This year the Ballet Mississippi spring recital is called “Up, Up, and Away’, and it is set to take place on Tuesday, May 11th at Belhaven Center for the Arts. Several Prep students will be performing in it, including, seventh-graders Isabella Bryant, Anne Melton Hewitt, Caroline George, and Olvia Mitchell, eighth-grader McClain Morgan, junior Caroline Yelverton, and senior Kimberly Blount. There will be two shows, one at 5:30 and one at 7:30. The annual recital in May was canceled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so all of the dancers are eager to be back on stage performing .

Seventh-grader Isabella Bryant has been a dancer at Ballet Mississippi since she was three. Isabella has always been very passionate about dancing, and she said, “I am beyond glad to be back on stage because it is one of the most rewarding parts about spending so many hours after school and on the weekends practicing. Being back in the studio, too, finally has brought a feeling of normalcy. Doing ballet on Zoom just wasn’t the same.”

Unfortunately, like during Ballet Mississippi’s Nutcracker Sweets in December, seating is still limited because of the pandemic and possible spreading of the virus that would be amplified with close contact. Each family of participating dancers will receive two complimentary tickets to the show their child is participating in. They will be available at the Belhaven Center for the Arts on the recital day. Tickets will be placed under the dancer’s last name at the front theater entrance. Extra tickets will be made available for purchase no later than April 20th, and they will be sold in pods of two (two tickets for $20). Ballet Mississippi’s Artistic Director, David Keary, said, “I ask that families only purchase one additional ticket pack as seating is very limited.” Despite this, both recitals will be recorded and available for digital download, and watching online is a great way to support the dancers who have worked so hard to learn their parts.