More than 200 performers enthralled an audience of family and friends during the 27th annual City of Vero Beach Recreation Department’s holiday production of an Enchanted Christmas Ball at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center.
Happy to have returned to in-person performances, the Aerial Antics Youth Circus students danced, tumbled, and dangled from silks to a compilation of favorite Christmas tunes with an edgy spin, where every performer was spotlighted at the end of each act.
The original, choreographed story was told through acrobatics, dancing and aerial acts as the student performers thrilled the audience with a story that began with villains looking to spread misery, all ultimately won over by the power of kindness.
At the start, the townspeople prepare for the annual holiday celebration at the nearby hotel, where a brigade of little chefs, the youngest tumblers, cooked up a storm in preparation for the upcoming festivities. That is, until a group of sinister-looking outsiders, slightly older dancers, proceeded to tear apart the kitchen in an effort to ruin the holiday celebration and deprive one and all of the joy of Christmas.
It took a squadron of elementary-aged, kerchief-wearing cleaners to whip things into shape, all while a pair of older dancers battled to be the center of attention in hopes of catching the eye of a handsome prince.
At one point, four dancers wearing one shared, flowing garment, performed a graceful dance on stage, as a trio of their counterparts dangled from silks high above them.
The overlying message of the day was that the power resides within one and all to spread kindness and forgiveness, something everyone should practice in their everyday lives.
The annual holiday performance heralds in the season for many families, with more than a few parents in the audience reliving their glory days as performers in similar programs years before.
Performers, ages 3 to 18, participate in the Leisure Square Aerial Antics Youth Circus, gymnastics and performing arts programs. Some have taken gymnastics and aerial classes since they were barely able to walk and have worked their way from tumbling through to more challenging acrobatics and dance.
The recreation department uses fitness and the gymnastics program as a means to “promote self-esteem, leadership and performing experience through skill-building and positive encouragement.”
Winter registration for gymnastics begins on Jan. 22 at Leisure Square. For more information, visit covb.org.
Photos by Kaila Jones
