Pennsylvania Ballet Offering Comhar Clients a Chance to Experience The Nutcracker


 

A scene from the Pennsylvania Ballet's "The Nutcracker."

A scene from the Pennsylvania Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”

An innovative new partnership between the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Comhar Community Living Room will bring adults that have mental illness and HIV/AIDS into the world of dance for a special program this holiday season.

It’s part of the Ballet’s Art-Reach community engagement branch that is offering individuals from the Community Living Room a chance to not only experience George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker as an audience member, but as dancers themselves. The Comhar clients will take a ballet class at the Ballet’s studios on December 2, where they will see first hand how the professionals prepare for the performance.

In addition to the dance class, members of the Community Living Room will get tickets to dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker on December 11.

Comhar’s Community Living Room “is a nationally known psychiatric rehabilitation day program that embraces its members in a welcoming, engaging environment.” They “serve men and women 18+ years old who have an HIV diagnosis and a mental health diagnosis or chemical dependency/substance abuse history” and “are an LGBTQ-affirming organization.”

For more information on this season’s staging of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at the Academy of Music, which runs December 11 through the 31, visit the Pennsylvania Ballet’s website.