BY KAREN BOSSICK
Can’t quite get those holiday tunes out of your head yet?
Let them have free rein this weekend when Sun Valley’s own Isabella Boylston returns to her home turf to perform a world premiere of a new, original production tonight through Sunday, Jan. 3-5.
Boylston is performing “Isabella & Friends: Holiday Mix” at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum. Shows start at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday. Tickets to that range from $60 to $120, available at www.theargyros.org.
Boylston will also offer a discounted student-priority matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5. Tickets for that show are $40 for students and $60 for adults accompanying students. The Argyros will also offer $40 tickets to Blaine County teachers and other school district employees attending that performance.
The show is an eclectic mix of ballet and live music that will include an excerpt from the Nutcracker, original choreography to songs by Tony Bennett and other contemporary choreography and holiday songs.
Boylston will dance along with American Ballet Theater Principal Dancers James Whiteside and Calvin Royal III, both of whom have performed with her at two Ballet Sun Valley festivals she helped organize.
Vocalist Kenton Chen, a singer-songwriter who has shared the stage with Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder, will provide the vocals. Pianist Jacek Mysinski, a Juilliard School of Music graduate who has been praised as “the future of Polish pianism,” will accompany them.
Boylston will also include local students from Footlight Dance Centre where she learned to dance.
Boylston, a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, is known for her athleticism. Born in Sun Valley where she was known as Hildur, she has been dancing since she was 3, taking her first steps at Footlight Dance Center.
She served as Jennifer Lawrence’s dance double in the film “Red Sparrow.”