LANSING - The Children’s Ballet Theatre has been hard at work rehearsing for their Spring production of Cinderella. This is the second time they will be putting on this production but the audience can look forward to new and exciting choreography, stage props, and even four new characters.

Gregory M. George, the artistic director of the Children’s Ballet Theatre choreographs every performance CBT puts on by himself. “I’ve been gifted to have that instinct in me, so when I choreograph I don’t have to go home and think and listen to music for hours on end, I waltz into the studio and work with the kids and it just comes out,” says George.

For years CBT has thrilled audiences with the talent and exhilaration of it’s young dancers. “We just celebrated our 35th anniversary so thats a lot of dancers that have passed through the walls of CBT. CBT is unique because it is strictly ballet and it’s the traditional side of ballet. We have very large productions that we put on, so every Thanksgiving we do the Nutcracker and every Spring we have another story ballet and so thats a lot for one ballet company to put on,” says CBT Board Member Cindy Kangas.

CBT is comprised of dancers ages 8-18 and is open to males and females. “There’s just lots of opportunity at CBT because there’s male guest dancers and there’s not a lot of male dancers in general so that’s cool and you get to dance with Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) dancers, so there’s a lot of opportunities here that you don’t get anywhere else,” says CBT Dancer Katie Knox.

The opportunities are endless at CBT with their partnerships and variety of dancers. “We are especially proud of our collaboration with CMN, every session we have a small group of about seven dancers some of them are in wheelchairs and some of them use walkers but we incorporate them into the show so it's kind of become our passion kids giving back to other kids. We bring these CMN dancers on and they become part of our company and we just love and love on them and they just add this little sparkle to every show so we’re really proud to be partnered with CMN,” says Kangas.

The parents also put in their fair share of time required to complete so many hours a week, join committees and chaperone practices. “Parents are required like a certain amount of hours to put in and there’s different committees they can be apart of so whatever they have a strong skill level in they can join that committee,” says CBT Dancer Tara Fedewa.

Some of the committees include; Wardrobe, tickets, marketing, props, etc. “I love to sew, so I came in and volunteered to be in wardrobe and little did I know it would be a lifelong commitment but it's a lot of fun and it's just a wonderful satisfaction job because you get to see what you made up on stage,” says CBT Board Member Judi Cates.

With practicing six hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, and going to classes and rehearsals throughout the week the dancers at CBT have a lot on their plates. “You have to have really good time management skills so you have to make sure that you do all of your homework in between breaks and stuff,” says CBT Dancer Katie Heist.

If you are interested in seeing this year’s Spring production of Cinderella the shows are May 6th, 7th, and 8th on Mother’s Day weekend. There’s a matinee on Sunday, and Friday and Saturday are night shows. You can get tickets at CBTDance.org