Ballet troupe’s slate features family-friendly fare

Balance and coordination.

Two things a dancer — or a dance company — requires.

At least according to James Canfield, artistic director for Nevada Ballet Theatre, who was expected to announce NBT’s 2015-16 season at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts after Sunday’s season finale, “Giselle.”

Keeping balance in mind, the troupe’s 44th annual season features family-friendly story ballets with the return of both “The Nutcracker” and “Cinderella,” while contemporary works anchor “A Choreographers Showcase,” NBT’s annual collaboration with Cirque du Soleil artists.

Also on the schedule: “A Balanchine Celebration,” a salute to legendary choreographer George Balanchine that includes the NBT debut of “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” which Balanchine choreographed for the 1936 Rodgers and Hart musical “On Your Toes.”

The Balanchine program also features “Serenade,” which NBT presented during its 2012 Smith Center debut.

That ballet features a score by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose music accompanies the holiday favorite “The Nutcracker.” And both “Cinderella” and “Romeo and Juliet,” the upcoming season’s finale, feature scores by another great Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev.

Overall, NBT’s 44th season “works in both the classical sense and the contemporary,” Canfield said in a pre-announcement interview.

Themed “Celebration,” NBT’s upcoming season will enable audiences to look “at dance as something to celebrate,” he said. “Dance is, in and of itself, a celebration.”

The company’s focus on “expanding audiences — and how you’re going to reach families” inspired NBT to add “Cinderella” to the schedule, he said.

“We’re not doing it because the movie came out,” Canfield said. “It’s magical for kids.”

The upcoming season will be NBT’s third full season at The Smith Center.

And by now, dancers “have the wrinkles worked out” adjusting to the Reynolds Hall stage, Canfield noted.

For the company’s dancers, “it’s home to them now,” he said. “They know what to do.”

As a result, audiences will be able to appreciate the “educational value” of seeing “the same company” dancing “at a much higher level,” as “the company matures each year,” Canfield said. “It’s one of the new things everyone should look forward to.”

NBT season subscriptions are on sale; for more information, call 702-243-2623 or visit www.nevadaballet.org.