A sweet spin on a classic story

Next Sunday, June 14, Dance Unlimited School of Performing Arts will take to the stage at the Ashwaubenon Performing Arts Center with their production of Charlie and the Unlimited Candy Factory.

“It’s the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that most people remember, but then we have our own Dance Unlimited twist on it,” Rome said. “It’s whimsical, it’s colorful and it’s funny. It’s got a little bit of a modern take to it.”

The production adds choreographed numbers to accompany a familiar story.
“We start out choreographing the dances and then we create characters,” Rome said. “We take the characters that we already know and then try to take a different take on it. A lot of times if you think of a musical, they’re telling a story through the acting and the dancing and the singing. This is kind of like a musical, but instead of all the singing numbers it’s more dance-focused and dance-heavy.”

In addition to the choreography, Rome said the dancers involved in the production are learning a wide array of performing arts skills.

“We really work on character development with the dancers,” Rome said. “A lot of these dancers really just come to use dancing, but then they’re excited to learn with the acting as well. A lot of dancers, even if they don’t want a speaking role, we’re still working on their stage development, character development and acting.”

“I’m proud of seeing their skills grow as all-around artists,” Rome said. “We’re a school of performing arts, so we really work to give them this well-rounded arts education. So besides just the dancing, they’re acting and they get to work with staging, behind the scenes, props and costumes.”

This year’s production includes 25 Premier Company dancers, 16 Junior Company dancers and five dancers from Dance Unlimited’s Elevé program for dancers with special needs.

Learn more about the upcoming production and purchase tickets at sites.google.com/view/danceunlimited/production-company.