Below are a few favorite holiday traditions and memories shared by Ballet Arizona’s Company Dancers and Staff:
- The day after Thanksgiving my dad and I would hang the outside Christmas lights of our house and my mom and I would decorate the house on the inside. – Alison Remmers, Dancer
- After Christmas dinner, my entire family would all dance to Harry Connick Jr.’s Christmas album. – Jami Kozemczak, Director of Development
- Comer Puerco asado, tomar ron, fumar Cubanos y visitar con toda la familia. – Annier Navarro, Dancer
- Every year I would bake and make peanut brittle and toffee for my kids and the neighborhood. – Iris Weng, Costume Shop
- Making home-made ornaments and decorations for the holidays. – Eric Hipolito, Dancer
- When I was a kid, every Christmas Eve my grandma would play the piano and we would all gather around and sing Christmas songs together. – Laura Hish, Accounting Manager
- My family never did a big Christmas Eve or Christmas Day dinner. We always woke up on Christmas morning, exchanged gifts, and then made a huge brunch together. Sometimes we stay in our pjs for hours drinking more coffee and mimosas and playing games. So I think that Christmas brunch is my favorite holiday tradition. – Jillian Barrell, Dancer
- Christmas Eve in New York my mom would invite everyone who didn’t have a place to go for dinner. We did it for probably 12 years. – Michael Panvini, Director of Production
- We did everything last minute, decorating, wrapping presents and we usually put the tree up on Christmas day. We are very nocturnal so we would always sleep-in Christmas morning. – Connor Cohen, Dancer
- Ever since we were young, every Christmas day my sister and I wear matching Santa hats. – Jackson Dwyer, Dancer
- Every Christmas night we would all go down to the basement and put on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. – Robert Bondlow, Major Gifts Officer
- I have a large family so when we were kids we would rent a 15 passenger van and we’d go to different neighborhoods and go see the Christmas lights and after we would go get pizza and fried zucchini for dinner. – Joseph Cavanaugh – Ballet Master & Community Outreach Manager
- My favorite memory is sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen with my whole family in an assembly line making dozens of tamales from Christmas dinner. – Natalie Salvione, Development Associate
- Growing up with a summer Christmas (in Australia) was all I ever knew. I remember when I was living in DC waking up to a snowy Christmas sky. It changed Christmas for me. It was an amazing and surreal experience. –Amber Lewis, Dancer
