Ballet presents children’s concert

Theatre Ballet of Spokane presents its annual children’s concert, “See the Music … Hear the Dance,” on Saturday at The Met.

Among the featured works is “Symphoniette,” in which dancers from Theatre Ballet and its Junior Company combine to bring the world of musical instruments to life. Recorded narration by actor Sean Connery describes the different sections of an orchestra.

Also on the program are excerpts from “Graduation Ball,” a spirited ballet celebrating the graduation season – appropriate, given the eight seniors in this year’s company.

Set to music by Strauss, the ballet imagines the pupils of a girls’ finishing school in 1840 Vienna inviting the graduates of a nearby military academy to their annual ball.

The concert also will include contemporary works choreographed by Theatre Ballet’s Dodie Askegard and Sara Donally.

Nathan Driftmeyer and Leyna Swoboda will perform a pas de deux in what may be local audiences’ last chance to see Driftmeyer for some time. He has been accepted into the advanced men’s class of the School of American Ballet in New York, and is looking at joining the Orlando (Fla.) Ballet next year, according to Askegard.

With the goal of introducing young people to dance, Theatre Ballet has been bringing its children’s concert to The Met, and to area elementary schools, since 1997 with the help of the Welty Foundation.

Saturday’s performance starts at 3 p.m. at The Met, 901 W. Sprague. Tickets are $5, available through Ballet Arts Academy at 838-5705.