SOUTHEAST MISSOURI BALLET THEATRE PRESENTS THE FANTASTIC TOY SHOP

The Sunday before the Southeast Missouri Ballet Theatre's first-ever performance, choreographer Michelle Morris yelled at her leotard-clad company as they rehearsed the finale to "The Fantastic Toy Shop (La Boutique Fantastique."

"I told you it was going to be difficult," she stressed, surrounded by flushed faces.

They've been practicing "Toy Shop" every weekend since September and almost every day as Sunday's performance nears. Are there any pre-performance jitters here among the 30, 8-to-15-year-olds?

"Yes, mine," Morris later acknowledged.

Morris, whose resume includes teaching in the dance department at the University of Missouri and lead dancer of the Mid-Missouri Dance Theatre, says this ballet provides real challenges.

"They involve the dancers and cast members at the same time, and learning how to work together especially the young ones, Morris said.

The ballet, an update of Rossini-Respighi's "The Magic Toy Shop," will be presented at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Academic Auditorium.

Told in pantomime and dance, it is set in a 19th century French toy shop. There, the mechanical toys, including a puppet, a bird, Tarantella dancers and Spanish peasant dolls, rebel against the shopkeeper's intention to separate a pair of cancan dancers.

Incorporated into the production as the cancan dancers and ballet fairies will be five dancers from the School of American Ballet in New York City. One of the five is Kimberley Ruess, daughter of the Southeast Missouri Ballet Theatre's executive director, Joann Ruess.

Ruess' daughter is a graduate of the Professional Children's School in New York City and is attending Fordham University. The other guest artists, who hail from such diverse places as Bermuda and Marin County, California, bring with them equally outstanding credentials.

Some members of the Southeast Missouri Ballet Theatre have their own burgeoning resumes. A number have attended the State Ballet of Missouri summer programs and have danced in that organization's "Nutcracker."

Ruess owns the Academy of Dance Arts, the school attended by the ballet students. She said the ballet theater, formed only in May, chose this colorfully costumed ballet as its first production because of its quasi-holiday theme and its lively one-hour pace.

"It just moves," she said.

"The Fantastic Toy Shop," an updated version of "The Magic Toy Shop," is not in the regular repertoire of most ballet companies but was seen by Morris last year in St. Louis.

"I was the first one who saw the ballet and I was really excited about it," she said.

In the original ballet, one of the cancan dancers is male, the other female. Their love for each other makes the prospect of separating them that much more painful.

The problem of finding male dancers, which Ruess says is very difficult in Southeast Missouri, even extended to acquiring one from the School of American Ballet.

The roles of the cancan dancers will be danced by Kimberly Ruess and Michelle Vendley.

One of the ballet theater's three male members was going to dance the role of one of the soldiers. Unfortunately, all the soldiers costumes are skirts.

The toy shop set has been designed by Dennis C. Seyer. Gayle Hessenkemper made all the costumes.

Gary Semmler is in charge of the sound and Carl Mason is handling the lighting for the ballet.

Morris predicted that young children will find "The Fantastic Toy Shop" especially enjoyable. "You don't have to be that serious a viewer of ballet," she said.

Tickets are $5 for the lower level and $7 for balcony seats. Ticket are available at Hansel & Gretel, Children's Bazaar Shoes, All-American Kids, Schnucks and the Academy of Dance Arts.