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On January 7, 2012 at 4PM in the famous Hill Auditorium, many wonderful singers displayed their talents and filled the audience with joy. In this concert, high school students came together with the Women’s and Men’s Glee Clubs to get a preview of life at the University of Michigan and to show their talents to their older counterparts.

First, the mass men’s glee group performed. This was comprised of the high school boys and the Men’s Glee Club. They sang some very moving songs with great harmonies and Hill Auditorium provided a wonderful showcase of their amazing sound. Then the Men’s Glee Club performed some songs, which included a couple of dances and were very fun. During the Men’s Glee Club portion of the concert, The Friars (a sect of the Men’s Glee Club) performed some entertaining pieces that got the crowd going wild.

Next, the Women’s Glee Club joined forces with the high school girls visiting U of M and sang some songs that were both entertaining and beautiful. They had a distinctly different sound than the Men’s Glee Club, but both groups were full of talent and glee, of course. After performing with the high school visitors, the Women’s Glee Club took the stage to sing a few songs of their own. Some of the songs were in different languages, but it was just as easy to recognize the emotion of the pieces. A sect of the Women’s Glee Club performed as well and they were quirky and entertaining as well. Overall, it was interesting to see the differences and similarities between the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs.

Both the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs are performing abroad, which is a great representation for our school. The men are performing in China while the women are headed to South Africa. There will be amazing opportunities to display the talent of our school and I was glad to see such talented groups. Next time you hear about a Glee concert, go and support them because you really will be filled with joy upon hearing their amazing voices!

To see more about upcoming Glee events visit these websites:

Men’s Glee Club: http://www.ummgc.org/

Women’s Glee Club: http://www.umich.edu/~wgc/

Sunday December 18th at 1:30 p.m. The Michigan Theatre hosted a free holiday movie event featuring the 1940 favorite, Shop Around the Corner. The movie featured the lovely Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart, also the star of my personal favorite, It’s a Wonderful Life, which was played at The Michigan Theatre last weekend. The movie tells the story of two employees at a retail store around the holidays who can’t stand each other. They both fall in love with their secret anonymous pen pal, but eventually they find out they have been writing to each other all along. Have you ever seen You’ve Got Mail? Well, this is the original. Instead of meeting in a chat room and sending each other emails, they write good old fashioned love letters to one another. Instead of working in competing bookstores, they work in the same store.

Several of the scenes precisely reflected the modern-day version of the story starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, such as the coffee shop scene, where the man finds out for the first time that the woman he has been writing intimate letters to is the same woman he doesn’t get along with at the shop. They have a confrontation, making rude jabs and comments to each other, and he ends up leaving and disappointing her as she’s left to think that the man who wrote her the letters didn’t show up to meet her there, when really he just didn’t reveal his true identity to her.

Check out the coffee shop scene here, for both Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail–the juxtaposition of the two is really interesting and entertaining!

Shop Around the Corner

You’ve Got Mail

If you get the chance to watch some movies over the break, I would recommend giving Shop Around the Corner a try. It’s a really cute movie to watch over the holidays, and if you like romantic comedies, particularly You’ve Got Mail, you’re sure to enjoy it.

Saturday December 17th at 8 p.m. I took my seat (with a perfect view of the stage I might add!) at the Power Center, anticipating the event I have been most looking forward to this month, the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker Ballet.

The Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre (AABT) is a local company comprised of dancers of all ages from Ann Arbor and surrounding cities, offering opportunities to musicians and actors as well to perform in integrated shows with the company. The company resides with the CAS Ballet Theatre School on Church Street. I was pleasantly surprised at the varying ages and levels of experience represented in the show. There were quite a few young children in the show, which was unique from what you would likely see in a professional production of the ballet, but it was refreshingly cute in this performance, especially for a holiday show.

All of the dancers were very good, but there were a few who really stood out. Felice Le immediately impressed me in the very first act, where she danced the part of one of the maids preparing the home for the holiday party. Later in the show her superior technical and artistic abilities were more properly showcased as she played the part of the Snow Queen  in The Land of Snow and Coffee in The Kingdom of Sweets. Her movements were technically strong, but she also maintained a stable and serene upper body despite all of the difficult steps, expressing each character uniquely through her facial expressions, and the fluidity of her upper body movements. I also was very impressed with Clara, the main character of the ballet, danced by Sarah Polk. Though her technical abilities were hidden during the first act, as most of the full dance pieces were performed at the end of the show with the beginning containing more acting than dancing, when her time came to take the stage as a dancer she was beautiful. She exhibited beautiful extension and weightless leaps. I really enjoyed watching her dance. Her partner, Corey Davis, was also a very impressive dancer, with really beautiful extension and lines, especially for a male dancer. However, he wasn’t the strongest partner on some of the lifts, and there were a few moments where the movements seemed a bit unstable. The other male dancers were better partners, with more upper body strength to perform stronger lifts and provide more physical support, however the other male dancers had poorer technique and failed to impress me, with the exception of Jim Benjey who played the Cavalier in The Kingdom of Sweets.

Aside from the beautiful dancing itself, the production was really well done. The sets were absolutely beautiful for each scene, my favorite being The Land of Snow, when the stage was somewhat dimly lit with a blue-ish hue, and powdery snow flakes fell onto the stage throughout the piece, littering the floor with piles of white fluff that the dancers kicked up with their pointe shoes as they leapt and turned across the stage in their pure white tutus and skirts. It was really lovely. The costumes were also exquisite. From the first scene to the very last every single costume choice appeared to be very well-made and beautifully chosen for the role, throughout the many characters and costume changes in the performance.

AABT’s production of The Nutcracker was such a holiday treat. I love that one of the prominent Christmas traditions is a ballet! I loved watching the dancers perform–it was really a beautiful show. If you missed it this year, I would encourage you to go to their performance next year if you’re in town. If not, go see another ballet company’s performance of The Nutcracker–I’m certainly going to make seeing The Nutcracker a holiday tradition from this year forward!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! 🙂 Enjoy the holiday break!

*Note: The photos displayed here are unfortunately not of this year’s performance, as there was no photography allowed during the performance this year. However these images are from previous years’ performances of the AABT’s Nutcracker. Hopefully recent photos from this year will be posted online at some point for those who are interested in seeing what they missed!

The Lightworks Film Festival, presented by the University of Michigan Film and Video Student Association, features film/video projects made by University of Michigan, fall semester, Screen, Arts & Culture (aka film) students. Although there is no selection process and there are no restrictions to enter (that I am aware of), awards are given out at the end of the festival (best film, best acting, etc.) and the event is highly anticipated by Michigan Film Students.

So, if you are curious to see what your film peers have been working on or you just need to take a study break, then I recommend dropping by the Natural Science Auditorium on 12/16 or 12/17  from 6:30 PM -12 AM.

And the event is FREE!

As a part of their free holiday film series, the beautiful Michigan Theatre is playing Shop Around the Corner, a 1940’s holiday romantic comedy starring Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart. The movie will be playing Sunday December 18th at 1:30 p.m. Be sure to come early to hear your favorite Christmas carols played by the organist before the show!

To find out more about the movie, check out the Michigan Theatre’s website: http://michtheater.org/schedule_descriptions.php.

This weekend take a few hours to celebrate the holiday season by attending Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre’s performance of The Nutcracker Ballet. The Nutcracker is said to be one of Ann Arbor’s holiday traditions, and I am certainly looking forward to experiencing it for the first time. The performances will be held at the Power Center, and will be taking place on Friday December 16th at 8 p.m., Saturday December 17th at 2 p.m. and again at 8 p.m., and Sunday December 18th at 2 p.m. Tickets are only $20.00 for students, and can be purchased at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (734-763-8587). And be sure to arrive early to the performance as the Suzuki violinists will be playing holiday favorites before each show!