 15th annual performance of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic A Christmas Carol at UPAC in Kingston this weekend, December 4-6. With a cast of 65 dancers, actors and stage professionals, this unique rendition is a continually developing full-length ballet, choreographed and directed by Sara Miot, formerly of the New York City Ballet.
Hailed by contemporaries of Dickens, the story A Christmas Carol was an immediate hit back in 1843. A tale of karmic redemption filled with images of the hospitable customs of the holiday, the book was said to have actually made people behave better. When Dickens published his novella, he was responding to the lot of his society’s poorest citizens, primarily children working in appalling conditions and suffering the effects the Industrial Revolution inflicted upon their lives. He’d originally written “An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child,” but deferred its publication to pen the tale that would result in this classic, telling the Children’s Employment Commission: “You will certainly feel that a Sledge hammer has come down with twenty times the force – twenty thousand times the force – I could exert by following out my first idea.”
Certainly, his “Appeal” would not have been received by the public as readily, nor would it have been adapted for the stage (as it was almost immediately) and later on screen in countless versions, as it has been continuously for 165 years. And his “Sledge hammer” has become a beloved work of holiday entertainment, the personal redemption of readers or audience members notwithstanding. Still, the story’s moral remains a viable and much-needed lesson, even in the new century. To that end, the Ulster Ballet Company’s version is not only an aesthetically delightful production—it also serves to educate, as in their program to bring the ballet to area schools and other venues. From the web site: “We hope that these resources [downloadable study aids] assist in the appreciation and understanding of the tremendous story provided to us by Charles Dickens centuries ago.”
This year’s performances will take place on Friday, December 4th and Saturday, December 5th at 8 p.m., and on Sunday, December 6th at 2 p.m. Tickets for A Christmas Carol are $19 for adults, $15 for students and senior citizens. For reservations call the UPAC box office at (845) 339-6088. Tickets are also available through TicketMaster. UPAC is located at 601 Broadway in Kingston. Founded in 1977, the Ulster Ballet Company operates under the artistic direction of Scarlett Fiero and Quiedo Carbone. For more information visit www.ulsterballet.org or www.UPAC.org.