The Cinniapolis Summer Ballet Showcase lifted the curtain for the first time in two years this past Saturday. The sell-out crowd was ushered into their seats as the lights dimmed for showtime. Ms. Lucy Drysdale, Director of the Cinniapolis Ballet, welcomed the attendees and expressed her gratitude for the impressive turnout. From there, the music started and the dancers took over the stage.

Hired is the first of three interweaving tales to be told this Summer. The start found an olive-skinned female awaking, disheveled, in a forest, seemingly after a productive night at the bar. As she carefully and gracefully moved through the forest, she encountered friendly forest animals that were willing dance partners in her quest to get to the office on time. We didn’t yet know the name of our heroine, but it was clear she has a connection to nature. However, her reputation at her job was not quite as pristine.

When she arrived to work, we find her boss waiting on her. The boss addressed her as “Nikita”. From there, Nikita and her boss stomped and pranced around the office conference room with the boss clearly unhappy with Nikita’s perpetual late arrivals. It seemed to be one time too many as the edges of the stage shot streams of fire into the air while the boss gleefully pirouetted around Nikita as she slumped into a ball. Nikita rolled out of the office, broken and unemployed.

After Nikita’s demise at the office, the audience was treated to a cosmic number featuring extremely limber space aliens, spaceships and comets. After a somewhat visually bland opening to Hired, the set and costumes for this segment were very impressive. The audience responded in kind too, with applause and whistling approval. In between the purple, green, and white flashing lights, the aliens made clear they were targeting Earth, especially Nikita.

While Nikita was now on the relatable path to securing new employment. The ballet took a few liberties and hit a bit too much on the nose as Nikita leaped and literally danced for her potential new employers. While her moves were extraordinary, other applicants used superficial methods to secure employment over Nikita. One example is another female applicant’s performance acquiescing to the interviewer’s insinuation that a cash bribe was necessary to obtain employment. Nikita, dejected, headed through the town square on her way home to sulk.

Here, Hired took a turn into activism for the final act. Nikita found herself mesmerized by the climate activists rallying for planet Earth. She defiantly protested her former employer, going so far as to strike him. From there, her ex-boss is mauled by the activists. Law enforcement is deployed to break up the crowd but had trouble dispersing the activists. Nikita escaped into an alley away from the police and activists battling as the curtain closes on the first of three Summer tales from the Cinniapolis Ballet.

It was quite uplifting to be back in attendance for this show. While the plot is a bit wandering, the performers effort and execution of the story is to be applauded. Ms. Amerovich as Nikita stole the show. Her emotion and effortless grace on the stage make it easy to understand why she is the most in-demand ballet dancer on this planet. The musical numbers appropriately matched the mood of each scene. While Hired is certainly not an instant classic, Ms. Drysdale’s charges provided a welcome adventure for Cinniapolis ballet fans.