The characters from The Chronicles of Narnia will be brought to life via dancers with a Central Alberta dance school.
Joy’s School of Dance will stage Narnia Dec. 21 and 22 at City Centre Stage. Performances run at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Dec. 21 and at 3 p.m. on Dec. 22.
“I like the idea of Narnia because it’s a story that many people are familiar with,” said Joy McIlwain, owner and dance instructor at Joy’s School of Dance. “We’ve tried to include something for everyone to relate to and going back to your childhood is always something that is fun, too,” she added of the story.
There are about 60 dancers from ages six to 23, who will perform Narnia this year with different styles including ballet, jazz, acro and lyrical, among others.
This is the second year the dance troupe has staged Narnia and McIlwain said she received positive feedback from last year’s show.
“Anyone I talked to really enjoyed it a lot because it was something different. The dancers really loved it last year too and they are looking forward to doing it again this year,” said McIlwain. “It’s so neat to see the younger dancers looking up to the older ones and thinking that one day they will dance that part too.”
According to Wikipedia, The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children’s literature and is the author’s best known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages.
Written by Lewis between 1949 and 1954, illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published in London between October 1950 and March 1956, The Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, the stage and film.
Set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts and talking animals, the series narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of that world. Of all the books, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is perhaps one of the most popular and recreated of them all.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, completed by the end of March 1949 and published in 1950, tells the story of four children - Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. They discover a wardrobe in Professor Digory Kirke’s house that leads to the magical land of Narnia.
The Pevensie children help Aslan, a talking lion, save Narnia from the evil White Witch, who has reigned over the land of Narnia for a century of perpetual winter.
The children become kings and queens of this new found land and establish the Golden Age of Narnia, leaving a legacy to be rediscovered in later books.
Lewis (1898–1963) has been described as one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day.
He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. Lewis wrote more than 30 books.
Besides The Chronicles of Narnia, his most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters.
To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Tickets for Narnia are $20 for adults and $17.50 for children and seniors. They are available through the Black Knight Ticket Centre by calling 403-755-6626 or online at www.bkticketcentre.ca.