SEQUIM — Combining her love of Hollywood’s “golden age” and dancing, an East Jefferson County teen has created an original dance production to share with the public.
Madeline Holland Jackson, 16 — who goes by the stage name of “Rose Kelly” — will star in “Chandelier” on Sept. 4 and Sept. 26 at Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave., in Sequim.
During the solo performance, Jackson will perform tap, ballet and jazz dance numbers.
The Sept. 4 show, a shortened preview version, will begin at 5 p.m.
A preview show was previously held Friday.
The cost of entry for the preview is the donation of any non-perishable food item which will be given to the Sequim Food Bank’s Backpack Program.
The program provides food to supplement the diets of children who aren’t getting enough at home over the weekend when free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program and the National School Breakfast Program are unavailable.
“I wanted to donate food to that program,” Jackson said, adding it feels good to help feed the hungry.
“I studied in school a lot about nutrition and one of the things with school kids is they don’t have as good a focus if they don’t have enough to eat.”
This year the program will serve about 120 underprivileged children — 50 at each of Sequim’s two elementary schools and 20 older children who will be served through the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, according to the food bank.
The elementary students receive food at the end of the school week to take home with them, providing them with meals on Saturdays and Sundays.
The full length Sept. 26 show will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets for the full-length show are $18 and will be available the day of the performance at the box office.
Ten percent of the proceeds from the tickets will go to the Backpack Program.
For Jackson, a home-schooled student leaving near Port Townsend, the performance is part of her education.
“This is actually part of my home school — putting on my on show — and I get credit for it,” she said.
The show is named for the contemporary song of the same name originally recorded and released by Sia, an Australian singer-songwriter.
Jackson’s favorite version of the song is a cover by Emily West.
“She was really amazing with it, so I wanted to do a number with that,” Jackson said. “It is kind of dramatic.”
During the 90-minute show, Jackson will dance to songs hand-picked from the 1930s through today.
“I am using music from all those different eras,” she said. “In some of my earlier shows, I was doing a lot of period stuff because I watched the old movies. I decided — in this show — to put it all together all in one.”
The show will begin with “The Golden Age of Entertainment,” featuring dance routines inspired by the silver screen, before progressing through subsequent eras.
When Jackson was younger, she was a gymnast but hadn’t yet learned to dance.
“I loved doing gymnastics, but I didn’t like competing that much,” she said.
“Then I started watching the old movies of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. I watched all the incredible dancers on there and I decided I wanted to learn how to dance, so I started working on it and have been taking classes at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.”
Much of the choreography Jackson will perform she created herself.
Remembering a 90-minute routine is challenging, so Jackson practices “every day” in preparation, she said.
“I just stay working on routines all the time.”
The performance requires Jackson stay in good physical shape as well.
So, she has a mantra: “gym all the time. Gym every day. Get strong!”
And staying in shape calls for some sacrifices.
“Don’t eat sweets!” she laughed. “If I get into the routine of not eating tons of sugar, then it works — or drinking too much coffee. I try to do one cup of coffee a day.”
After high school, Jackson hopes to become a personal trainer before “eventually going to a performing arts college for dancing and acting too,” she said.
For more information about the show, phone Olympic Theatre Arts at 360-683-7326.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
