‘Storytellers’ weave tales with their feet

Forever Dance will hold its annual company showcase this weekend in the Kenai Central High School auditorium. Titled “Storytellers,” the show is based upon a variety of literary figures, from classic fairy tales to contemporary fiction, and features the competitive-level dancers of the company.

Darcy Swanson, owner and director of Forever Dance, said “Storytellers” is a full production, with props and live theater. Todd Sherwood, who has a history with the Kenai Performers, will be Grandpa Joe, reading stories to his grandchildren Tommy and Sarah, played by Ellison and Lily Ruffridge.

Swanson said she initially wasn’t sure that in a digital age her performers would be familiar with all of the characters — “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” are “getting to be older stories now,” she said.

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The dancers surprised her with their excitement and their love of reading, she said. They’re taking the opportunity to connect a love of literature with a love for dance, and showcasing the result for the audience this weekend.

“Something I think we all can connect through is stories that we all know and love,” Swanson said. “We have fairy tales, we have children’s stories … all the way up to Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’. Beloved stories that stand the test of time.”

“Storytellers” will be different from Forever Dance’s last show, “Forever Christmas.” The holiday show featured the entire studio, putting around 200 dancers on stage. “Storytellers,” the company showcase, features only the competitive-level dancers — around 60.

“Dance is their life, dance is their sport, dance is their passion,” Swanson said.

The show will feature every style of dance taught at the studio. That includes acrobatics, tap, hip-hop, jazz and ballet. Swanson said the vastness of dance will be shown on stage. The scale will be greatest in two pieces, one based on “Peter Pan” and another based on “Harry Potter,” that gather every dancer on stage at once.

Members of the community who come out to see the show will be amazed at the level of talent being shown off by the local performers, she said. The company will also take time to salute their two graduating seniors.

“We hope to leave the audience inspired to write their own stories and to share their own stories with their community, with their families,” Swanson said. “Be inspired by not only dance, but by the stories that can connect us all in humanity.”

Forever Dance Alaska’s “Storytellers” will run three times this weekend at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School. On Friday, the show will start at 7 p.m. and on Saturday there will be two shows, at 1 p.m. and at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at foreverdancealaska.com or at the door for $17.

For more information about Forever Dance or “Storytellers,” visit facebook.com/foreverdancealaska.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Forever Dance performers rehearse “Storytellers” on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium in Kenai, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)