Ballet Fantastique heads to the Emmy® awards!

In 2014, Ballet Fantastique finally earned Hult Center Resident Company status and proudly premiered our first holiday ballet: American Christmas Carol. The vision: In true BFan form, Donna and Hannah wanted to remix a classic story with great music and a thoughtful twist. The mix: Charles Dickens’ Victorian best-seller, set in the US in the 1940s and told via live jazz + new dance theater. Local star and Grammy-nominated jazz singer Halie Loren set the score (Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday), and the rest… was BFan history.

Performances and tours in 2015 and 2017 followed.

Then, something happened.

As the world shut down in 2020, BFan principal dancer + filmmaker Gustavo Ramirez brought Donna and Hannah and idea: What if we created a movie version of BFan’s Christmas Carol? We’d film in quarantine bubbles on shuttered iconic NW locations (Oregon Electric Station, J Michael’s Booksellers, Masonic Cemetery, Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Church, and all sorts of sidewalks and train platforms in between).

After Ballet Fantastique’s American Christmas Carol: A Ballet Movie aired on NBC/KMTR on 12/25/22, BFan is now (beyond) thrilled to share this project— produced in collaboration with brave, talented filmmaker Jeremy Bronson— has now been nominated for a National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences Northwest Regional Emmy® in four categories, including “entertainment.” This prestigious nomination is SO EXCITING and a testament to the talent and dedication of the entire BFan artistic and creative teams. The nomination in the Entertainment category at the NATAS Northwest Regional Emmy Awards recognizes the exceptional artistry and innovation demonstrated by Ballet Fantastique and their collaborators. Just four finalist nominees are chosen for each category.