Happy feet tap out Happy Holidays

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Dance Arts Theatre, the performance troupe from Irene’s School of Dance, has completed its round of Nutcracker shows for the year, now it’s time for the rest of the dancers to shine.

Irene’s School of Dance presents its annual holiday show, “Happy Holidays,” Dec. 15 and 16 at the Central Kitsap Auditorium in Silverdale.

Dance school owner and director Irene Miller said the six performances will feature close to 400 dancers, from age 3 1/2 to 60-plus. The show is free, sort of a gift to the parents who shuttle the dancers to and fro and keep track of tutus and pointe shoes.

“The holiday show is to show the parents what we’ve been working on,” she said. “For the little ones it’s their first opportunity to be on the stage.”

The programs, each about an hour long, will showcase a variety of dance forms, including tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical and pointe ballet, modern dance and baton.

The musical accompaniment will be mostly holiday music, but Miller said the jazz classes “pretty much do their own thing.”

This is the studio’s second largest combined performance of the year, after the spring show.

The dancers are warmed up for this one, having recently come back from a trip to snowy Leavenworth to perform at the annual Festival of Lights. They danced in the outdoor gazebo, surrounded by the hundreds of tourists who flock to the Bavarian town in the Cascades for the lighting spectacle.

“It’s a lot of fun. We do it about every other year,” Miller said.

Happy Holidays will be presented 6:30 and 8 p.m. Dec. 15; 10 and 11:30 a.m., 1 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Central Kitsap High School Auditorium, 3700 NW Anderson Hill Rd., Silverdale.

Irene’s School of Dance is now accepting students for classes which start in January. For information call the school at (360) 692-4395 or stop by at 3390 NW Bucklin Hill Rd., Silverdale.