The Snow Queen - November 2023
The Snow Queen Will Return in November 2023! Exact dates and times will be published once confirmed.
Thursday, November 17: 7pm
Friday, November 18: 7pm
Saturday, November 19: 2pm* + 7pm
Sunday, November 20: 2pm
Dalton High School Theater - 1500 Manly St, Dalton, GA 30720
$18 for adults; $13 for Students (Elem-College); and Senior Citizens (55+)
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, October 18 at 10am.
*The 2pm performance on Saturday is in an abridged and narrated format that is perfect for young viewers and their families! Dalton High School Players narrate the show as Hans Christian Andersen and his wife, Anne, guiding the audience through all of the music and magic of The Snow Queen.
PARENTS: SNOW QUEEN PRODUCTION WEEK NEWSLETTER
The Creative Arts Guild Dance Department + Ballet Dalton is proud to present our 18th annual full-length ballet, The Snow Queen! Join us on this magical journey through the seasons inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale and learn how love can melt even the coldest of hearts.
The Snow Queen was performed for the first time with the LIVE Creative Arts Guild Chamber Orchestra in November of 2016. Here is a clip of the Saturday, November 19, 2016 Performance:
In 2005, the Creative Arts Guild produced its first annual production of The Snow Queen. The Snow Queen was adapted from a beautiful and well-known Hans Christian Andersen story and was transformed into a full-length classical ballet. Every part of the ballet was hand picked by Dance Director Jessie Fincher and former Assistant Dance Director Elizabeth Fisher. The score incorporates pieces from Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, and Delibes among other public domain music, each costume was carefully selected, and every step was choreographed from the ground up making this a truly original work of art.
After the 10th anniversary of this production in November of 2015, Creative Arts Guild staff and board members began dreaming about how we could elevate this annual production and bring an even greater arts experience to our community audiences and elevate the performance and educational opportunity for our students. CAG was also charged with a new strategic focus to engage and support working artists. The idea of the addition of a live orchestra was born.
With the support of the Ken and Myra White Foundation, during the 2016 year, the score was constructed by arranger Rodney Bishop. David Pasqua was then brought on as the production's conductor and leader of the Creative Arts Guild Chamber Orchestra's musicians, and our 11th annual production of The Snow Queen opened to our largest audience to date.
The addition of the professional musicians not only added a tremendous learning opportunity for our students and engaged working artists validating their work in the world but also engaged a broader and larger audience - people who loved music but fell in love with the ballet. Although the production was 11 years strong in 2017, many of our audience members were first-time attendees.
After the huge success of our inaugural year with a live orchestra, Creative Arts Guild looked to take the arts engagement a step further and received funding from Georgia Council for the Arts to support bringing our chamber orchestra into our school field trips for 960 students. Creative Arts Guild reached out to Dalton High School Drama department to partner with us to write and perform a script in conjunction with an abbreviated version of the performance incorporating several of the new arts standards.
The Snow Queen is seen as a treasured work of art in the Dalton community and a crown jewel of the Creative Arts Guild.
THE SNOW QUEEN SYNOPSIS
Act I
Scene I: Opening
We are introduced to the four royal sisters, Spring Princess (a kind but lonely woman); Summer Princess (playful but selfish); Fall Princess (a wild gypsy) and the Snow Queen (beautiful, but cold and conniving). Here, we take a look back to when the Queen of the Sprites and her little Sprites made a magic mirror that controls the seasons of the four sisters. The Snow Queen decides that she wants to possess the mirror alone and steals it with the Sprites’ help. When stolen, the mirror shatters into a million pieces and one shard lands in the eye of a village girl, Kay. Snow Queen begins her search to find Kay and get the shard back.
Scene II: The Village
It’s dawn in the marketplace. The townspeople enter as the sun is rising and greet one another as they begin to sell their wares. Here we are introduced to the Village Adults, including a magical doll maker who brings a doll, and her marionettes to life, Village Children, and close, loving Sisters, Kay and Gerda. All of the villagers are dancing joyously on a lovely morning…but wait! The fortune teller enters the scene, bringing with her a feeling of foreboding. As she tells the future, she hints at the Snow Queen’s entrance into the village and the things yet to come. Finally, as the time to head to school and work comes, the village girl Kay is gifted a beautiful hand embroidered handkerchief by the village’s Seamstress. Kay shows her beautiful gift to her sister. We are then left only with Kay and Gerda who are frozen by the Snow Queen when she enters to kidnap and take Kay back to her snowy castle to retrieve the final missing shard of glass. During the kidnapping, Kay leaves behind her handkerchief and heads through the seasons to Winter under the Snow Queen’s spell. The Dragonflies enter the village and with the help of the Queen of the Sprites and the Enchantress, Gerda is awoken, shown the handkerchief and begins the journey through the four seasons to find her sister in Winter and take her home.
Act II
Scene I: The Journey Through Spring
We are introduced to the Spring Princess, a kind but lonely woman who welcomes Gerda with open arms and wishes more than anything that she will stay. Knowing that Gerda needs rest, Spring Princess tells Gerda to sleep, hoping that she will forget her journey. However, the Whispering Roses wake Gerda up and remind her to think of her sister and continue on to the next season.
Scene II: The Journey Through Summer
Here we are introduced to the lovely but arrogant Summer Princess who dances merrily to a very impressed Gerda. However, once she realizes the Princess’ intentions for her – to make her a servant – she escapes from Summer’s palace and continues on to Fall. Summer sends her Pages after her but to no avail. Gerda is already gone.
Scene III: The Journey Through Fall
Gerda is scared and tired now as her journey has been long. As the Queen of the Sprites leads her into the Fall Season, she is introduced to a woman who she hopes will lead Gerda safely through Fall. Unfortunately, the woman double crosses both the Queen of the Sprites and Gerda, and sells her to the Fall Princess, the wild and fearsome leader. Fall Princess’ daughter, Robber Girl, enters and begs her mother to give her Gerda as a plaything because she has no friends her own age. The Princess finally agrees. In time, Gerda realizes that she must leave because her sister is the most important thing to her. Gerda tricks the Robber Girl into letting her go and her mother, the Fall Princess, reveals her disappointment with her child.
Scene IV: The Journey Into Winter
Gerda, again with the help of the Queen of the Sprites, finds her sister Kay with the Snow Queen. Frost, Icicles, and Snow Storms dance around them trying to keep them under the control of the Snow Queen. Eventually, the other royal sisters…Spring, Summer, and Fall, along with the Enchantress and Queen of the Sprites…come to the rescue and help Gerda and Kay escape. Kay puts the final shard of glass back in the mirror and returns the mirror to the Queen of the Sprites to be taken away for good. Kay and Gerda rejoice in their reunion!
Thank you to our 2022 Sponsors!
Sustaining Partners
Engineered Floors, LLC
Textile Rubber & Chemical Co
Brown Whitworth Foundation
Marketing Alliance Group
Ken and Myra White
Dossche Family Foundation
Barrett Properties
Norris and Billie Little
Cindy Michaels
Bob and Dottie Shaw
Robert Webb
Stearns & West
Georgia United Credit Union
Gregg and Sandra Sims
David and Cindy McCreery
Zack and Anna Adamson
Alpha & Omega Insurance
Bill and Linda Blackman
Christopher and Amanda Brown
Durkan Family Donor Advised Fund
Marvin and Joanne Lewis
Robert and Jackie McEntire
North Georgia Urology Group
Jerry Henderson
John and Cynthia Wilson
David and Pauli Aft
Snow Queen Level
Ken and Myra White
Engineered Floors
Marketing Alliance Group
Mohawk Industries
Shaw Industries Group
Textile Rubber & Chemical Co
Finley Family Charitable Foundation
Orchestral Level
Georgia United Credit Union
Hans Christian Andersen Level
Smile Doctors LLC
Skin Cancer & Cosmetic Dermatology Center
Reginald R. Sherrill, MD
Mieke Hanssens
Winter Level
Tucker & Erika Mosteller
Dalton's Mr. Real Estate
Malerbi Vision LLC
Jack & Aggie Bandy Foundation
North Georgia Toyota
Fall Level
David & Pam Pennington
Tim & Cheryl Baucom
Steve & Cathy Snyder
Dalton Utilities-Optilink
Peds Care, P.C.
The Valencia Team with Keller Williams Greater Dalton
Dalton CARSTAR South LLC
Summer Level
Rodger Eidson
Blake Adcock
Love Funeral Home
Bob & Dixie Kinard
Marc & Penny Carpenter
Brown Legal Solutions LLC
The Pine Needle
Ann Bowen
Spring Level
Mike & Priscilla Brown
Hui Scarcella
Judy & Bob Buchanan
The Minor Firm
Snowflake Level
Cristine Goldberg
Bill & Virginia Weaver
Gil's Property Maintenance LLC
Delilah Sharp