(L-R) Abby Krewson as the Fairy Godmother, Sheridan Bensinger as Cinderella and 4-year-old Rylee Sullivan of Ashland. PHOTO BY LINDSEY SHUEY
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on April 11, 2022.
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — All ballerinas aspire to beauty, grace and perfection. Unless, like Amber Ulsh, they are playing one of the ugly stepsisters in the Schuylkill Ballet Theatre’s production of “Cinderella.”
“I think of it as the complete opposite of what I was trained to do,” said Ulsh, 15. “I just have fun with it. I think it’s really fun to do something different.”
Featuring the music of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, SBT will present “Cinderella” at 7 p.m. April 29 and April 30, and 2 p.m. May 1 in the Zwerling Auditorium at Schuylkill Haven Area High School.
Saturday was “Cinderella’s Royal Ball,” a promotional event at Grace Evangelical Congregational Church featuring food, crafts, photo ops, a hunt for Easter eggs (and glass slippers) and lots of sparkly dresses.
Cinderella (Sheridan Bensinger) showed Molly Tosh, 7, of Nesquehoning, how to do splits and walk en pointe.
“If you stretch it and if you work on it, you can do anything,” Bensinger told her.
Molly’s sister, Bella, 8, said she made “nine best friends” at the ball.
“It was awesome, cause she’s so pretty,” Bella said about meeting Cinderella. “I wanna do backflips, I wanna do flips, and I wanna dance ballet on a stage when I grow up.”
Bensinger, an 18-year-old senior at Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, said that her journey to the role has been a fairy tale in its own right.
“It’s a fairy tale, I’m 100% sure,” she said. “I never had to deal with evil stepsisters. Everyone is a family. It’s a dream come true to know all these amazing people.”
Beinsinger played Gus the mouse in SBT’s first performance of “Cinderella,” back in 2016.
“I couldn’t do three pirouettes from birth,” she said. “I dreamed of being these main roles, and I put in a lot of time and a lot of work, which is very Cinderella-esque, and I just kept wishing and hoping that I would be skilled enough to be these roles.”
Director Sarah Schimpf said that the ballet is “back in action.”
“This is a comeback year for a lot of school shows, a lot of performances,” Schimpf said. “And ‘Cinderella’ is such a well-known story that people can relate to, they love.
“The children love the princess story.”
“It’s amazing,” said 18-year-old Blue Mountain senior Abby Krewson, who plays the Fairy Godmother. “It’s definitely different than roles I had in the past. It’s definitely more of a mature role, she kind of has to bring the magic into the show.”
This will be Krewson and Sheridan’s last time dancing together at SBT. After graduation, Krewson is going to DeSales University to study speech pathology, while Bensinger is going to Adelphi University with a double major in business and dance.
“Sheridan and I have been dancing with each other since basically birth,” Krewson said.
“They were in our first production of ‘Cinderella’ as little mice,” Schimpf said. “I’m very proud of their progress, I’m so excited for them to take on these lead roles. They have taken it by storm. They have embraced their characters, and they have taken it very seriously.”
Tickets are available at https://schuylkillballet.com/ticket-store and are $12 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens and $6 for children between 4 and 10.
Tickets are also available at the door and are $15 for all ages.
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