Sarah Shaw’s “The Magic of Snow”

ED GALLAGHER

I have witnessed many dance studio/school performances from New York to California and Sarah Shaw’s “The Magic of Snow” is, by far, the best performed, organized, most beautiful and entertaining that I have ever seen. And, it was a gift to the community.

The show was at the Pueblo Municipal Auditorium, with three performances, on Saturday and Sunday, December 6th and 7th and played to almost totally full houses. The precision of the dancers was outstanding in all 33 scenes, most of which were only one or two minutes long.

Unbelievably, there were more than 600 persons involved in this endeavor whose ages ranged from 2 - 3 years oldto highschool students, to “whatever.” Most of the segments were well coordinated tap dances, some wonderful Irish numbers and a potpourri of styles a la “The Nutcracker.” One scene involved some Fathers and Brothers of the dancers. It would be very difficult to comment on individual performers because all of the numbers were ensemble pieces,
with no way to discern individuals, but it was obvious that many of the dancers deserved individual praise.

Very seldom does one think about the movements of performers on and off stage, but the visible coordination of such large groups was superb, especially with the “wee” ones. In addition, the lighting and sound cues came off without any faults. Bravo. Pueblo is fortunate to have several superb dance schools. However, not many young boys are taking advantage of this opportunity. Come on, boys— Do you want to meet the most beautiful girls in Pueblo???

The stage setting by Jeff Juba was absolutely gorgeous and ingeniously lighted with small, colored spotlights hidden behind the props in addition to thousands of mini lights suspected from the flies. Unfortunately, the Municipal Auditorium is NOT equipped with modern lighting equipment and the lights were either on or off with no possibilities for artistic effects. Traveling shows, of course, bring their own lighting equipment as they do in all auditoriums. Our auditorium suffers greatly from two factors: terribly inadequate lighting equipment and, although this does not apply to “The Magic of Snow”, air conditioning is an absolute essential in any modern auditorium, Although our economy is in a perilous time, the City needs to be planning the upgrading of this wonderful venue.