Milford resident, Katherine Kurata will perform as Sugar Plum Fairy and Arabian in Nutcracker at the Palace on December 20.
Kurata is a senior at Joseph A. Foran High School, where she is an honor student and a CAPT and AP Scholar. She trains with Randyl Errica and Alexei Tchernichov in the Pre-Professional Classical Ballet Program at Woodbury Ballet Academy. She is a Youth America Grand Prix competitor and a three-time medalist at the Connecticut Classic Ballet Competition.
She will take the stage as Sugar Plum Fairy with Seth Ives from the Metropolitan Opera as her Cavalier and she will perform an acrobatic Arabian pas de deux with Marymount Manhattan student Kevin Mimms. Showtime is 4 p.m. at the Waterbury Palace Theatre, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury. Tickets are $28-$48.
Prior to the performance at 2:30 p.m., the public is invited to participate in The Sugar Plum Tea for Two Party where participants will meet Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy and enjoy tea and sweets. $25 admits two to the tea and price includes the Sugar Plum Tea party and a keepsake photo of your child with the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Kurata earned a scholarship to Bolshoi Ballet Academy in New York last summer through her silver medal placement at the Connecticut Classic. She will continue her training in Moscow by virtue of a merit-based scholarship through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), an official program of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in cooperation with American Councils for International Education, the Russian American Foundation, and Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
Kurata was one of 15 pre-professional ballet students selected from a national pool to travel to Russia as a student ambassador to attend a summer educational and pre-professional program which combines Russian language instruction, cultural immersion, and ballet training with Master Teachers of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
For more information and to reserve tickets to the Nutcracker and the Sugar Plum Tea party call 203 346-2000 or visit the website at PalaceTheatreCT.org.