This week nine professional ballet dancers arrived at Theatr Brycheiniog to work with local choreographer Katy Sinnadurai on a new production of ‘The Nutcracker’, which is coming to Brecon in December.

Katy is working with Theatr Brycheiniog to create a brand new version of The Nutcracker for Brecon audiences, which will run for five performances in the week before Christmas.

A professional production, with lead roles being danced by 10 professional dancers, seven of whom are based in Wales or connected to Welsh dance companies and two of whom trained with Katy Sinnadurai in Brecon.

This will be the first time in Theatr Brycheiniog’s history that a professional ballet will be presented with a live orchestra playing in the orchestra pit.

Welsh Chamber Orchestra will play Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music, which includes many famous and well-loved tunes such as dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Waltz of the Flowers. The production will feature professional dancers in the lead roles and corps de ballet, but there will also be opportunities for local dance students and actors to take part.

There is a choir too, which sings the famous ‘Snowflakes chorus’. Auditions for all local roles will be in September. There are already many local people volunteering to help with this project, such as costume designers, prop – makers and artists, all part of a large team creating the production.

Katy Sinnadurai said: “The Nutcracker is one of the most famous ballets of all time and is performed every Christmas all over the world, to packed houses. It’s about time that Wales had its own production of this famous ballet and Theatr Brycheiniog is a perfect venue for it!”

Brecon Festival Ballet Ltd, a not-for-profit ballet company, has been formed to enable this project to go ahead and a big fund-raising campaign has been launched to back it.

This is a very ambitious project and grant funding will be applied for. One such application has already been successfulwith funding allocated from the Audrey Tyler Trust.

There is a Just Giving page to help fund the ballet.

To find out more about the production, the dancers, the orchestra and for news on ticket sales visit Brecon Festival Ballet’s website at www.breconfestivalballet.com.