-price to also come down a notch
FIVE LITHE young bodies gracefully pirouetting under a sea of stars to Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ transformed the stage into a magical place, and you could have sensed the audience holding their breath with each crescendo, and releasing it as the classical notes plummeted.
Afterwards, a decagon of tulle-clad pixies frolicking to Mozart’s ‘Violin Concerto Rondeau Allegro’ came, to the audible delight of the audience.
Entrancing moments such as these had set the tone at the Annual May Blossom dance recital last year, put on by the ‘Let’s Dance’ studio, and Artistic Director, Nadia Jagan is promising no less when the production, now in its 16th year, hits the stage just seven days away.
This year, the production has two notable new developments, one being that it will be held for the first time on the stage of the Theatre Guild, and the other that the dancers will put on a matinee performance.
Jagan said the move was a conscious one, taking into account the current economic situation. This year, because of the current economic situation, it will cost less to attend the production, as tickets have been lowered from the $1700 being asked last year to $1200, and the production is being held on the smaller stage of the Theatre Guild, instead of the National Cultural Centre.
Diversity is the one word that comes to mind when in the presence of ‘May Blossom’, so expect a wide range of dances in the production, which features Classical Ballet, Lyrical Dance, Contemporary Gospel, and Interpretive Hip Hop. This time around also, attendees to the event are in for a few pleasant surprises, and if you’re reading this, you have just gotten an insider scoop. Ready! Here it comes! Many ballet numbers will be set to more contemporary music. “We want to show that we don’t have to stick only to classical music; sometimes we want to appeal to the younger generation,” Jagan said.
Also this year, she promises that Gospel dance, which has been a past feature, will again take centre stage, but not the kind you’re used to. Nadia says that her dances will have more of a North African Egyptian feel to them.
A dancer who began her training when she was only eight years old at the Neubert Ballet School in New York, dance is as natural as breathing to Nadia Jagan.

Soon after her stint with Neubert began, she was accepted into the school’s Junior Ballet Company, and began performing throughout the length and breadth of Manhattan. Thereafter, she auditioned for the famous High School of Dance, and was one of 40 students selected out of more than 40,000 vying for a space.
There, apart from dance, she also attended music, lighting, staging, makeup and acting classes. This was followed by a dance scholarship to the Alvin Ailey Dance School, winning the New York Talented Teen contest, and television appearances, and performances in many dance shows, including a memorable performance at an international festival held in Italy. More academic studies and achievements followed, along with marriage and children, and two years of teaching and choreographing at the Westminster Dance Studio in Union, New Jersey. When she came back to Guyana in 1993, she founded the Let’s Dance studio that we love so much.
The show is set for May 24 at the Theatre Guild, with a special matinee performance at 12:00hrs and a later performance at 19:00hrs.