Community Ballet - A Very Chico Nutcracker

ahhhh nuts! They're doing Cinderella this year, no Nutcracker here in 2024!

Laxson Auditorium
Cal State University
W. 1st Street & Salem
Chico, CA.
$, chicocommunityballet.org | chicoperformances.com

 Each year Chico Ballet performs a festive holiday themed ballet for the public to enjoy. The event is a Very Chico Nutcracker, sure to delight all ages with sugar plum fairies and fantastical merriment and pageantry.

Chico Community Ballet for serious dancers between 8 and 25 years of age includes Senior and Apprentice Companies with many of the dancers accepted into programs at American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, North Carolina's School of the Arts, and Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Some members have gone on to dance professionally. In addition to performing in numerous community service events, since 1985 members of Chico Community Ballet have danced in many full length ballets for the community and several annual repertory dance concerts entitled "Keeping Dance Alive!" These performances, with additional guest dancers from the community, are professionally presented in Laxson Auditorium at California State University, Chico.

Deborah Jorritsma, Director of Chico Community Ballet (CCB) - studied at Centre de Dance Classique in France, with Rosella Hightower and the National Ballet of Washington, D.C. and with Frederick Franklin. She worked with noted choreographers Ruth Page and Leonard Massine as a member of the Fort Wayne Ballet and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.  where  Since 1984, she has choreographed and directed Peter and the Wolf, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, La Fille mal Gardee, Coppelia, and The Nutcracker.  She also teaches classical ballet at CCDC and the Theatre Arts Department at CSU, Chico.

Catherine Sullivan, Co-Artistic Director, has a background in classical ballet and modern dance. She conceived and directed the original ballet productions of The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Returns to Wonderland for CCB, as well as Encore Theatre's production of Amahl and the Night Visitor. With a  B.A. in art with Art History emphasis and an M.A. in Dance/Art from CSU, Chico she wears several "hats" as curator of the Janet Turner Print Museum and recipient of five "Annie" awards in both the visual and performing arts. To say that Sullivan is a creative talent would be an understatement!