Local student to star in Nutcracker

Tuxedo Park — If it is December, it must be Nutcracker season. The Giselle Dance Studio in Central Valley will feature the ballet with staging and choreography done in the Russian style. There will be two showings, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 11, at the Monroe-Woodbury High School on Dunderberg Road in Central Valley. The studio owners, Yuliya Akopyan and Andrey Shakhin, are stars from the internationally renowned Bolshoi Ballet, from Moscow in Russia. Akopyan and Shakhin were principles and soloists at the Bolshoi for more than twenty years, and have brought their combined expertise to the United States, where instruction in the Russian technique is much sought after but hard to find. Students come from Rockland, Orange and Bergen counties to study with the two former stars. Tuxedo Park resident Danielle Marchand has trained in ballet extensively for 14 years with Akopyan and Shakhin. She has also studied jazz and tap with Darlene Wilson, choreographer of Spamalot. Danielle will be featured as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the studio’s production this December, a part she has made her own for each of the last four seasons the studio has produced the ballet. Danielle, 18, is a senior at the Tuxedo Park High School and a member of the National Honor Society. She has been studying classical piano for the last fourteen years, serves as secretary of the Tuxedo Concert Choir, and has had leading roles in school musicals. She plans to enroll in a musical theatre program and is currently completing her college applications. Tickets are $12 and $10 at the door. For more information, call 928-1507.