Watching ballets is mesmerizing and beautiful. Watching musicals is fun and exciting. When you put the two genres of art together, it would be a stunning performance.
That is exactly what Inland Pacific Ballet Academy (IPBA) and Candlelight Pavilion did. IPBA is a professional ballet academy, and the largest dance studio in the Inland Empire region. Candlelight Pavilion is a fine dining and musical theater group.
These two companies worked together to produce the ballet/broadway musical version of Beauty and The Beast, recently being performed at Lewis Family Playhouse in Victoria Gardens.
This collaboration is so special because musicals and ballets are rarely performed together. IPBA and Candlelight Pavilion gives the community something exciting and new to watch, by bringing this new window of art to the world around Rancho Cucamonga and the Inland Empire. This partnership also gives the dancers of IPBA and the performers of Candlelight Pavilion an interesting and different experience as well.
Candlelight Pavilion was closed down in 2022, due to the unfortunate construction of a parking lot, after 37 years of performing, and now they return to the Inland Empire to produce more major shows, including some more productions with IPBA.
Zaylin Cano, the executive director of IPBA, explains that “longtime Candlelight Pavilion fans are eager to enjoy top notch musical theater once again at a local venue, and we feel audiences will really respond to a new, refreshing take on this fairytale story that brings together Disney’s memorable music and songs combined with a hint of classical ballet in the choreography”.
Personally, I experienced this as a dancer at IPBA. It was so mesmerizing to watch the performers sing and act, and this ultimately inspired me to look more into musical theater.
I’m sure this experience was likewise for the Candlelight Pavilion performers, as some of them even came to experience IPBA’s technique warm-up class.
The actors also frequently commented on their astonishment of the dancers. They were excited to work with the dancers who had passion for what they were doing.
I loved the new experience I had on stage, as I was singing and dancing at the same time. The dancers and performers really got to bond with each other and get to know each other during this time, throughout all the rehearsals and performances.
The performances took place on the second, third, ninth, and tenth, of March, and all shows were full houses. The response IPBA dancers and Candlelight Pavilion performers received from the crowd was astounding. Cheers, laughs, and gasps from the audience allowed the dancers and performers onstage to feel the passion revolving around them, and they were able to perform even better.
After receiving several standing ovations, I found myself smiling so brightly at the end of every show, with utter happiness and joy.
As a part of Inland Pacific Ballet Academy, I hope we will have more collaborations like this one in the future. If you have any kind of interest in musical theater, ballet, or even both genres, watch out for more productions at Lewis Family Playhouse!