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Love, scandal at Pacific Festival Ballet Tea?

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Contributed by: Pamela Schott on 11/12/2007

"Love and scandal," quipped eighteenth century author and satirist Henry Fielding, "are the best sweeteners of tea." More likely than not, Fielding wrote with the jealous eye of an outsider looking in, as tea parties in his day were generally the domain of women and their servants. But however laced with envy his words might have been, Fielding's observation is at least half correct.

Each year, Pacific Festival Ballet, resident ballet company of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Countrywide Performing Arts Center, hosts its Sugar Plum Tea Party to raise funds for its annual performance of The Nutcracker. If there is scandal to be shared over tea at this party, it is just this: As is true throughout the arts world, Pacific Festival Ballet is, for the most part, reliant on the generosity of its donors and volunteers. Without their contributions of time and money, performances like The Nutcracker - a Pacific Festival Ballet holiday tradition now in its nineteenth season - would not be possible. Faced with skyrocketing production costs, large-scale performances such as these (this year, the company will spend over $200,000 to stage the ballet) are simply too expensive to mount without outside contributions.

But if there is scandal, there is also great love: love of the arts, love of the students and guest artists whose dreams are realized on stage, love of the company's Artistic and Administrative Directors and faculty - that funds every production. This year, the Sugar Plum Tea, held at the Sherwood Country Club on November 4, raised over $50,000 - twenty percent of the total funds needed this year to perform The Nutcracker. The afternoon featured horse and buggy rides, a silent and live auction, costumed cast members, tea and lunch, and guest of honor Starr Danias. A veteran of the stage and screen who has danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolph Nureyev, and countless other luminaries of the dance world, Danias is a new faculty member at California Dance Theatre, the training school for Pacific Festival Ballet. Her presence was a sweet highlight to a fundraiser that was equal parts labor of love and holiday celebration, and one tea party Henry Fielding would have loved to have been invited to.

Pacific Festival Ballet's The Nutcracker begins with two performances on Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., and continues through Sunday, December 16, 2007, at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Tickets are available by calling (805) 449-ARTS or visiting ticketmaster. More information can be found online, at California Dance Theatre .com, or on the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza website.

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Pamela Schott

Westlake Village , CA

Pamela Schott has posted 2 stories and 0 comments since joining on 4/24/2007. Pamela Schott 's average story rating is 5.

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