Maeva O’Brien and Emily Beverly Perform for CU Ballet’s Cinderella
Urbana High School has an array of talented young students, including many creative teens that practice time-consuming activities when their school days are done. Junior Maeva O’Brien and freshman Emily Beverly have mastered time management early on– balancing heavy workloads with their dedication to ballet. Both girls dance for CU Ballet, and have featured roles in the much-anticipated performance of Cinderella this spring.
O’Brien will play the lovely Cinderella, and Beverly is to play one of the four seasons who dresses her up in her finest for the ball. The show is directed by Tracy McCabe, designed by artistic director, Deanna Doty, and features the music of Prokofiev.
With Beverly dancing about 25 hours a week and O’Brien dancing for 18 hours–along with teaching a ballet class three days a week–one would think that these girls would feel exhausted and overwhelmed by their commitment to dance. But O’Brien feels the opposite.
“Hours fly by and you lose yourself in improving the tiny details in the way you carry out each step,” she says. “Often you don’t even notice how tired you are until after the class has ended. For me, dance classes are as cerebral as they are physical. It’s a wonderful feeling of both detachment and high concentration that I’ve never found anywhere else.
Beverly says, “I started dancing when I was three and continued because I love how nerves turn to adrenaline when you hit the stage for a performance.”
Both girls are extremely excited to dance in Cinderella, and are anxiously awaiting their performances.
O’Brien explains, “I love the show Cinderella for a number of reasons. It’s both romantic and comedic, and the music is more contemporary than that of other shows I’ve been in. I can’t wait to see the performance of the two Ugly Stepsisters, danced by John Daygar and Gibby Kirby, two incredibly talented performers.”
Beverly states, “I’m so excited for Cinderella because I’m casted as the season spring, which is a solo, and it’s fast-paced and cute–the type of dancing that I’m best at.”
Come support O’Brien and Beverly at the performance of Cinderella, from May 3-5 at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign. The shows will run at 7:30 PM on Friday, 2:00 and 7:30 on Saturday, and 2:00 on Sunday. Tickets are $24 for adults, $19 for seniors, and $12 for students.
About The Author
This article appeals to me because I used to do ballet. And even though I love rock and rough sports ballet is cool
I like this article because I know pretty much nothing about ballet and this article does a good job of explaining what it’s about and why these two enjoy it. Also, I think it’s cool that you added the dates and admission prices at the end.