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IMC’s Jr. Co. presents “Carnival of the Animals”
The Junior Company of Newport’s Island Moving Co. will present the charming work, “Carnival of the Animals,” at the Island Moving Co. studio on Sunday, February 17th at 2:30 and 3:30pm. 
The “Carnival of the Animals” is Directed by Brooke DiFrancesco and choreographed by Christine Sandorfi. A Lion, two Hens, a Donkey, a Tortoise and other assorted creatures dance to music by Camille Saint-Saens in a production that lasts roughly one half hour. The Winter Festival presentation will be suitable for children of all ages and will include an opportunity to join the dancers in some dancing after the performance.
Tickets are $6 for one adult plus one child; $4 for additional adult and $3 for each additional child; with $1 off for each bracelet presented.
Ten Things you Probably Didn’t Know About the Newport Nutcracker
Island Moving Company’s: The Nutcracker
Ten Things you Probably Didn’t Know
By Cecilia Lacouture
The Nutcracker show is traditionally put on by the Island Moving Company every year, and it is thought to be just as enchanting as The Boston Ballet Nutcracker. The show encompasses beautiful dancing and costuming. Dancers rehearse for the show starting in September, and are hard at work leaning their parts. Working behind the scenes, there are many people who help to work on different aspects of the show. From costume design, to parents helping with sets, the company is always busy working toward these performances. There are around one hundred kids that are involved with the Nutcracker, as well as older kids as well. Eileen Stoops has spent 
fourteen to fifteen years working to prepare the costuming for the Island Moving Companys’ dancers. In her opinion there is always changes going on with costuming and sets. Yet, despite the changes that occur; the show always comes out beautifully. The location of the show creates a unique type of setting. In the Rosecliff mansion on Bellevue
Avenue it creates a regal type of staging for the dancers’ christmastime show.
Ten things you probably didn’t know about the nutcracker:
Fun Facts
- The character who is traditionally named Clara in the Nutcracker story is named Tess in
IMC’s production- after Theresa Oelrichs, who had the home constructed in 1899. - The architect Stanford White designed Rosecliff based on the Grand Trianon of Versailles.
- The Island Moving company incorporates the history of Rosecliff into its own production.
- Marius Petipa and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky later collaborated to create the ballet from
Dumas’ version (which was translated from the original into french) – and premiered it in St.
Petersburg, Russia in 1892. - There are 95 costumes featured on stage
- 13 company dancers and 90 kids dance in the show
- The first act of the performance is a journey where guests are guided from room to room of the
mansion, in the second act guests are seated at tables in the ballroom. - Tara’s costume is made out of a fabric called silessence, which is made mostly out of polyester.
- Some of the costumes that are used now, have been used in almost all of the past performances
- Eileen Stoops has been making the costumes for The Island Moving Company for 14 to
15 years.
Island Moving Co. to feature international choreographers
By The Newport Daily News staff
Posted Oct 17, 2018 at 6:21 PM
http://www.newportri.com/news/20181017/island-moving-co-to-feature-international-choreographers
NEWPORT — An upcoming series of contemporary ballet performances by the Island Moving Co. will feature choreographers from Italy, Puerto Rico and Newport.
The show — titled “Far to Near: Choreography. Closer.” — is designed to showcase the company’s 13 nationally and internationally recruited dancers in three new works commissioned by the troupe as well as three pieces already in the troupe’s repertory.
It will be performed Oct. 26-27 in the intimate 200-seat setting of the Casino Theatre, 10 Freebody St.
Simona De Tullio, the director of the Breathing Art Company based in Bari, Italy, will debut two pieces with scores by Puccini and Ivan Iusco with Hugues Lebars, respectively. De Tullio has directed the international San Nicola Dance Prize since 2010, and is influenced in part by her collaborations with American contemporary ballet legend Alonzo King.
Island Moving Co. Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen will debut a piece to join the more than 30 works she has contributed to the company’s repertory. Ohlsen’s premiere will feature veteran IMC dancer Katie Moorehead and relative newcomer Gregory Tyndall in an intimate duet.
“Far to Near: Choreography. Closer.” also will feature “Here’s to Life” by Puerto Rico native Rodney Rivera. The piece was commissioned by Island Moving Co. in the spring of this year in tribute to the people of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s devastation in the fall of 2017. It features a score by Michael Nyman and Johnny Mandel.
The program also will feature three pieces being restaged from the company’s existing repertory: “Transport” by IMC Associate Artistic Director Danielle Genest, “Queens are Made of Distance and Greasepaint” by IMC dancer Shane Farrell, and “Continua Metamorfosi” by Ohlsen, originally commissioned by Topsy Taylor.
Performances are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 27, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at IslandMovingCo.org or by calling 847-4470.