The Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) will be aglow in snowy glamour and brilliance December 19-22 with the jazzy, sophisticated, and lighthearted classical ballet, “Let it Snow: A Holiday Revue.” Just in time for the winter holidays, this ballet is the perfect blend of seasonal elegance and festive cheer.

Created by WICA Board Member Christopher Stowell and sponsored by the LaBert Dance Fund, the ballet will feature an array of dances inspired by the spirit and aesthetic of mid-century classics like White Christmas and the television variety shows of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

“This is a holiday alternative to Nutcracker, but we are in solidarity with all of our colleagues around the world who are dancing Nutcracker right now,” says Stowell. “There's nothing cute or sweet about it as much as it is fun, effervescent, silly. It's sometimes romantic and it's a series of dances, each one creating a different atmosphere. The music will satisfy you if you have some favorite holiday tunes that you love hearing and it will also surprise you in that there are some songs, more tangentially related to the holidays that are just fun.”

For WICA Executive Artistic Director Deana Duncan, this ballet is the perfect encapsulation of the organization’s role in the community—to create powerful shared experiences around innovative and engaging expressions of artistic creativity.

“As a professional producing arts organization, it is important for us to bring programming to WICA that supports all of our five areas of concentration—the humanities, music, theatre, the visual arts, and dance,” says Duncan. “I believe it is our job to champion the process of new work. It is only through advocating and supporting new work that we can create the imaginative shows that initiate, invigorate and innovate these art forms. We are lucky to have the LaBert Dance Fund available to help us commission our first show and we are thrilled to have Christopher Stowell at the artistic helm of this new American ballet.”

No stranger to the ballet stage, Stowell is the son of Pacific Northwest Ballet Founding Artistic Directors Kent Stowell and Francia Russell. He received his training at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the School of American Ballet and has appeared in theaters throughout the world including the Paris Opéra, New York's Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Moscow's Bolshoi Theater.

Stowell’s “Let it Snow” is a celebration of holiday memories, with echoes of nostalgia and joy. The revue brings together dancers from all over the world with local musicians in a beautiful and festive collaboration. Featuring Brian Simcoe, Luis Gonzalez, Lester Gonzalez, Xuan Cheng, Nicole Ciapponi, and Madeline Bez, the dancers will be accompanied by a live piano performance by Sheila Weidendorf and vocals by Ada Faith-Feyma and John Macarro.

“I think Deana’s vision for the organization is at the heart of all of this. She wants to cover many art forms while presenting and producing excellence,” says Stowell. “I hope this community understands how fortunate we all are to have this center for the arts that covers so much territory and is available to us on so many different levels. It’s really a place to come together and have lots of different experiences and I would say, this is a very particular experience that you would not find at many places. So I applaud WICA for producing it.”

The ballet will open Thursday, December 19th at 7:30 p.m., with evening performances on Friday and Saturday, and a matinee performance on Sunday. An opening night reception will be held after the Friday performance and champagne, chocolates, and a specialty snowflake martini will be served throughout the performance run.

WICA invites you to grab your champagne and come on in for the show because….baby it’s getting cold outside.

To learn more and to purchase tickets, visit wicaonline.org/letitsnow.